Boating; Sailor's Eye 1st Part
Boating; Sailor’s Eye!
“Why should I watch my hat,”Run-aground Ralph said to me as he stood on the bow of my small fishing boat. He likes the big broad brimmed straw hats that are lightweight and protect a lot of skin from the sun and hopefully more Cancer. I'd cautioned him about putting a clip on strap between the hat and his shirt collar but he knew better. "You think you know everything!"
by boatguy Ed
“Why should I watch my hat,”Run-aground Ralph said to me as he stood on the bow of my small fishing boat. He likes the big broad brimmed straw hats that are lightweight and protect a lot of skin from the sun and hopefully more Cancer. I'd cautioned him about putting a clip on strap between the hat and his shirt collar but he knew better. "You think you know everything!"
I was way to proud of myself as he was leaning over the short gunwale of the boat trying to fish out the floating hat. A sudden gust of sea breeze had come across the calm summer morning and caught him unprepared. Ralph glowered at me when he tried to make the soggy hat stay on his head. I just shrugged my shoulders and said, “It’s my sailor’s eye!”
“Baloney, sailor’s eye, never heard of such nonsense,” grumbled Ralph as he went on casting. I tossed him a Pabst Blue Ribbon ball cap and he reluctantly put it on.
Across the glassy smooth water I could see the first signs of more wind moving our way. The dark patches on the shiny water were the ripples caused by wind. I recognized the dark patches because of my misspent youth on small, fast sailboats amid hot July races on nearly windless lakes.
You had to 'find' the wind and knowing what it looked like was important. During the race at least one boat had to make the first mark of the triamgle course in one hour or the race committee would cancel the race. Usually, one boat would find a patch of wind and break away and round the upwind mark. That made for a long morning for the rest of us!
Across the glassy smooth water I could see the first signs of more wind moving our way. The dark patches on the shiny water were the ripples caused by wind. I recognized the dark patches because of my misspent youth on small, fast sailboats amid hot July races on nearly windless lakes.
You had to 'find' the wind and knowing what it looked like was important. During the race at least one boat had to make the first mark of the triamgle course in one hour or the race committee would cancel the race. Usually, one boat would find a patch of wind and break away and round the upwind mark. That made for a long morning for the rest of us!
Finding wind was mostly luck. Knowing when to alter coarse to catch the sudden increase in wind was an art. The really good small boat sailors had an instinct and they won more races. Many of them moved up into larger boats and a few of the best went on to become navigators on America Cup boats. I didn’t but I still have a sailor’s eye.
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