laughing not crying sailing!

This weekend I had some friends up to stay and normally we take the opportunity to get out on the hills for one last walk before winter clothing is required but this year it was suggested that we should take advantage of the latest addition to the Eriska fleet and spend the day on the water. I checked the tides and weather forecast and even inspected the racing schedule for Oban Sailing Club just in case we decided to be competitive! So on saturday morning we set off in near ideal conditions and headed for Mulll.

We made excellent time and therefore decided to detour into Oban Bay and see if the proposed race- a simple description of- round The Gregg Isles- was happening and then with the possibility of joining in. As we arrived off the clubhouse for the 2.00pm start there was little activity so we headed up the sound of Kerrera but by the time we returned there was a bit more action so we decided to tag along an try and stay out of trouble but thought this would give us a good benchmark for our ability, without being a member of the club nor officially entering the race- What could possibly go wrong.

Clearly it would not take a genius to realize this was a mistaken impression but it soon became obvious that our enthusiasm clouded our ability to see the logic. the first snag was that we were not sure of te start line, the second and more pressing concern was our lack of understanding as to te direction of the race- but being men we chose not to ask anyone and simply pressed on- We all agreed tat it would become clear- it did as we set off in the wrong direction as mistake we all agreed was wise as it allowed us to follow the fleet rather than lead it in the wrong direction so we set off and slowly caught them up- not through skill but through luck and good fortune. We set off up oban bay, round a mark and then out of the bay. When the sailing description said "Round the Gregg Isles we thought that was self explanatory but clearly there as several different routes to this outcome and had we ever manged to lead we would have taken the  completely wrong route so our false start and continual hesitation allowed us to follow those in the know.

That was until due to a a slight diversion, where we picked up a fresher breeze than everybody else and found ourselves coming to the front of the fleet, so there then ensued a discussion on the etiquette of asking other boats directions in a race and the decision that we could do so if we first appeared humble and secondly choose a boat with someone we knew on board- maybe not the one that commented on our start line antics with words like "interesting" and "brave". So just as we reached the point of question our humiliation was saved as regrettably we had a technical issue- in that our Rudder fell off- and we had to retire.

 The main consolation after retiring was had in the fact that we were saved the embarrassment of asking directions then retiring or the comfort that we - probably falsely, believed that had we been able to continue success would have been ours and we would of then had to register our participation. Anyway a great day was had, plenty of fresh air and only ego's damaged- along with one rudderless boat!