Sailing: Your Own Adventure

For being a team sport, sailboat racing is made up of such individual experiences. It's a team, and you're all together on a small space against the raging elements, but still...

Illustration from "Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue At Camp Rest-A-While" by Laura Lee hope.

Although it's frayed and stained, I treasure the crew shirt from an Olsen 30 called Hot Tuna. Every race on board –– it seems like –– produced at least one of these peculiar adventures. 

For instance a spinnaker douse. First, picture three people clinging to the side of a steep roof as they try to fold an enormous fitted bedsheet and stuff it through a small hatch. 

Then add wind. 

And saltwater. 

And shouting...

Every time. 

During one of these hectic spinnaker takedowns, I tumbled through the open hatch and did a perfect 360° somersault to land butt-first on a bunk.  

No broken neck! No broken shoulder! Barely even a bruise! A six-foot drop in the middle of chaos and I was still holding onto two handfuls of spinnaker! 

I raised both hands over my head and imagined the judges giving me 10.0's across the board. "Did anyone SEE that?" I asked.

Then someone shouted from on deck: "What the hell are you doing down there? Come on! Jaysus! Get the 'chute! Pull the motherf#$ker! NOW!" 

Oh, yeah, that. The team.