5.04.2006
the 3 best things of this sailing trip:
no 3. when the edge of the boat touches the water under the strong wind and everybody is like "god help me i'm a-gonna die" and you smile and feel the adrenaline and that makes your day
no 2. when you feel that everything is moving once you step back on earth
no 1. ricotta cheese pancake topped with chocolate and cream
i saw the fear in the eyes of the guy that rented us the boat, fear itself caused by the sight of the fear in the eyes of the skipper as he tried unsuccessfully to get us out of the harbour. our skipper didn't know that to turn right you gotta turn the engine to the other side
i saw the boat turning almost uncontrolled under the low wind as our skipper had no idea whatsoever of how to tense the sails
i saw the rudder breaking since our skipper forgot to take it out of the water while in the harbour
i saw the boat drift toward the low-water grass as the skipper had the great idea of putting up the sail with the wind on the side and the engine shut down
i saw blood on the hands of the whole crew as we pulled the grass to get the boat back in the open water
i unfortunately didn't see the look in my eyes when, later on, our skipper told me that he had never sailed again after, eight years before, he had taken the licence.
it was a hard situation. what do you do when your experience is clearly much much bigger then the almost non-existent skipper's experience? on one hand the rule wants that you obey to any command the skipper gives you, no matter what. this is for the simple reason that in case of emergency the skipper must have the authority to give quick and precise orders to get the boat out of trouble. on the other hand every decision he took - whenever he felt like taking a decision instead of just waiting for something to happen - was getting us in a situation even worse then before. the third day he fortunately understood that it was better for everybody if he listened to my advices, and when we reached the rest of the boats that started with us, one day later, we got a new skipper.
we visited twice as many ports as the rest of the boats as every night we ended up where we were not supposed to be. we had warm teas after a day in the wind. we had campfires and sausages. we had beer, wodka and champagne. we sang and we sailed. we pulled ropes. we didn't get wet. i didn't meet a friend of mine that was on the same lake. we were chased by another team, for a picture. we gave way to a boat that was supposed to give way to us. we felt the wind on the skin and in the bones. we slept not so much in fact. we almost got stuck in shallow waters. we looped around the cormorans' island. we laughed.
[OFF TOPIC]
lately i've been linked by some of the bloggers i appreciate the most and that i've been reading the most in the last months, namely phil, jag and ledemure. it feels good. check them out.
this also makes me think that on my side instead i stopped surfing blogs, commenting and linking... for bad or for good?
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no 3. when the edge of the boat touches the water under the strong wind and everybody is like "god help me i'm a-gonna die" and you smile and feel the adrenaline and that makes your day
no 2. when you feel that everything is moving once you step back on earth
no 1. ricotta cheese pancake topped with chocolate and cream
i saw the fear in the eyes of the guy that rented us the boat, fear itself caused by the sight of the fear in the eyes of the skipper as he tried unsuccessfully to get us out of the harbour. our skipper didn't know that to turn right you gotta turn the engine to the other side
i saw the boat turning almost uncontrolled under the low wind as our skipper had no idea whatsoever of how to tense the sails
i saw the rudder breaking since our skipper forgot to take it out of the water while in the harbour
i saw the boat drift toward the low-water grass as the skipper had the great idea of putting up the sail with the wind on the side and the engine shut down
i saw blood on the hands of the whole crew as we pulled the grass to get the boat back in the open water
i unfortunately didn't see the look in my eyes when, later on, our skipper told me that he had never sailed again after, eight years before, he had taken the licence.
it was a hard situation. what do you do when your experience is clearly much much bigger then the almost non-existent skipper's experience? on one hand the rule wants that you obey to any command the skipper gives you, no matter what. this is for the simple reason that in case of emergency the skipper must have the authority to give quick and precise orders to get the boat out of trouble. on the other hand every decision he took - whenever he felt like taking a decision instead of just waiting for something to happen - was getting us in a situation even worse then before. the third day he fortunately understood that it was better for everybody if he listened to my advices, and when we reached the rest of the boats that started with us, one day later, we got a new skipper.
we visited twice as many ports as the rest of the boats as every night we ended up where we were not supposed to be. we had warm teas after a day in the wind. we had campfires and sausages. we had beer, wodka and champagne. we sang and we sailed. we pulled ropes. we didn't get wet. i didn't meet a friend of mine that was on the same lake. we were chased by another team, for a picture. we gave way to a boat that was supposed to give way to us. we felt the wind on the skin and in the bones. we slept not so much in fact. we almost got stuck in shallow waters. we looped around the cormorans' island. we laughed.
[OFF TOPIC]
lately i've been linked by some of the bloggers i appreciate the most and that i've been reading the most in the last months, namely phil, jag and ledemure. it feels good. check them out.
this also makes me think that on my side instead i stopped surfing blogs, commenting and linking... for bad or for good?
|
