I've sailed -- or I guess I should say I've gone sailing -- my whole life. I'm never captain nor a sailor, I'm a passenger. Often times I'm a very nervous passenger but nothing that a little wine doesn't fix. I remember one time in San Francisco bay I was sailing with a bunch of guys who liked to go hard - up on the side - as if that's fun!? It's not. I was petrified, white knuckles and all. Part of the problem was I don't think I ever truly trusted the 'captain' who was an amateur. Part of the reason was I'm a nervous type who takes after my nervous nelly mom! That same trip, I had a few glasses of wine. I went from white knuckles not moving and not having any fun to having the time of my life. Probably not a good thing to do when the captain isn't that trustworthy - not that he'd do anything bad on purpose, just that he might not know what to do if the sucker capsized! No, not a very smart thing to do, but calming which was critical.
On the 4th of July this year, we went on a sailing trip in Seattle. I was a bit nervous but we had a bottle of white wine on hand for our little picnic of fresh bread, local cheese, raspberries and cherries. All very civilized. I had a glass of wine shortly after we set sail to keep the nerves at bay. Little did I know, that would NOT be necessary.
This was - literally - the calmest sail I've ever been on. It was even calmer than I would've liked. It could've used a few more waves and a bit more wind but if I had to choose between one extreme and the other, I'd choose Seattle sail any day.
What was great was that with the calmness, I was able to enjoy the ride, take some pics and also calmly enjoy the multiple firework displays all around us.
Here are just a couple of pictures from the trip.
Comments