So we amazingly were given sponsorship of 2 sails! Thank you so much Pacific Action Sails.
To be honest I was a little dubious to add a sail to my little boat. I wondered what it would be like to have a lung full of air propelling me in some direction I was not sure I wanted to be heading in… but…
OMG! This is a revelation! From the first nervous second of actually raising my sail and seeing what this new toy could do, I was so totally impressed! We had just paddled out through Boaty heads and with only about a half meter swell but a good 10 – 15 knots (predicted for 25 – 30 kts to grace us shortly) I nervously raised my sail. My thought to prepare for this inaugural raising ceremony was that I would probably be upside down within about half a second! Instead… this was the most fun experience I had had in my boat for quite some time. Gone are the days of routine paddles with tight spots in all sorts of places! Here I had found some relief!
My little 1 sq m sail picked me up perfectly and deposited me on this beautiful downwind run with such stability and confidence that I forgot about all of my pre-conceived ideas of a sail on my boat. Within possibly less than 2 minutes (as I headed further out to see and directly over a little reef) I was riding beautifully in front of a breaking wave, my sail propelling me forward with the most smooth and exhilarating feeling. Juz looked over and at a later moment told me that all he could see was a little sail cruising through a breaking wave surrounding my boat.
So my last word here is… If ever you have contemplated a sail and you enjoy the free-ride of nature… this is for you! I am totally hooked!
No comments:
Post a Comment