Come Sail Away

I’m sailing away, set an open course for the virgin sea
I’ve got to be free, free to face the life that’s ahead of me ...
(From “Come Sail Away” by Styx)

So, finally, my much-anticipated sailing debut took place today on the ever-so-slightly turbulent waters of Carlyle Lake.

And: I loved it.

Enough to go twice in one day. And to already be looking forward to next time. (A split infinitive, and there I was, JUST talking about Mrs. Cohlmeyer, my eighth-grade English teacher, in my just-concluded chat with Mom. Oh, bother!)

: )

So, there we are: Karl, Sherry, Kam, The Lovely and I, boarding the 18.5-foot Hunter sailboat @ 10 a.m. today. Overcast sky, temperature in the upper 70s, breezy 10- to 15-mile-per-hour wind. First we have to maneuver past a houseboat and two jet skis before we can get out of the harbor and out into open water, and then it’s “smooth sailing” from there.

Yeah, rrrrrrrrrright.

OK, let me just say that Karl is an experienced sailor. Been sailing since he was a kid, and has been out on his new (well, new to him, anyway) boat at least a dozen times since buying it about a month ago. The Lovely? Well, she has quite of bit of sailing time logged, also, back in her former life ... but today, she was pretty much staying in the cabin, keeping track of Baby Kam, who appears to adore sailing, too.

Which left Sherry and me as the “deckhands.”

I, of course, was happy to do the mandatory moves to the opposite side of the boat whenever we would do such things as “come about” (I do love the sound of THAT! It just sounds so ... so nautical, y’know??!) When it came to anything technical, though, such as STEERING THE BOAT while Karl fiddled with the mainsail or the jib ... well, that was Sherry’s job.

(We only nearly tipped over one time. And I must say, it was quite exciting ... except for the fact that I had my camera around my neck and would have quite certainly had it ruined if I had suddenly gone swimming ... but I didn’t, so where’s the harm?)

Anyhoo, an ever-increasing wind and some ominous-looking clouds cut short our ride, plus we were meeting The Crew for lunch ... but wow, my “first impressions” of sailing:

1. I love the quiet. OK, there were so many people onboard both times that it actually was anything BUT quiet, there in our lil’ sailboat, but every once in a while, when everyone actually shut up for a nanosecond or two, all you could hear were the waves and the occasional flapping (a bit of luffing, it seems ... don’t ask me, I’ve never heard of the term, either) of the sails. And it was lovely.

2. I love the water. Yeah, I don’t really like the idea of inadvertently going swimming, but if so: Just relax, float on your back and enjoy the view of the sky. Carlyle Lake is huge, the largest lake in Illinois (long as you don’t count Lake Michigan), and I was/am amazed at the varying water conditions as we made our way over about a third of the lake.

3. I love the challenge. Granted, all I really did was sit and shoot and try to observe, a little, but there is a lot of thinking that goes on in sailing. A lot of observation. And work. And it was great to watch Karl and Kurt work together, during our second sail, because they know what they are doing.

Though you would not have known that had you been along with Karl and his dad on the day they took the boat to the dock and saw it COMING DOWN THE ROAD, RUNNING PARALLEL TO THE JEEP BEFORE TUMBLING INTO A CORNFIELD, thanks to neither of them securing the trailer hitch.

Heh. Woulda paid to have seen that.

I think I might want to learn how to sail. Just in case, you know, anyone would ever need me to take the helm. Or raise the mainsail. Or whatever.

: )