Yesterday was windy. It was also another staff training day. In the morning I went sailing in a Wayfarer with Ste. We stayed upright and whizzed around the loch watching all the Topaz people capsizing regularly. One of the other wayfarers even managed to capsize, then go totally upside down.

To break up the monotony of sailing around the loch I decided to take us to the jetty (this was also so I could go and pee). I had the angle and everything set up just right to sail through the moorings and up to the jetty. However, just as we approached the more congested parts which are full of expensive boats the wind picked up and we shot off a bit faster than I’d have liked. With a flapping jib and the main let right out I managed to dump enough speed to come to a stop about 2cm from the jetty.

After draining myself we sailed away from the jetty and went towards our moorings. Not having a lot of speed, and being in a crowded moorings is not a good thing. It’s even worse when the wind picks up considerably and you rocket right towards someone’s expensive powerboat. You have the choice of hitting them, getting stuck head-to-wind, or shooting through a six foot gap between them and a random mooring bouy.

We shot through the gap and planed across the moorings :)

In the afternoon I went out in a Topaz. I was merrily sailing around in no particular direction, trying to get the boat planing, just playing around. Big gusts would hit and I’d take off. I’ve learnt that if the boat broaches and screws round you won’t capsize, it’s just a bit annoying standing on the side of the boat with the rudder clean out the water, boom slooshing through the sea.

One time, this massive gust hit, and instead of letting my sail out, I turned away from the wind and tried to use the wind to plane (it was a really big gust, I would have flown). Unfortunately I let out lots of sail and went on a dead run… in a force 5 gust… the boat almost coped, I almost coped, then the boom whipped around the front of the mast, gybing and making the boat do a tail-stall. This ejected me backwards out the boat. Shortly before being thrown out (there’s usually a few seconds where you realise you’re about to be ejected, have a vain scrabble around and then accept you’re going to get wet) I grabbed the tiller extension and kept hold of it.

Tiller extensions aren’t load-bearing parts of the boat. They’re not designed to have someone pull on them to get back to their boat. The thing was, if I let go, the boat sailed off faster than I could swim. I had to pull myself around the top of the boat, under the mast and around the front to get to the centreboard, else the boat would have disappeared.

I then got a tow back to the shore to get another rudder and tiller.

Today I was supposed to have gone out sailing again. Unfortunately I’ve pulled my shoulder. How? did I do it while sailing yesterday? no…

I did it getting dressed this morning! I went to take off a jumper and my shoulder just tensed up on me and wouldn’t stop hurting.