Small World

Sailing is a small world. It's amazing how you run into the same people at different times in different parts of the world. There's probably one of those weird "degrees of connection" rules in sailing. And I would hazard a guess that, in sailing, we're all connected to each other by three or fewer degrees of separation.

I've written once or twice here already about running into people I knew at sailing clubs or regattas that I never expected to meet in that context. But last night I had the most unusual "small world" moment yet.

I was sitting at home in Rhode Island feeling sorry for myself (still no sailing as my back injury heals slowly) and playing Tacticat. I like to check the profiles of my fellow competitors to see who they are and where they are from. I noticed that a couple of the other sailors in the race had the same last name, a rather unusual name, and I remembered that some guy in my first sailing club in England whom I hadn't seen for about 25 years had the same last name. A quick instant message (being careful not to be typing at the same time that I might need to make a sudden steering change in the race) as to whether there was some connection to the guy from last century, and I received the reply, "Yes, that's the old man."

So I'm playing a virtual sailing game with two young guys who are the sons of the ace from my first sailing club. A connection that spans three thousand miles and a quarter of a century. Small world indeed.

Do you have any "It's a Small World" sailing stories?