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Capsized!

© Anne Schwab

Picture this: the wind is howling, the whitecaps are enormous, people are screaming and shouting to make themselves heard over the crashing waves and the clanging halyards, and there's a regatta going on.

It was a C boat regatta, a scow that normally carries two people, a skipper and a crew, but in winds like this, many choose to carry a third. I was that lucky third on one of the boats that day.

"Here, take this, you'll be cold," the wife of the skipper handed me her raingear, boots and all.

"Oh no," I scoffed, "I like to sail barefoot, and besides, won't that stuff weigh me down?"

"You'll need those boots to keep your grip and get out there to hike," the skipper soberly informed me.

The crew just looked at me and grinned.

The crew was my husband.

Now, the skipper and his wife had been sailing for many, many years, and I too had been sailing for a long time, but my husband was relatively new at this.

He hadn't sailed in too many high wind days, and he looked excited to get out there and fly across the water,

I only hoped he knew what to do if we tipped.

"Let's go!"

And we were off.

We got out to the starting line with no difficulties, even got across in a good position, and led the pack up the course.

I was hiking as hard as my legs possibly could and thinking to myself, hey, these boots aren't so bad. Maybe I should ease my ban on footwear on board boats, when a huge puff hit us.

"Let it out, let it out!" The skipper was yelling at my sweetheart, but he hadn't a clue which rope to let out.

"The mainsheet," I shouted at him, but my words got sucked away as a huge wave crashed across the deck and landed full force in my mouth.

The boat tipped up, and up, and up, and I hiked with all my might, trying to bring it back down.

Meanwhile, the main sail had been released, but it was too late.

The scow started its slow roll up into the air, and I dove for the side, trying to clamber up and over to stay dry. But those clothes were too heavy.

Crash! Down I went like a dead weight, full force into the sail.

All I could think about was, I'm going to turtle this thing if I don't get my luggish body up and out of this sail.

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