High Altitude to Water Level

I’ve been distracted from sailing for the last few months. I made plans last November to backpack and climb a particularly challenging route to the top of California’s Mt Whitney. At 14,400 plus feet, My Whitney is the highest in the continental US.

I found that the conditioning needed for climbing and the conditioning needed for sailing were at bit at odds if you have limited time to prep as I did. The abs didn’t improve much this spring and my head was on equipment and meals at altitude rather than reviewing rules and visualizing starts.

This was the third try at summiting on this steep route and we succeeded, but the mountain chased us down. A rather harrowing experience with a multi-ton boulder, which fell 300 feet while we cowered behind a small ledge, missed our heads by two feet, landed four feet away, smashing and melting our safety rope, and then bounced over 4,000 feet into the valley below, convinced me that I’d rather be sailing.

This weekend’s Laser and Sunfish regatta at Massapoag Yacht Club was a great way to reacclimate to level competition. I was reminded once again of how difficult it is to sail well when my head begins to drift. After a break for some snacks, I found myself peaking at my watch between races and wondering when the day would be over.

The wind was squirrely, but the race committee did a fine job and the competition was certainly there – I finished 7^th out of 13 boats. My head just was not dealing with the combination of persistent effort, complex decision making and lack of practice.

The wind shifts were all over the place and occasionally tacked us automatically. What was a pleasure to watch was the way the top people kept surfacing even as any rational observer would have said that it had become a test of luck not skill. My second place in one race may have been due to a shift, but so was my ninth in another. Yet the people that suffered with me in the bad shift, still finished in good shape. Skill and practice will win out in the end.