Big White is AWESOME! Sailing...

Yes! It has nothing to do with Big White. Or No! It has nothing to do with Big White. 

Same thing.

Have you ever sailed?

Picture this, you are on a sailboat, the wind has filled he sails, it is coming off the port (left) bow (middle), you are heeled over 25 degrees. The boat is cutting through the water, the sun is shining, the breeze is keeping you cool, shade is found under the sails... you look up, all you see is the crystal blue of the sky, the odd cotton ball cloud, the peak of the mast above the whiter than white sails. All you can hear is the water flowing past the hull. The boat is gently rocking with the swell and you think... you think about the 15,000lbs of the boat, the 5 knots of breeze and the 4.5 knots of headway. You think how much energy is being generated by the wind against canvas... takes a lot to move that much weight at that speed...

Have you ever sailed?

Have you ever sailed with a dog? Two dogs?

With a dog that has a bit of a stomach issue? An issue that makes you jump on the tender with the dog and race against nature to beat the stomach issue. Race like you are James Bond chasing the Spectre agent, thinking in your Sean Connery voice 'Hold on there picshel, thish will be sho much better if you can keep it togetherrr...' A dog that can't hold it together...

So you head back to the boat, and you look at the sailboat with your wife and daughter just as the squall hits... 45knots... just as it almost capsizes... as you try and do your best Jimmy Bond thing, racing over/through/under the 4 foot white caps, racing as your dog bounces 2 feet off the deck cos your wife and daughter are still (you hope) on this out of control boat.

Have you ever gotten back to the out of control boat, heeled over 40 degrees, chucked the dog on as your daughter says 'the boat is out of control...' oh really. So you attach a line to the dinghy, steer into the wind, get the engine going and think 'fogging hell..'

Have you ever tried to find a safe harbour for your sailboat with the 45 knot winds? Tried to weigh anchor, only to have it drag? Try to recover the anchor and the 200 feet of line attached... hauling in the soaked rope, heavy chain and finally the anchor. Trying to power the boat against the wind, trying to give directions to the helmsman in the bouncing swell, and blowing gale whilst recovering the anchor by hand...?

Have you ever have your tender break loose and start to float away in the middle of all this...? Because the D ring bends due to all the pressure...? Recovering the anchor can be done, recovering the boat can be done... finding safe moorage (eventually) in the dark and gale winds can be done.

You can find moorage, you can settle down, you can drink that well earned beer...

Have you ever sailed? With two dogs... who both have stomach issues...? Who wake you in the middle of the night, with the 'look'? The 'please for the love of god mother, let me find some grass...'? Who wake you five times... (well four and one). Dogs that have liquified stomach issues...?

Have you ever sailed?

Have you ever sailed after a figuratively and literally shitty day and night with two dogs... two dogs that have not recovered? The dog that 'looks' at you in the middle of the lake? Trying the Bond plan again... failing again... desperately failing all over the dinghy... Have you ever returned to the boat with a dinghy full of 'desperation', chucked the dog in the lake cos his paws are full of this desperation? Got the dog back on the boat, and tried to figure out the best way to clean this liquid desperation when you realize... you realize the dog has not finished being desperate... he has not finished being desperate, on the big boat... no, not finished, he has not finished everywhere... everywhere!

So he goes swimming again and you start to clean this desperation... you clean it off both boats... it takes a bit of time, it takes hoisting the dinghy out of the water, it takes a desperate amount of rinsing...

Have you ever sailed?

Have you ever sailed after having a brain frying day and night and day, that you don't pay attention? Have you ever run aground whilst sailing...? Have you ever spent two hours with the help of a very nice pontoon boat trying to unground your sailboat... whilst being watched by numerous spectators...?

Have you ever spent 11 stressful and 'desperate' hours on a boat, only to discover the directions you were given were misleading... 6kms misleading... 6kms at 6km/h misleading. 6 km misleading, when you have missed, dinner, breakfast, lunch, coffee and dinner again...?

Have you ever sailed?

Guess what we did last weekend.