Distracted by Jellyfish

 So..... I went sailing again..... Finally. After months. I don't know if I kept making up excuses or coach really was busy with races on the west coast. Either ways, I'm glad I'm sailing again.

I have my own sailboat now so that means I'm not going to wait around for available hulls when all of the sailors return for a full day of training. Also, I have a brand new sail. Didn't realise it didn't come with battens so I had to borrow. Erm, I borrowed the rudder and dagger board too coz..... I wasn't sure which ones were supposed to be mine.

The 2 sailors who helped me set up (Nik and Daniel) got rigging and I think the ones left on my boat wasn't complete. Nik switched out the traveler block coz said the ones I had on wasn't functioning. I didn't have the dagger board tied up to the bow coz there weren't any bungee ropes left. The kids did what they could which was more than helpful. Coach Tengku is in charge of the inventory so he would have known which ones were which but he was already out at sea on the coach boat monitoring the Optimist sailors.

I didn't realise that they had a race going on that day. What's even funnier was that I tagged along coz they didn't have all the ILCA sailors back from Langkawi yet. As usual, I didn't make the marks. I was trying to get used to sailing in the ocean and I was trying to get used to the boat. I also just realised that I didn't have any telltales on so I had to learn to sail without them. Coach Salahuddin was helpful with prompting me what to do.

I wish I wasn't too distracted by the jellyfish in the water. There were so many. I kept telling myself I didn't want to fall into the water and get stung. Yeah, I was distracted. It also didn't help that I got the main sheet stuck in between the rudder and the hull.  I'm a moving catastrophe. I'm always terrified of running into the other boats who were racing or training.

Coach says I should race. The other coaches talked me into it too. I did try. I didn't make the marks and I think I got disqualified 😅

I need to sail more often......

So far, I've clocked more or less between 6-7hours of sailing lessons.......

 I'm too big for the Optimist so I have to sail the Laser. I was told we were sailing the Laser 430 but the main sail had a 470 printed on it. Either ways, I was happy.

I have no basic sailing experience whatsoever so I was absorbing new information as much as I could and as quickly as possible. Imagine learning to drive a car but you have absolutely no idea what or how it works. Whatever the hell I read helped but only by about 5%.......maybe less.....

I am still trying to remember the ropes and the safety checks. So far, I can set up the jib sail although I am not fully confident that I did it correctly. I still need help setting up the main sail because there's a lot that goes into it from the boom to the gooseneck and the halyard and eventually feeding the rope through the main control.

I realised that I tend to panic and over think. The boom accidentally hit my jaw on the first day of school. The wind picks up every now and then. It also changes directions so quickly that sometimes the mast tilts too much that I begin to panic. 

My worst point is controlling the Tiller Extension. Everytime I tack the boat, I could never hit the 90 degrees mark. I was doing so bad that I did a 360 degree turn. That's a big fail. I think I am a good crew though. I find leaning and pulling the the mast while the wind is strong makes me happy.

I have a class tomorrow afternoon. I hope I'll do better. I hope the wind will be forgiving. I hope I won't capsize or fall overboard 😬