LEARNING TO SAIL II - OR HOW TO SURVIVE ON A YACHT

 

    After posting the "Learning to Swim", I promised that I would come back to the topic during long winter evenings. Since I promised, here I fulfill my promise.

 

We go back in time to 2006 - that's when Wacław took me sailing to Koronowo for the first time.  

 

 As a naive ignoramus, I didn't know yet "what the dangers were" :-)

It started calmly enough with my first attempts at cleat knots (I didn't know any others). Then we sailed out into the lagoon - as long as we were sailing using the engine everything was fine, but after setting the sail it stopped being fun and started being dangerous (for me, that is).  

 

I didn't know how Wacław knew when the wind would change and the sail will start turning (or whatever it is called) to the other side but for me it was like fighting for life! I avoided being "killed" by the lower beam of the sail (I think it was the Boom, but I'm guessing) - after a while - he finally caught me and threw me into the water. The power in this damn thing!

It was this beam under the sail (right part of the photo) that tried to kill me

And that was the only time we tried to sail, Wacław has an unwritten rule not to raise the sail when I am on the yacht. 

 

There must be some secret knowledge with the nomenclature on a yacht, because look:

 

What can you see? Some balls connected with string and strings hanging alone. I wonder what shoelaces are these? He looked at me with a killer look and said - these are ties.  

Ties ??!!!

 

I didn't have the courage to ask what they were for 😐

On the way back to the pier (He would call something else in his own way) - before reaching my destination, he put me on a triangular board at the bow of the yacht and told me to hang on, and that's it! - photo below.

I’m sure it looked a bit like that well-known scene from the movie Titanic - I was standing there with my arms out wide, trying to maintain my balance, which I managed to do, thankfully. But then it all fell apart when approaching the pier - the yacht turned (?!) and unfortunately I stayed in my original position and ended up in the water. The Captain's only reaction was to ask - “Hey….why did you jump into the water?” - replace the dots with any epithet.

On another occasion once we had reached shore it was my role, as the student, to go to the store for some supplies. Nothing exciting. Upon returning however, it was revealed to me that people with dirty shoes were not allowed on board! Since we were at the pier, I sat down on a bench there, dipped my shoes in the water and started rinsing them. Unfortunately, I did not expect to be tricked by the bench, which it so happened, was not attached to the pier. So when I sat on the edge to rinse my shoes, it flipped and I fell into the water - the attacking bench falling on top of me. Everything was watched by none other than... Wacław, of course. Was there any compassion? - ZERO!!! . The only thing he took was a photo of me rinsing my clothes in the aftermath.

 

This is me after the "attack" of the bench.

It turned out that he wasn't the only one watching - there was a fisherman sitting on the pier next to me, who, after I ended up in the water after being attacked by the bench, threw his rod and started to pack up, cursing. My misfortune had a positive effect because I may have saved the lives of several fish 😎.

Finally, a horror story. All of this happened in October and the temperature dropped unexpectedly at night. Of course, we sleep with the door open - Wacław never closes it - he is tough :-) I had put everything I had brought with me into my sleeping bag and I was still cold, but when I looked to my side, there he was!!!! - Wacław lying  uncovered on his bunk (pay attention to the vocabulary :-). ) with a bare chest!! My first thought - he’s dead! No one can survive at this temperature! I will die of hunger or other torment out here alone because I have no idea how to swim in this!

 

But when I looked at him, I noticed that he was breathing, "no one can survive at such temperatures" except Wacław! I will live!

Well, yes - he has a lot of flaws 😉 but overall he is a decent person and friend.

Wacław himself

Thanks Wacław for being so patient 😁

Archival photos - Marek Czubaszek