Jackie Gay

Ok, a quick update.
Allan and I didn’t make it to the Beijing Games, we missed selection in our class by one place. However we are still sailing together and will be competing in the Sail for Gold regatta in Weymouth this September and also the IFDS World Championships in Greece in October. After that, there will be forks in the road to choose…

In the meantime I have been getting back to basics and sailing as much as possible. 10,000 hours, so they say, to get really good at anything. So there’s a long way to go. But I have done a lot of sailing over the last year and have plans to do a lot more. I’ve been spending time in Victoria, BC and am still stunned by the environment, the light, the ocean – resulting in a small obsession with ‘half and half’ photographs (half sky half water – this started in the Baltic, actually, whilst sailing in the archipelagos of Stockholm and Oland).

This is out in the Strait of Juan de Fuca fishing.

You drop your head (to a book, a notebook) and then look up and it’s changed

See the Olympic mountains in the background and even the fishing line visible against the water. However we never catch anything while I’m out there – I don’t think the Buddha wants me too!

And again from a sailing boat – ringed by crystal mountains, the telltale fluttering from the shrouds.

Sometimes it’s so quiet out there you can hear nothing but the hiss of the water on the hull, and ropes running through the rigging as you gently tweak. And the sails are reflected on the water.

Testing testing testing…
I am back
It’s been a long hard eventful year (and a bit) since I last wrote but I am resurrecting this blog!
However have already run into a problem loading up a photo so it might take a bit longer than anticipated.
Jxx

These are test photos of my foray in to able-bodied dinghy sailing at Bartley reservoir just on the edge of Brum. I love the RS400! Fun, fast and physical and the guys up there have been brilliant to me. I also love Bartley because it so Brummie – a half-demolished tower block in one direction and the snow-covered Beeches in the other. If you look closely at the first photo you can see my one leg in the crewing position!

After a great first race, things have got tough again out here in Skud world. We have been sailing well with good boat speed and starts, but the racing is close and we always seem to be on the wrong side of a very tight pack. The winds have been light, shifty and patchy, with long postponements on two days.

Limp flags and very quiet waters beyond…

And yesterday we had what our coach calls a ‘racing day’ when one mistake in each race cost us 4 or 5 places. In the first race we tacked too close to another boat coming into the windward mark and had to do a 360 degree penalty; then in the second race we gybed out of the last whisper of a dying breeze after being first to the windward mark. Frustrating!

We are one point above our rivals in the trials which of course is too close for comfort. But there should be more breeze today and we are keeping our heads up.

Today will be our day!

And here is a great picture of us training in a nice breeze before the regatta started.