Sailing!

I participated in my first race yesterday and despite our sorry 2nd to last place finish (with handicap) I had a blast. And was good enough and remembered enough from ancient sailing days to get asked back to crew at any time. So yay! I get to sail every Wed afternoon if I want to, and I do want to. We had an all woman crew and our skipper, Kate, is very good. She's been sailing for 18 years and is the wife of the Commodore of the yacht club. The boat is a H28' - I think H stands for Hobart. She's an old timber boat and while seaworthy is stripped down for racing so no head, no bunks, no kitchen stuff. Just boat and sails which really is all you need...plus some skill. We had a very dramatic near miss with a larger yacht out of the Royal Perth Yacht Club that caused us to fall to last place, and the wind was fairly light... the vessel is apparently better suited to stronger winds. Which reminds me...I want to look up who has the right of way in these situations because I think it was us. Somehow racing in a river is even more relaxing than open seas - the worst that can happen is you fall in and have to swim for the nearest shore after all.