End-of-the-season reflections
It's a good thing all aspects of life are divided into chapters. We get to go back and read them again after we've finished the first time. On the second read, we see things we missed when the action whizzed by in real time.
Though the young people in high school and college still have a season going, for us grown ups, CORA's Turkey Regatta the Saturday after Thanksgiving will be the last local race of the year. End of the season. The Big Finale. Time to hit "replay" and think back over the season.
From my perspective as a sailor, this was one of the best years ever. There were beautiful late-afternoon winter practice sails on the harbor, watching sunsets so brilliant words can't describe them. Then there was crewing on Ryan Hamm's J/24 Squid in Charleston Race Week in April, when we had disappointing finishes in the first three races, but kept our composure and character and managed a "podium finish" — third place. I almost got my head taken off in an accidental jibe between races, and the story will last but the damage won't.
Skippering Outside the Lines in the Wednesday night Summer Series races went far better than anybody had hoped going into the season. The experience of putting together a crew, watching inexperienced sailors get up to speed quite quickly, and new owners and sailors catching the sailing bug was everything I hoped it would be. The "worst" thing about it was, believe it or not, that things went too well too soon. After finishes of 3-3-1-1 (the 1's thanks to Ryan Hamm guest-skippering), anything lower in the standings was a sore disappointment.
In July, after our worst race of the summer, I wrote in my sailing journal: "The leg back got slow. Either the sea breeze was dying or we were in the wind shadow of James Island, but we just got slower and slower. It is a helpless feeling in a sailboat when you can't go. I can only compare it to that dream everyone seems to have at some point in life in which they're being chased by a villain and can't make their legs move fast enough." We finished fifth that race, but everybody on Outside the Lines was nice about it — and easier on me than I was on myself for letting it happen. I learned a lot about myself as a skipper that night, and it reaffirmed another lesson I learned about sailing a while back: Make sure the people you sail with are people you want to be stuck on a boat with in good times and bad!
When I drive over the bridges and look down at the water upon which, just moments before, there were dozens of boats and perhaps a few hundred people committing massive amounts of time, talent and resources to a race, the outcome of which won't change the world or feed the hungry. Even the boats' wake has disappeared before the sails are folded and stowed away, the ocean erasing every trace of the effort just put forth.
Is it all for nothing?
Again, from last summer's sailing journal: "Someone wrote that when we sail upon the seas, we don't discover the ocean, but ourselves. This is why we go out and sail."
Coming up
SATURDAY: Community Sailing oyster roast, Bowens Island, 5-9 p.m., (843) 607-4890
NOV. 29: CORA Turkey Regatta, Charleston Harbor, 1 p.m.
Reach Will Haynie at willh@thepickledish.com.
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