Sailing...or at least attempting to.

I need to apologize...I promised to tell you all this story back in October. But anyways, here it finally is... my summer sailing story.

Every summer the employees at our firm get invited to Les and Saw-Teen’s lake house in Connecticut for the day. (Les is the engineer who started our firm—it is named after him, and his wife Saw-Teen is one of the principles, the one I actually work under). So one weekend in August, a big group of us (about 20+) headed up to Connecticut for a day on the lake.

It was a beautiful day, sunny but with a great breeze, perfect for sailing! After settling in on the dock Les and I began to rig his hobie cat to take out on the lake! I was really excited to go sailing because I hadn’t been since fall term at Stanford when I took dingy sailing classes. Last year I also took his hobie cat out, but there was hardly enough wind to really sail…so this year was looking like an exciting sailing opportunity! Ha…if only I knew what would happen.

After Les and I finished rigging the boat he was ready to send me out there with another coworker, but I talked him into coming out—since it was his boat and he did help me get it all ready. I wanted him to be able to be out on the lake as well. So with me in control of the rudder, the two of us headed out onto the lake.

We were doing great, sailing and heeling as we flew across the water. The wind was perfect—well a bit strong, but still great for sailing. Then it came time to head back to the dock and let someone else take a turn on the lake.

Now you have to understand that Les is an adventurer. So when we were deciding to head back to the dock, he convinced me it was a good idea to attempt to sail the boat up the ramp. Bare in mind, their dock is probably about 5 feet off the water and there is a long ramp that leads to the lake (which is how you get the boat in and out of the water). He also has told me many times that he has successfully sailed the hobie cat all the way up the ramp to the deck. So that was what he was convincing me to do as well.

I don’t know what I was thinking when I finally gave in to his persuasion. But the conversation went something like this.

Les: “Let’s sail the boat up the ramp!”

Me: “Are you serious? You really want me to try to sail this boat up the ramp???”

Les: “Yeah! Let’s go for it!”

Me: “Are you REALLY sure, do you want to take control of the tiller and attempt it?” Les: “No, No, you stay in charge, but let’s go for it!”

Me: “Are you REALLY sure…alright, ok…let’s give it a try.”

Keep in mind at this time everyone who was at the lake house that day was on the dock, just watching what we were doing. So when they noticed we were headed towards to ramp, I’m sure it was just a little frightening.

I was pretty good with my alignment, until the last little bit. I was so slightly skewed that instead of making it all the way up the ramp, I ended up halfway up and totally taking out one of the cross-braces on the ramp! Yeah, we came to a pretty quick stop!

WOW, is all that I can say. I was totally in shock and still couldn’t believe that I had attempted that docking. But it was done, and no damage was done, to either the boat or us (even though I was still shaking for about 30minutes afterwards).

Luckily Les, absolutely loved it! He was so excited afterwards, couldn’t have cared less about his cross-brace on the dock and was just full of smiles! His wife, Saw-Teen, also thought it was pretty hilarious! After getting off the boat, she came up to me laughing, to tell me that I had done very well in making their ramp truss into a vierendeel (yes, a structural engineering joke that was very perfect for the situation).

Don’t worry, the story doesn’t end there. After getting off the boat and being totally embarrassed in front of so many coworkers (at this time I had only been a full-time employee for a maybe 2 months) and also being freaked out that I could have just killed me and my boss, and not to mention just wreaked their dock and almost their boat! Les says to everyone “So who wants to go out next, Katie will take you.” I looked at him again and was like, “you’ve got to be kidding, are you sure you want me to take your boat out again.” And he said back “of course, why wouldn’t I”. So I was like, “alright…who’s up?”

And my brave coworker, Elizabeth rose to the challenge. Poor thing must have been so scared! I don’t think she had ever been on a hobie cat before, so her first time had to be right after witnessing my expert docking technique! But none the less, we headed back out to the water. Sailing around went smooth as ever, I don’t seem to have problems, with the sailing bit, just the docking.

However, since I was still freaked out and was not willing to attempt such another docking (for Elizabeth’s and my own sake). I opted for the totally opposite and very lame docking. So for those of you who haven’t sailed hobies much, they can be very difficult to tack. You lose a lot of wind and it is difficult to get the boat turned quickly. So instead most of the time I end up at a standstill for a moment or too before the boat can come clear round and catch the wind again.

So my grand idea for a less eventful, yet entirely lame docking was to come to a standstill up wind of the dock and just float to it. I figured once we got close enough to the dock, we could push ourselves around to the front and up the ramp. No harm done….well, not exactly, it was almost just as embarrassing, but not as exciting as the first docking.

There we were just content to sit there and wait for the boat to float to the ramp. While everyone on the dock was wondering what in the heck we were doing. Once we got close, I had to jump off the boat and make sure it didn’t ram the side of the dock and help push it to the front. Yes, very lame. But at least it was a lot safer than the first.

Ha…yes, most would think that that would be the last of my story. But no, it continues, there is a third time. Later that afternoon I took out another coworker, actually my mentor, Matt. Ha…this time getting into the water turned to be the problem.

As we were preparing to get onto the boat on the ramp, it ended up slipping down the dock just as I was stepping on. So I had one hand full of the lines, one foot on the boat as it shoots down the ramp, I fell backwards and was dragged into the water after the boat. Yeah, great huh? Matt didn’t even make it onto the boat and had to swim to it!

Luckily the third time is a charm. I made a good ramp docking and made it up (half-way onto the ramp) without hitting any of the trusses on either side. So I felt a little redemption.

But goodness, how much can I embarrass myself in front of half the firm? At least I can handle it. But still, I know I will never live it down—nor do I think I deserve to.