It's Friday and the regatta starts tomorrow. The day began with warm sunshine, puffy clouds and light winds. I checked out of Miraloma at 11, picked up the rental car and drove down to Cadboro Bay for lunch. I decided to try Olive Olio's as we hadn't been able to get in there on Monday. Lunch was tasty- cauliflower cheddar soup and salad. I took a quick detour to the beach for some photos. A life sized model of the fearsome Cadborosaurus is on the beach. Caddy is a 5-15 foot serpent sighted in this bay. I don't know if this monster has eaten anyone, but I sure don't want to find out. Imagine meeting this guy in the bay!
That said, I did want to go sailing. My training camp buddies have gone back to Alberta and most of the Royal Vic sailors are at school. Steve said last night that Phil would be coming out around 2pm. It wasn't even 1pm yet, but I decided to get rigged and see if Phil came early. He didn't. I checked my rig and then hopped in to face the sea monster alone. No coach boat, no other dinghys. Small comfort in the whistle tied to my lifejacket. If I really get in trouble it's possible that Steve will hear the whistle. Here's Fionnlagh preparing to get rigged:
I toodled around a bit, a few tacks, a lot of gybes. On the upwind I was working on leveling the boat, pointing, and speed. Then I did a few acceleration drills. After about an hour on the water, Phil joined me. I followed him. He gybed repeatedly downwind and then roll tacked all the way back up. He is roll gybing. I'm working on it. Phil reminded me to sheet in to 45 degrees before the sail comes over. This will help to prevent the mainsheet from getting caught on the transom. I'm gybing better than last summer, but more practice is needed to become consistent. It's still a bit wobbly and scary in high winds. The wind was a bit breezy this afternoon. At times I was planing downwind. At other times there wasn't enough breeze to push the main out on a run.
Then we headed out on starboard tack close hauled to work on boat speed. The wind was just enough that I had to hike out fully most of the time but I could keep the boat level. A few gusts increased the challenge. I was footing and sailed closer to Phil. He reminded me to watch my ticklers to stay close hauled.
We reached in, but it wasn't as exciting as I hoped it would be. The wind was dying. We practiced acceleration a couple of times and then it began to hail. Phil reminded me that the key to good acceleration from a stop is to heel the boat well. It was very cold so we went in. Sailing in the hail is not fun. We had to tack between the rocks and the yachts to get to the docks. The wind was dead in patches and I roll tacked to maintain speed. Ooops! Rolled too far and capsized! Managed to stay dry- I climbed over the top and brought him back up. Managed not to drift into the rocks either (see photo of big ass rock below)!
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