Well, it's been a quiet day in Ses Sailines, the little village that time forgot and the decades cannot improve, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.
No. Wait.
I'm pretty sure that's somewhere else.
But it was a quiet day at Minorca Sailing today.
The topic for the day in the Advanced Laser Class was "Starts."
God knows I need to improve my starts.
At 10:00 am, there was no wind.
The instructor gave us his prepared talk about starting tactics.
At 10:30 there was still no wind.
We continued the class with random questions on every Laser sailing topic under the sun.
At 11:00 there was still no wind.
We discussed options. Paddle-boarding anyone?
I opted to go for a swim in the pool.
Then lunch. I now know the Spanish for, "A tuna and tomato roll, please."
After lunch a light northerly wind filled in. Winds always "fill in" here. Eventually.
I went down to the beach. It was the last day of the race series. I checked the results so far. I did some mental higher mathematics and worked out that I had clinched the series already, even if I didn't sail today. But I think it's disrespectful to your competition to refuse to race in such circumstances. Anyway I'm not entirely confident in my ability to do mental higher mathematics after I have had two beers for my lunch with my tuna and tomato roll. So I sailed anyway.
The Swiss lady was super fast in the light air and won the first race by a huge margin. The Scottish lady and I tussled all round the course. I scraped the windward mark on the last lap and did a 360. The Scottish lady passed me. I caught her on the next reach and just established an overlap at the gybe mark. I held on to take second and she was third. After the race we discussed how she could have defended better at the gybe mark. It's that kind of vibe here. We all help each other.
Not!
In the second race I came into the line with about 30 seconds to the gun, luffed up to leeward of the Swiss lady, pulled the trigger first and was away. No way was she going to beat me twice in the same day. Children can be so cruel at my age.
I rounded the windward mark in first place with the Scottish lady not far behind. She eventually caught me on the second beat by playing the shifts better. That whole business about lifts and headers is something I need to work on. Once she was ahead I couldn't catch her. I was second, with the Swiss lady third.
So all three of us had four points for the day, and they each beat me once. A fair end to the series. I think they are tied on points for second place with the Swiss lady winning the tie-breaker. We will see at the awards party tomorrow night.
When I returned to the beach after a celebratory sail around the bay, Tillerwoman was waiting for me.
She had had a very bad afternoon. Had a minor disaster in fact. The sort of disaster that rarely happens in the quiet little village of Ses Salines.
She was knitting by the hotel pool, and her knitting pattern blew into the pool!!!
Damn wind!!!
She had to jump into the pool to retrieve it!!!
Oh, the humanity!!!
This post was sponsored by Powdermilk Biscuits, which give shy persons the strength to get up and do what needs to be done. Heavens, they're tasty and expeditious.
7 comments:
Hurrah, more posts about baking! That's what the boating blog community needs!!
I would go away and make some Powder Milk biscuits (not something I'd heard of before but Mr Wikipedia was full of helpful hints) but no doubt I'd get sued by those darn Norwegian bachelor farmers :(
Maybe I could say that like most people I have an above average number of limbs?
Are they made with whole wheat? Grown by Norwegian bachelor farmers?
If the wind always fills in, shouldn't she have been more careful with her knitting?
Bisquick
I notice that you never get tired and call it quits early for the day - drawing philosophical conclusions about what's really important in life - when you are winning.
O Docker - one of my objectives these two weeks has been to improve my sailing fitness. I was pretty tired after the first day here but as the two weeks have progressed I am finding that I have more and more energy and am quite relaxed, and even ready for more, after sailing all day.
Having said that, the schedule here is not quite as rigorous a a typical regatta back home. (We do take a long break for lunch.) But I do feel that the two weeks of sailing every day (most days morning and afternoon) have helped me to improve my stamina.
Forget the biscuits - what's Tillerwoman knitting? and did she manage to salvage her pattern before the ink ran? Can't believe you have left us on a cliff hanger like that....
Sorry Victoria.
To conclude the gripping story of Tillerwoman's knitting pattern falling in the pool...
FIrst of all, Tillerwoman is not a very confident swimmer and would certainly not have dived to retrieve her pattern from the bottom of the pool. It's also unlikely that she would have jumped in the pool fully clothed. But luckily, Tillerwoman was wearing her bathing suit and the pattern did not fall into the deep end of the pool. So she jumped into the pool and managed to retrieve the pattern by picking it up with her feet. (She never puts her head under water.) The ink didn't run, but she did tear the pattern into two pieces while picking it up with her feet. When I returned from sailing, the pattern was drying on her bed and is still legible. It's just as well because we bought the pattern and wool in a little knitting shop in Swanage while we were visiting the UK and we are not planning to go back that way on our return trip to the US from Spain.
She is knitting a very cute cardigan for our 6-year-old granddaughter Emily. As there seems to be so much interest in knitting among my faithful readers I will post a photo when it is finished.
Post a Comment