The Big Race

“Pull pull pull! Come on!!” came the almost angry yell from the wheel. In spite of borrowed gloves, my hands were raw and my arms exhausted. I heaved on the sheet line once more and wrapped it. Time was of the essence, we were losing wind power. I clamped on the handle and started cranking. Much slower than pulling by hand, the jib sail slowly unfurled and we began to gain speed.

The boat was tilted to the left so I was having trouble balancing and winching at the same time. I wedged my bare foot on a hard place to regain my balance and resumed winching as hard as I could.

After tacking our sails we had a moment to rest and strategize the next move. The race was going well. Only a catamaran with a professional crew was ahead. But in sailing, as in golf, there’s a handicap applied to you depending on your boat. So we’d need to beat certain of the boats trailing us by a significant margin (one by as much as 7 minutes) to hold 2nd place.

But by the time it was clear that no one else would catch us, I was handed the tiller. I now had rudimentary understanding about keeping the main sail most efficiently in the wind. It was sunny and breezy; perfect weather! I was incredibly focused. The boat needed constant course corrections to stay on target, but I still took moments to just look around and feel the sun.

The skipper eventually wanted the tiller back and we had to make two more tacks. We were exhausted but the finishing line was minutes away. Pulling hard, this time I furled the jib sail so that it could be shifted. When it was three-quarters furled, a crew mate began to furiously unfurl on the other side of the boat, so that it could get back into the wind. We managed to do it and then back again right at the end (and just in time to avoid hitting a Chinese fishing boat).

We ended up finishing 2nd. Hurray!

A rum drink was never quite so appreciated as after we moored the Amulet. It was a gruelling 2 hour long 11 mile course to one end of the lagoon and back. It was a fantastic day.