It’s the Journey Not the Destination
Brian McGinnis and I traveled up to barrington, RI this past weekend… we have been traveling to different regatta local and across the country for a few years now… We have seen our sailing get better and better as we experience new venues, varying conditions, different competitors and unforseen situations associated with traveling… One regatta Brian’s luggage got lost and he had to borrow another sailors clothes, another time we had a regatta in Delawarre and got bad directions… we only found out when the road signs started to say Maryland… but we always end up sailing and having a good time…
This past weekend, Brian was winning the last two races at one point or another, which was a great accomplishent considering every sailor in the top 20 was at least a fleet champion or regional champion. But he got ground down both times. The last race of the first day, I was actually winning the race when the top five boats sailed into a huge hole a drifted away from the leward mark… after I TACKED back to round the mark I saw the whole 36 boat fleet round ahead of me… after a few choice words i finished the race picking back to about 12th… but i was pissed to say the least… After the race many sailors and some of the race committee said they felt bad of what happened, it was actually nice to hear… so even though I fell back a lot my fellow Sunfish sailors and the Barrington RC made that tough journey much more bearable…
Both Brian and I didnt meet our personal goals, but we did not dwell on our final standings, but focused onthe fun we had at Barrington and how we actually felt we sailed pretty well…
So if you race you should try to go to as many regattas as possible… satrt out locally and work your way further, the experiences are priceless…