Of Red Flags and Rescues

I had my first sailing "incident" today.

The story really starts with yesterday, though. I had made plans with my friend Emily to sail together, but when we arrived at the dock, the wind was dead. Truly dead. Emily and I watched boats bob up and down peacefully, no more than 30 feet from the dock, as they tried to catch enough wind to launch into the river. After ten minutes of this, we decided that sailing without wind didn't look very fun. We'd rather take out kayaks instead and entrust our entertainment to paddle power.

After 45 minutes of exploring the lagoons and river, a dockstaff motorboat came zooming out to us.

"Just letting you know, a thunderstorm's on the way!" the chipper staff member told us.

Earlier, we had been warned that CBI was operating at half-river in order to keep boats closer as a precaution against the approaching storm. But now the staff were moving the imaginary boundary to a quarter of the river basin. No worries, though! The sky was still brilliant blue without a gray cloud in sight. Emily and I didn't mind the shorter boundaries since we were in a kayak, so we continued paddling happily across the river.

Ten minutes later, the motorboat was back, and all boats were being called into shore. The storm must have been approaching rapidly because the staff didn't wait for boats to sail their way into shore: they towed them. The CBI motorboats drove to the sailboats farthest out, tied one to each side, and towed two at a time back to the dock. By the time Emily and I docked, all but maybe seven boats were in. By the time we had put away our lifejackets and signed ourselves back in at the dockhouse, all boats were in, and the dockstaff were encouraging people to forget about de-rigging and just head inside. The whole thing was amazingly efficient, like a very well-oiled machine! Every single boat was docked even before the raindrops began to fall.

And fall they did. It started raining before Emily and I made it back to the T, but the torrential downpour held off for half an hour until I was home. Needless to say, though, I didn't get in the fun sailing practice I was hoping for.

So I went back by myself today. When I arrived, the CBI dock was flying a green flag, which signals light winds appropriate for beginning sailors. Within ten minutes of arriving, I was pushing off the dock in my own Cape Cod Mercury... and like the boats yesterday, I bobbed up and down trying to launch. I trimmed my sail to no effect. I tried shifting direction in hopes that the wind would catch. I tried flipping my rudder back and forth to "paddle" away. Finally I made it beyond the small barrier island that blocks the wind from the docks, and I was off! ... just not very fast.

I sailed happily if somewhat boringly for almost an hour. The river was crowded with boats, and I found that it was definitely harder to sail by myself than with someone else to be a second brain and set of eyes. After a while, though, the wind started picking up and sailing became more stressful. I was expending more of my energy watching what other boats were doing and trying to yield (I'm still not the quickest at figuring out how to turn my boat, since in sailboats all the maneuvers change with the direction of the wind) than actually enjoying sailing. I glanced back at the dockhouse and saw that the flag had been upgraded to yellow--meaning that winds were stronger, the water was rougher, and beginner sailors couldn't go out alone. At that point, I felt a moment of relief. My nervousness wasn't unfounded. I decided to slowly make my way back into shore. The strong wind and crowded river were making sailing less fun, and I'd already been out an hour anyway.

Easier said than done, though. I was approaching one of two barrier islands that separate the dock from the river when another boat approached me at the point where I wanted to jibe and turn. She had the right-of-way, so I decided to maintain my course a minute longer, let her pass, and then turn to continue towards shore. I was confident that I had enough space between my boat and the island. Alas! I hadn't accounted for the ever-increasing strength of the wind. Sometime since I had last checked the flag on the dock, it had been upgraded to RED. Red, meaning I would never have been allowed to leave the dock except as crew on someone else's boat. Red, meaning that the Charles River had real waves. I might have been right that I had enough room to jibe (we'll never know), but the super-strength wind just kept blowing my boat in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go! After an excruciatingly long five milliseconds, I realized that me ending up on the rocky shore of the island was inevitable.

At that point, I was trembling and in way over my head. (But not literally. Several other new sailors who were out during the rapid switch from green flag to red did end up in over their heads. I saw three capsizes this afternoon.) It was almost a relief to be stuck on the island, since now a motorboat would come rescue me and tow me back to the dock. I remembered what they taught us in class, and I pulled off my rudder, lifted the centerboard, and lowered my sail to half-mast.

That should've been the end of the excitement. I should've just sat there for a minute or two until a staff member appeared in a motorboat to take me in. But the wind was having none of that! A minute or two after raising my rudder and centerboard, the wind blew me off the island--backwards, into shore. But this was not a good thing! I was at the wrong end of the island to be approaching the dock; I was at the end where all of the larger boats are moored, and the wind was blowing me quite quickly towards them. And let's not forget, my boat at this point had no rudder and no sail, so I had no way to control it. I started to freak out. No one ever mentioned what to do in this situation in class! I knew I wouldn't have time to put my rudder back on before I crashed into something, so I moved to the front of the boat and waved frantically at an approaching motorboat.

The boat reached me before I crashed, and although I don't remember what the dockstaff member said, I think at first he thought I was just confused and trying to dock the wrong way. I babbled something about being stuck on the island and blowing off while shakily pointing to my rudder in the bottom of the boat. I really don't remember the conversation at all, but in another couple minutes, he was towing me to the safety of the dock.

After de-rigging my boat and returning my breathing to normal, I sat on a bench by the water to unwind. For almost an hour, I watched more experienced sailors sail the Charles. I didn't see any more capsizes, but I did see two unfortunate souls get blown underneath the Longfellow Bridge. The dockstaff were definitely very busy today between picking up capsized vessels and towing those of us who couldn't deal with the wind. I may not have had the relaxing sail I wanted this weekend, but I feel a little bit like I'm now fully inducted into CBI membership--you're not a real sailor until you've had to be rescued. As they told us in class, you're not improving unless you are a little bit uncomfortable.

Anyway, this inspired a new goal for myself: I want to be a good enough sailor that I'm confident and comfortable sailing on yellow flag days. If I can sail comfortably through a yellow flag, I will probably be more risk-taking on green flag days, making those days more fun. And I will panic less - and maybe even be able to return to dock under my own power - on red flag days. So here's to learning! And for all the rescues I may need in the future, thank you, CBI dockstaff.