last year<\/a>. Maybe I\u2019ll go back to yoga or I\u2019ll make it to my aerobics class more often. I enjoy all of these activities but none of them are sailing.<\/p>\nOne of the things I\u2019ll miss most this winter is my team. Teamwork brings to mind all kinds of cheesy clich\u00e9\u2019s, but there\u2019s something so beautiful about a good team. When I raced in my twenties there was so much ego involved, so much self-definition. As a young woman people often assumed I didn\u2019t know what I was doing, and I spent precious time and energy proving them wrong. Now, partly because I\u2019ve been sailing with Doug on and off for twelve (twelve!) years, the definition and egos are gone (mostly), even when we add a third crewmember. There\u2019s just the beauty of synchronization.<\/p>\n
Our teamwork involves more than physical coordination, the logistics of who hoists the kite and when, or who will stay down on a roll tack in light air but also how the larger decisions are made: whether the shift is persistent or oscillating, where the next puff will appear, and where we want to place our boat on the course. We have intense conversations, debates, heated at times. We draw pictures with tiny pencils on the fiberglass seats to make a point. We go to restaurants and use cups, salt shakers and straws to illustrate the boat and the course and the wind direction in an effort to reach a consensus. On such occasions, some<\/em> of us occasionally regret having a glass of sake, wishing we could focus better and keep our debating skills sharp. We do all this without having an individual member of the team, even the tipsy ones, lessened, weakened or belittled by the exercise.<\/p>\nWe took first place in eight races in a row this summer. We started the season strong, sailing well but not placing well. Then it was like we couldn\u2019t not win. Every move one of us made seemed to complement the others. Of course, eventually, the magic ended but for those races in late-July we were in a state of near perfection \u2013 blue sky, white sails, and Mt Baker glowing pink in the evening sun.<\/p>\n
For now, I\u2019ll put my bag of sailing gear in the garage and maybe I\u2019ll buy a new pair of yoga pants. I won\u2019t think about sailing too much until some gray February day when I\u2019ll be on the freeway, driving over Portage Bay. I\u2019ll remember those cold winter afternoons of college sailing where we raced right up to the decks of the houseboats and waved at the people sitting on their couches, sipping their hot beverages. I\u2019ll think about the slide of the boat into a roll tack — when every person has their motion that must be perfectly synchronized with the others and adjusted to suit the conditions. I\u2019ll crave that movement like a runner\u2019s high or a hiker\u2019s summit. I\u2019ll go home and watch this video and think about my team and count the days until daylight savings time.<\/p>\n
<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\nPS \u2013 The video starts pre-race and continues up the first leg almost to the first mark.<\/p>\n
AND – In case you (or your spouse, mother, brother, friend) hasn’t voted already, the contest ends on Sunday. Last time I checked I was 1% out of first place. Thank you, thank you!<\/p>\n
Sailing season is over. It happens every fall, and not because of the change in weather but because of the dwindling daylight. We\u2019ve got to have time to get through traffic (even if we cut out of work early, and we do cut out early), get the boat rigged, and finish a few races before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sailing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":868,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions\/868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}