As you were able to read over the last couple of months I am trying to understand more about the business of boats and sailing. Getting some degrees to legally use boats abroad, but also learning the tactics and basics on how sailing works. This was always with an instructor though, someone who makes sure you don't do anything stupid.
I am not a big fan of sailing in the Netherlands in general and that has most of it to do with that the weather is often a bit to cold to my liking, except for these beautiful summer days where it will be super crowded on the water.
But in the after season everyone has lost their fomo as it seems and that means it is the perfect time to head out on the water. Good sun, nice temperatures, no one on the water.
The perfect moment to try out sailign for the first time without an instructor. Scary!
In Dutch all the sailing terminology are words which to me sound as jibberish, so I loved the fact that my previous instructor was a Greek guy speaking English and also learning the English sailing terminology.
But when renting a sailing boat i was a bit scared that the rental company would start to question my knowledge which is in Dutch non existent. Luckily this wasn't the case and we got to take this nice little 'Valk' which is the Dutch word for Falcon with us.
With a length of 6.5 meters long and a mast of 8 meters high this is a small boat which is fast turning and easy to make it sailing-ready.
Or at least that is what I thought!
Lines, lines, lines
Every boat has their own way to attach the lines to raise the sails. The principle might stay the same, but how you actually do this (and some boats are already ready to go with nothing to do on the lines anymore) this is something which you need to sort out beforehand.
So I watched some Youtube on how to do this and read some manuals on what to attach where and decided that trial and error was the best way to learn.
And again..there was no instructor anymore. So we got out on the water on a small engine, started raising the sails, concluded that I didn't attach one of the lines good enough because I had pulled it all the way up in the mast and the hook was stuck in there. Crap....!
That meant going back to the dock, taking down the mast (luckily the rental lady was willing to help and didn't look a second like she hated us) pulling the line loose, mast back up and good to go again.
At this point I had lost my faith a bit in the process, but on the other hand, this was one of the things that is also good to learn that sailing and boats come with just a crapload of errors, and fixing the lines is also one of them.
Second attempt!
Leaving the dock again, nose of the boat in the wind, pulling the lines, raising the sails. And the boat started to pull....And started to sail! We were moving and the wind was doing it!
But then opening the genua. I couldn't find how to do it, and after a search of a couple of minutes and also already thinking that we might just stay on the main sail, I found this little line that made the genua unfold. Victory again!
Once we were moving again all moves also came back from the memory on what to do to keep the boat sailing and it all worked! It was a bit of experimenting with the rutterstick versus a wheel but this was also all just minor stuff.
Make a couple of tacks, try to go upwind for a bit, make a gype, concluding no one was knocked over board in the process and start high fiving!
What a feeling and how good it was to notice that not every skill was lost in the last couple of months. Ofcourse we are not there as yet, but skills need to be practised and this round of of sailing without instruction was a good one to realise that the skills were still there.
And most of all, I wasn't that scared and felt like I was in control the whole time. This tastes like mooooooore!