Sailor's Mind

I’ve been distracted from sailing for the last few months. I made plans last November to backpack and climb a particularly challenging route to the top of California’s Mt Whitney. At 14,400 plus feet, My Whitney is the highest in the continental US.

I found that the conditioning needed for climbing and the conditioning needed for sailing were at bit at odds if you have limited time to prep as I did. The abs didn’t improve much this spring and my head was on equipment and meals at altitude rather than reviewing rules and visualizing starts.

Three Lasers showed up for Wednesday night racing a week ago. As we were rigging we got to joking around about staying close on the course and I declared that if we were far enough ahead of perpetual handicap winner, John in his Day Sailor, I’d circle back to the second place Laser to keep it interesting.

The first tack was a little sloppy, but the breeze was light and the lake was flat so it still felt good. I did a fluid roll up into the second tack, but the roll out of it was late and tepid. The third one was fine, good initiation and nice pull out, but I was headed low and over steered getting up to my course.

Five of us were out playing around in our Lasers a few days ago. The breeze was light, but it never dropped off completely and its direction gave us some good long tacks and runs to work out our spring fumbles. I warmed up and then shouted over to a couple of others that were close to me that we should run some practice laps around a couple of buoys.

As I came off the water on Saturday I had a memory flash of trying to start a hand-cranked Dodge pick-up I owned when I was 19. My Laser seemed to be running like a twenty-first century boat, but my twentieth-century body was just sort of turning over with an occasional sputtering of power. It’s discouraging that Dacron and fiberglass are more resilient than muscle and bone.

The Ouija-board effect can win you races. Just place your hands on your Laser and ask, “Who is going to win this race?” Well, your Laser may not end up pointing at you or your opponent, but the principals of the Ouija-board effect can improve your Laser sailing skills and straighten out your head.

The air temperature is in the forties and the ice is off the lake, but I can’t afford to get near my Laser. If I get too close I may take off its winter covering and look at it. If I look at it I may start to check out the hardware. If I check out the hardware I may start to lube the blocks.

Solstice seems like a good holiday for sailors to acknowledge. It’s all about the ebb and flow of our natural world. It names a background phenomenon that both ignores our desires and affects our lives.

One cool day recently I was leaning against the car waiting for my wife to mail a letter at the post office. The trees along the street were in the various end stages of mid November leaf dispersal. In New England this stage commonly means that the few individual leaves that still cling to branches, are doing loopy the loops in the breeze at the end of their curiously long stems.

Raynaud’s Phenomena (formally known as Raynaud’s syndrome) causes the extremities (fingers and toes, and less commonly, ears and nose) to temporarily turn white from loss of blood flow.  2.2% of women and 1.5% of men suffer from this condition and sailors who have it can lose their ability to handle their boat at their best level.