I asked my 14-year-old daughter, Rachel, if she wanted to be Jill. She gives me this look I have seen before, and asks me, “What do you mean?”
Before I go any farther, let me back up about four months to the fourth race of the Spring Series. I decided to try racing with the South Sound Sailing Society. With the help of Jack Daniels [owner of Helga, not what you are thinking Ed.] and Tom Garnish, we did pretty well. Embolden by this finish, I decided to try summer racing. If you took the sum of the racing experience the crew and I had … well, by the end of June our clocks were very clean. July and August saw us slowly get better. I brought my rain gear to every race, even the 90 degree races, but I never had to use it.
Back to the main story, Friday prior to the Jack & Jill Race, the weather out in Yelm was beyond raining cats and dogs. It was thunder and lightning with a wall of water falling straight down from the sky. Saturday morning saw sunshine as my daughter and I headed down to the boat. We are thinking, OK this is going to pretty nice. The sky looks promising. There is wind on the water.
We actually get one of our better starts, but once again we are position to watch the sterns of the other boats as we raced. Except for that one other boat that somehow got behind us. We raced from mark 4 to 5, back to 4, around 1 and back to 5. The last couple of legs the wind got very light. As we cross the finish I notice the race committee boat put up his umbrella.
I wonder to myself, why is he doing that? It is pretty nice out here. Well, five seconds later it starts to rain. Then it rains a little harder. Then the skies decide to get serious and really rain, cats and dog and hail and all sorts of mean wet pellets. Rachel, who has the tough task of reclining on the bow reading a book for school, makes a dash for the back of the boat and the cabin. I ask her to get my rain gear. “What do want,” she asks, “your coat or pants?” “Give me my coat. It is too late for my pants.” At this point we are laughing because we are so wet.
Now the wind has really picked up. It is very difficult to see anything but my nose. Glasses and sudden rain do not mix well. It is raining so fast and hard that the deck drains can not keep up. I have to get that 161 jib down. Rachel is going to have to steer. I let the sheets out hoping to make it easier for her. As I get the jib ready to drop I hear a noise from Rachel that did not sound good. Back to the cockpit; start the motor to give the boat better steerage. Now I get to try one more time to drop that jib. I give the tiller back to Rachel and I get the jib dropped. Then I scurry back to make sure she is OK.
Water was pouring from the sky and any other surface that the rain hit. My personal Hydro Index told me it was time to drop the main also. That task went much smoother I thought. Now that we were once again in control of our lives, my daughter looks at me as says, “That was fun. I was starting to get bored.”
Monday, as I looked at the coarse the GPS plotted, I was quite impressed with the start and mark roundings They were not perfect, but I have seen worse. I see where we crossed the finish line. All of a sudden the course becomes a maze of zigzags, then a beeline for the marina.
What a day of bonding with my daughter. I hope she goes out some more and gets more time at the tiller. Then maybe I can go up front with a beverage and a book.
Dwayne Young, Kalakala