I sailed with my friend Adrienne on her San Juan 24, T-Bone, for another night of racing. This was back in Lake Washington (vs. the San Juan 24 Nationals we raced in Puget Sound.)

It was a reasonably nice night with good wind. While it's always fun to sail, this week was especially fun because I learned to sail foredeck. This is the position on the front of the boat; the foredeck person stands at the bow (the front of the boat) at the start to call the starting line, handles the head sail, and then sets and manages the spinnaker (the big downwind sail) and the spinnaker pole (a pole that pushes the spinnaker out).

It was definitely a learning experience. There are lots of lines up there. It's a little hard to visualize where they're all supposed to go and in what order when everything is on the deck. Once the pole and sail go up, tangles and overlaps can cause huge problems (I had to stop everything twice and untie/unclip things to fix overlaps -- very slow and bad). It's even harder because you actually have to think about the next move the boat will make and where lines need to be then (another mistake there). Still, I had a good coach and it was fun

This is a pretty busy job at times. The boat is often heeling pretty far when I'm up there. I typically need both hands to get the pole ready, etc. so I have to stay low to stay on the boat (important). As a result, my knees and shins are all banged up and cut from smashing on the deck and the little hardware that sticks up all over. At various times, my feet were also dragging through the water as I hung onto the boat on various tacks.

Despite the physical abuse I took and the fact we finished DFL (dead f*cking last ) in two of the three races (we did, however beat the #1 boat in the second race), I had a super great time and am excited to do it all again.