Zartimus the deck monkey goes sailing.

I went sailing a couple of weeks ago. It was a blast! The last time I'd been on a sailing boat was back in the 8th grade at Camp Arawon. This one was a nice 28 footer, and we did a race. Came in 7th or 8th outta of 30 some boats. I went with Paul in my french class (it's his boat).
It was a pretty busy time to tell the truth. There's aways something to crank, or tie down, or pull, or get out of the way. I was the "Deck Monkey" and did the "Skirting" which means to pull the front sail flush with the side of the boat so it catches the wind just right. That sail is called the ginny or something like that. When you tack or jive the main sail boom goes swinging around the back and that front sail changes sides(taking anything in front of it - like you - with it) and you have to pull it down tight other wise it flutters and you don't go as fast as you should. When it's sailing right the boat is on like a 45 degree angle which is pretty wild.
I meant to track the speed with my GPS but I never had the time. They decided to change sails mid-race and when one of the guys was trying to stuff it down the locked forward hatch I went down in the galley to unlock it. It was like the crazy kitchen down there because the boat was on a 45 degree tilt. I walked along the floor and wall like spiderman and noticed that the starboard port holes were kind of underwater. Very weird...

I'll definitely go again if they need people. It was a blast!

I blew out one of my Crocs though. (exchanged them the next day). Something about shifting ones weight so as not to fall overboard and the one shoe just couldn't take it. In fact, it is so easy to fall overboard when you skirt it's funny! You change direction, you stay out of the way of the swinging boom and the whipping front sail and soon the boat is tilting 45 degrees on the opposite side so the deck is on a 45 when you scramble down to skirt the front sail and you then have to scramble back up high on the opposite side of the mast where it;s safe and nothing can really plow you overboard.

Lots of fun though!