Saturday, May 12, 2007

Aye Aye Captain of my own sailboat!



Stuck my neck in this...literally! Volunteered to join the disability sailing program at Changi Sailing Club, or otherwise known as Sailability, and now I'm hooked! It was a glorious morning and after a short lesson on the ins/outs of the sailboat and some basic terminology and technique, off we went sailing! Loading myself in and out of the small dinghy required a bit of manhandling, but once I was in the hammock, I just sat back and relaxed while I was being launched....but then the booming instructor's voice bellowed " KAREN!!! BEAR AWAY!! SHEET IN!!! DON'T LET YOUR SAIL LUFF!!!" Yes Sir!! Trying to do it as fast as I can!! He was hollering from the safety boat chugging nearby, since I was sailing solo. We did a few rounds off-shore, then in-shore till it became second nature to Tack and Gyb, Ease-out and Sheet-in. The arms and shoulders got a good workout, and the ears were slightly deafened by an overly-nervous captain of a passing oil-tanker, who really should have taken a chill-pill before blaring his horn repeatedly at us. We were MILES away from the safety bouy demarcating his shipping lane! Tsk! Anyway, I don't have any pictures of me IN the sailboat yet but hopefully next time I'll have someone who can be trusted with my camera! There's a mini regatta on June 9, if you all want to spend a lovely relaxing Saturday morning by the water's edge, you know the place to be! Training is on every Saturday morning at 0930hrs till 1230hrs till then!

Note: Single ladies on the prowl...there is good potential at Changi Sailing Club, good-looking social men with yachts...yes YACHTS!!

No comments: