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Last week my friend Sally did a ring round to see who wanted to go dinghy sailing in the Elements’ Topaz boats, I’ve got a Topaz which lives up north at my father’s and it’s easier just to rent one of the Elements boats and sail with a group of people, than it is to bring my boat down. So I jumped at the chance and we launched at Narrowneck Beach on Saturday morning.
My goal was to practice tacking and sailing upwind in a good hiking breeze and I did some of that but the wind and wave direction was just right to have an absolute blast reaching out to sea and back to shore, sitting perched up on some pretty little waves with spray flying everywhere for what seemed like forever.
We’d been out for about 45 minutes and I was just starting to get tired when the coach boat stopped right in front of me to take a photo. My helm was quite loaded and I was watching him, tugging on the rudder and willing the boat to bear away so I didn’t notice immediately that a killer whale was coming out of the water about 40 feet in front of me. I gybed over and spotted another one over my shoulder. There I’d sailed right in the middle of the pod, watching their fins and snouts emerge from the water every now and again, and wondering if one was going to come up under me!
It was a great day out and I’ve conquered my fear of dinghy sailing in a breeze (but not my fear of getting eaten by an orca!)
Zoe
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