Knockdown

I got a sharp reminder that you never know what is round the next corner, or, in my case, is sitting in that car with tinted windows that you are about to cycle past. A simple bike ride up to the Hundred Steps Hill with my daughter Jess turned pear shaped in a flash when a guy opened his car door just as we were riding past. I caught my handle bar on the edge  and went down heavily, Jess ran into me and came down too. I was mostly furious with the guy in the car. I was too shocked and too busy wondering how bad it was to get his details. Lucky escape for him.

We limped off home and Jess patched up the large gouge out of my left arm.  I don't think any bones broken. My left shoulder is mighty sore. Apparently shoulder injuries are most common in car dooring incidents. I hope it won't affect my mast raising, that would be seriously unwelcome outcome. My left arm, shoulder, right elbow and right hip are all sore, and from experience will be worse tomorrow.

In a way we were lucky, as it could have been way worse. But in this anxious fretful time when there is a pervasive feeling that something bad could happen any moment, there is proof, see, something bad did happen!

So probably no sailing for me for a while. I had a long day yesterday, in the morning with some Sabre sailors and Andrew in his laser. We came in, and most people had had enough, but Sandra wanted to try to sail over closer to the cruise liner anchored off Williamstown. We set off, but the wind just about died, so we headed back after an hour or so. Near AYC there a group from the club were just about to start an informal race. They had a start boat and a course laid out, so we joined in. This prved to be a fairly demoralising experience, as I just can't get sufficient  boat speed to be competitive. I came last in all 3 races. By the top mark, no matter how good my start, I was at least 20 seconds behind, tho I could hold or maybe slightly reduce that on the rest of the course. This was my view for much of the afternoon ... the few other boats racing vanishing off into the distance...

It makes me wonder what to do in future. I think my sailing is not so bad, I  now know how to get the boat going to its optimum. It is depressing not to be able to match boat speed. Do I invest in some go faster things like new foils and a new sail? Do I get a new boat? Or do I accept that I am not a particularly competitive sailor and switch over to cruising? Serious decision point coming up.

There was a distinctly bad vibe down at the club yesterday.  I doubt I will  be back for future Saturdays informal racing.