Sailing on JoJee

Some of you have been following my sailing sagas. I joined the UW Hoofer sailing club in the spring, and it has been an adventurous summer. When I was a kid, my parents helped out with the upkeep of Electra, a rather spectacular 40' teak sailboat, in exchange for summer sailing. So admittedly, when I thought about sailing, I flashbacked to gorgeous sunny days spent sitting on the bow with the wind in my hair. Right. About the only accurate part of that picture was the wind part. Turns out sailing, especially little boats by yourself, is an enormous amount of work. And tricky. And it takes awhile to figure it out. But the various times throughout the summer I have thought, forget it, I caught the wind just right or something clicked between the boat and my brain or I had a magical perfect landing or some other glorious moment *queue angelic choir--aaaahhhh* happened and this fabulous rush of some biological chemical is released and I forget that I've gotten knocked in the head with the boom or have unknown bruises all over me and turn in on that high so I'm ready to go out again soon.

But I still hold on to thinking that sailing is sitting on the bow while someone else deals with tell-tales and jibs and halyards. So when the opportunity came up to sail on a "real" sailboat--think 2 sails with a keel (that bottom fin that keeps the boat from going sideways across the water), I jumped. And yesterday, we got to sail on JoJee, with some friends. Joe, the captain, has been my instructor a few times. He comes complete with stories and religious jokes that only an octogenarian Jewish man can get away with. He didn't exactly let me sit on the bow for the trip. In fact, I spent most of the afternoon at the helm trying desperately to remember all my sailing definitions from the manuals while he yelped out commands I had no idea how to respond to. When you're in a boat by yourself, you don't remind yourself what's port or starboard or make sure when you grab the rope you need that you remember the name of that particular piece of line. After a few more commands from Joe at the front, I finally fessed up I'd never sailed a boat with two sails. "Well, you've been in one before, right?!" as if that took care of how to know what to do with a jib. But it was still lots of fun--good wind, sunshine, and lots-o-laughs. Plus, now I've successfully tacked with a 26' boat--WHOO HOO!

And Joe did give me a break from steering to take some pictures, which was super! I wouldn't dare bring my camera on my little techs or even a Badger Sloop, so it was nice to document the shoreline from the boat. Enjoy!

The JoJee


Terrace Time


The Maple Bluffs


Thanks, Liz, for this picture of the Scholten sailors