Sunday, November 25, 2007

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?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

lol, this is wierd

I ran into a old member from my sailing club on Tacticat last night.

But the connection wasn't as good as yours, he left the year I joined

EVK4 said...

I sailed on a Tayana 37 for years. Then, from out of nowhere, I kind of meet Bob Perry (T37 designer, Mr. Double-End) on Sailing Anarchy.

Or there's the time I took a friend's brother-in-law out on a race and he saw an old friend from law school at the Yacht Club afterwards.

Then there's the time I sat in the front row of the boat on "It's a Small World" and my daughter pretended to be driving the boat.

So, I guess I have nothing.

Anonymous said...

I love that song.

its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small, small world

its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small, small world

its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small, small world

So touching.

Anonymous said...

I met Tillerman at Bitter End Yacht Club

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