09 December 2008

Uphill to School....And Back

I had it hard when I was a kid. I had to walk uphill to school and uphill back home. It's what you get for living in a hilly city like San Francisco. Of course, we all know that's impossible. But not when it comes to sailing.

Saturday was an incredible and, some would say, perfect sailing day. The whole family (yep, including Noah) and two friends took off from the marina at around 11AM. When we raised the sails and turned off the engine there was curiously no wind. But I saw boats moving a few hundred yards in front of us so I swallowed my pride and fired up the Atomic 4 again.

When the time came to start sailing in a few minutes, we had wind. Glorious glorious wind. And an absolutely perfect upwind beat directly to Angel Island. It was sunny and a bit chilly but felt absolutely exhilarating. We were sailing and sailing well.

Due to an unfortunate circumstance (not involving Noah), we had to turn around after about 45 minutes. So I tacked over, eased the sheets and started running back to the marina. About 2 minutes after I did this, the wind died. I exclaimed the obvious, "What the h3ll happened to my wind?!?"

But, then, it was back. But, oddly enough, we couldn't sail in it, not with that sail trim because the wind had shifted EXACTLY 180 DEGREES! We were sailing upwind again. Both out from the marina and back to the marina on a beat.

We had done the impossible. Uphill both ways. The only difference was when I was a kid I'd actually go uphill to and from school in the snow.

8 comments:

O Docker said...

Yo Edward....sshhhhhh!!

Don't you know Tillerman reads this stuff?

For years, he's been buying that yarn about no significant shifts on SF Bay. Whatever you do, don't blow the cover story about how warm it is here.

Pat said...

Upwind both ways... routine stuff here in the mountains. The interesting challenge on a mountain lake is doing a 720 turn -- without changing your sail trim.

Carol Anne said...

Ah-HAH! Now I know why we didn't have wind this past weekend -- you stole it!

That shifty wind that you got clearly doesn't belong to you. It belongs out here on the desert or in the mountains.

I remember one race in Black Magic, when we were one leg ahead of all of the other boats. Every time we rounded a mark, the wind shifted. So we were beating to windward the whole time, while they all had their spinnakers flying.

Tillerman said...

Shift happens.

EVK4 said...

Jenny, I have reviewed *your* beautiful and stylish website. Where would a link to my beautiful and stylish website go? I'm willing to exchange links if I get a good spot. Maybe next to the review of the SeaRay GoFast 420?

Tillerman said...

I have visited your beautiful and stylish website www.illinois,gov/GOV...

And I can suggest, lets exchange favors between our websites..,

I couldn't find contact page, that's why I'm writing here:

I will put a link to your beautiful and stylish website and you will nominate me for US Senate.

Deal or no deal?

Unknown said...

Hmmm... I noticed that Five O'Clock Somewhere was a visited stylish site.

Unknown said...

And you could send that wind back to Tempe; it's been too quiet here.