Sailing is a thrill no matter who you are; the moment you feel the force of the wind on you’re boat and it sends you out across the water, you’re hooked! Most sailors have felt that countless times, but there is always one moment that sticks out. For me that one moment happened this past week. While out on a lazy sail, on what seemed to be a regular Lake Champlain light evening breeze, Cory and I were cruising a long towards the outer limits of our boundary when we turned back in toward Burlington on a run. We set up the spinnaker ready to have a sweet ride back to the docks; little did we know that Mother Nature had a surprise for us. As soon as we realized we had a gust of wind on us, we were in the beginning of a 30 mph microburst. Cory was the first to feel the effects, as the spinnaker sheets were almost ripped out of his hands. The next thing we knew, we were up on a plane traveling at lease 15 mph, throwing us both back screaming “OH YEAH WE’RE ROCKIN’ NOW!!!” Trying to ride the wind it shifted and took the spinnaker for a ride, and w hile trying take the spinnaker down it wrapped around the jib. With tangled sails and lines on our bow our first reaction was to clean up the mess and get the spinnaker down. As we worked to get the spinnaker back in, and trying not to sink the bow into the 3-4′ waves we were surfing, we found ourselves abruptly tossed by the wind and capsized the boat. Cory was separated from he boat for a few minutes, but was lucky picked up by some boaters out on the lake. After getting ourselves together and cleaning up the mess of sails and lines (while capsized and relentlessly bashed by massive whitecaps) we got the boat upright and sailing. Looking back at this awesome sail, I find myself even more addicted to sailing. The thrill of launching forward with the spinnaker up and the gusts almost throwing us backward out of the boat was one of the wildest rides I have ever been on in a sailboat. I also felt humbled by the lake a took a lesson out of this whole thing… Although you may never expect a small ripple in the water to be anything major, always try to ride out the wind and weather, for if you act too soon you may wind up on your side sailing away from your mates.
