John Cabrall passed on a note about his 2009 summer of sailing. Sailing that included lots of racing including being tactician on 'Kuai' in the just completed , lots of group sailing gatherings he organized through his 'Meet Up' group 'Got Wind and Water' (http://www.gotwaw.com/) and very enjoyable sail on Summer Sailstice. With 100 days of sailing so far this year it sounds like a year we'd all have enjoyed if we could just copy it ourselves:
To my friends,
There has been a lot of confusion and a lot of happiness since I started the Got Wind and Water group. I often state that I devote 1/3 of my sailing to the group, the other 2/3 to racing.
Why?
Racing to me, someone without a competitive bone in my body, has always been just a way to get better at sailing. A means to calibrate my skills. More than a year ago now, I was Anne Silverstein's 'designated BC' crew when she did her first OCSC BC charter. I assumed that if we went to the Richmond Harbor, we'd get flat water and mild winds, that it would be a fun and easy way to celebrate her first charter.
My skill at weather prediction was demonstrated that day. I suck at it.
Oh, the water was flat, but the winds reached 30 knots. We sailed down the Santa Fe Channel and beat our way out. 'Climbing the Wind' as Richard Bode puts it. Climbing the wind that day was like climbing half dome. But it was an outstanding example of calibrating ourselves as sailors. This calibration process is my 'happy place'. Many, many years ago, I was in that happy place with a group of sailors that sailed for the shear joy of it. They used racing as a means to calibrate themselves. To find out what they didn't know and learn from it. They cared less than nothing about winning, if they won, that just added to the fun. Like putting the spoon down and plucking the cherry off the top of the whipped cream and plopping it in your mouth. A brief moment of bliss. The spoon however, was for the ice cream. We ate a lot of cherries, but we really dug the ice cream.
About a third of my sailing this year was in preparation for the Big Boat Series. Anne had introduced me to Daniel, the owner of Kuai, and suggested that they were looking for a tactician.
Cool.
30 years ago, I sailed on boats that used tacticians, and those boats got the best tacticians around. It was an honor to sail with those folks. It would be cool to once again find out what I didn't know. To find out what it felt like to be a tactician. I didn't have a clue.
Thus the confusion. Sailing I know. Finding out what I don't know, that I know. The emotional roller coaster? That I know as well, but it is a roller coaster that seems to be endless. Each climb, drop, curve is different. You never seem to be prepared for it, and what you go through is never the same. It constantly changes . . . hmm . . . am I talking about roller coasters or sailing? I'm confused.
Being tactician on Kuai, the sixth place finisher in IRC D, a class that had six boats in it? - er - falling down the backside of the roller coaster? Thank God for the real time GPS tracking and the replay function. We were just seconds away from finishing fifth. We finished one of the races in fourth, and at one time were in third place. That was what Daniel meant when he took me aside after and thanked me. Last year, Kuai was 13 out of 13, and was minutes, sometimes 10s of minutes behind. Not this year. Kuai has gotten better, and I got a first hand look from the afterguard position on the boat of how much they've improved and what lies ahead for the next year.
The biggest part of what I've gone through in this past year, and in particular, since GOTWAW was started, has been to revisit the joy that I experienced 30 years ago. The biggest question was could I find that joy again. Back then, I sailed in the BBS with that group of friends, the ones that sailed for the shear joy of it. The ones who dug sailing like an endless supply of ice cream to a toddler that wouldn't put down the spoon down between bites. They used racing as a calibration instrument. And some of the biggest names in the sport were on hand to be our tacticians. They knew what we were about, and they'd rather sail with us for free in the BBS than be paid tacticians to some uptight mega millionaire owners.
So it all finally came together for me as I stood outside the St. Francis Yacht Club last Sunday in the rain. My encounter with Jim Mitchell and his best friend after they had won the BBS IRC A class as well as the IRC National Championship.
It is primarily about passion and friendship.
So as I put my confusion behind me, I've come to really understand that my absolute best experience this year was the downwind run from the Horizon Restaurant back to OCSC on the Summer Solstice, June 21st. John Arndt of Latitude 38 had conceived of the idea of a 'Sailstice'. Everyone who could get on a boat was supposed to during the Solstice weekend and just go sailing. There were lots of media 'events' for those that wanted to celebrate in a public way, but the spirit of the idea was that you should do what ever you wanted. Get some friends together and go sailing. Or if single handing was your thing, go by yourself.
I went with friends. Peter, Maryam and Mahasti. We met Joe Peck and Thomas Claverie who had also charted J105's and the three boats pulled into Pier 1 1/2 together for lunch, then sailed up to the Golden Gate. Two of the boats had dinner at the Horizon Restaurant late that afternoon. The happiest moments of this year's sailing where during that downwind run home. Flying the kite with friends on a mild summer evening as the sun set. Just the four of us, each totally absorbed in our function, working together as a seamless one to sail the boat.
Imagine gallons of ice cream, a spoon in each hand. The sunset was the whipped cream, the warm weather the cherry on top.
The Sarcoma Cup was fun, oh yes! but getting it together wasn't the carefree lark that the Solstice was.
So as I think about what this past year has meant to me, and I think about the confusion and the happiness I've experienced, I just wanted to take some time out and share these thoughts with you. The confusion has been the cornerstone of emotion as I've reached out into the unknown and tried to find a way to recapture what I experienced 30 years ago. The happiness has been out of this world, and it is a direct result of the friendship and the passion I've been fortunate enough to experience with you.
Thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for helping me find that happiness again.
John
P.S. There is one, very special person that rekindled my love for sailing. Next Thursday, I'm going sailing with that person to celebrate my one hundredth sail this year.
San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate are ready to welcome John and anyone out for a sail.