Full Tilt Sailing Team

A single race while waiting for my surgery

Tonight my crew convinced me to race by promising to do everything for me except (occasionally) steering the boat. I'm waiting for my OK to get surgery to repair the ruptured disk in my spine, but lately the pain has largely subsided and I'm able to do most things except lift, twist, or pull on anything.

But I can sit upright, and since the conditions were mild tonight with no chop and a light 7-10 knot breeze out of the SSE, I agreed to go.

We had a great start, hitting the line at the horn doing a nice clip.

Here's Joyce steering during a downwind leg between K and W. We kept our speed up and managed to pass or keep pace with boats that were faster than us.

Here I am being a tactician and enjoying all the boats behind us.

Danielle and Doreen did great on the boat. Doreen was our bowman and Danielle (along with Joyce) were grinders. Even though some of our tacks were a bit slow due to inexperience, we didn't make any tactical or sailing mistakes for the entire race, and they all did an outstanding job.

We cruised to a finish in a group of faster boats, and if the race had been handicapped we would have placed very respectably.

This will probably be our last race of the season, but we'll likely do a bit more cruising if my back doesn't act up and everyone is happy with doing all the work. I kind of enjoy sitting back and relaxing, but I can't wait until my surgery is done and I'm back at 100% and able to really do the work.

All in all, it was a good day!

posted by CT Bob @ 10:13 PM