Or, "What? This is a GREAT day to sail!"
Ever since I first started sailing, I had set myself a goal to sail every day for a week. I had no particular reason to set that goal except that I thought it would be fun and a bit of a feather in my cap.
It actually took several years to pull it off, even after I moved onto this boat. You'd think seven days of good weather would be easy to find in Florida, but we'd have two good days, and then the winds would pick up, or die down, or we'd have a low tide that would make it tricky to get the boat out of the marina. All sorts of things.
Then I joined a MeetUp group. This group connected people who had boats with people who wanted to sail. So I picked the best weather window I could spot, and started inviting people to sail. That was what did it, because I had made commitments to people who would be very disappointed if the sail were cancelled.
I did not sail seven, but eight days in a row, sailing with different people every day.
I learned something remarkable. I had, without realizing it, picked rather narrow parameters regarding when I wanted to sail. If the waves were too high from a previous storm, I wouldn't take the boat out. If the winds were over 15 mph I thought twice as my roller "furler" can't partially furl. I could always find reasons to not sail that day. But with these commitments, we went out anyway. We went out in 4' waves. We went out when the winds were up to 20 mph. We went out when the winds were 5 - 7 mph.
I learned more about sailing that week than I had in the previous year, because I had challenged myself to accept slightly more challenging conditions. My boat isn't going to sink in 4' waves, but she handles differently. That's no surprise ... but I hadn't actually *done* it.
I took a bit of ribbing at the end of the eight days, because on the eighth day I got myself in a bit of a mess and ended up with a bent rudder shaft. I can't count the ninth day as sailing, because we were towed back -- with no steering, in rough water. It was hard on us and even harder on the poor guy piloting the towboat as we jerked from port to starboard to port behind his boat in rough water.
But in thinking about it, I realized that a lot of people who belong to my club are sailing a lot if they take their boats out four times a year. I bet a lot of them are doing what I was doing -- skipping a sail unless things were perfect.
Set yourself a goal like that -- maybe more modest, since most people have to balance their sailing with work and family commitments. Aim for three days (barring severe storms -- don't go sailing out into dangerous weather just because you said you would!) -- Leave on Friday, anchor or stay at a different marina, sail again on Saturday, and return home Sunday.
It's a lot of work, to have a boat ready to go out several days in a row, but the rewards are worth it. If you can't set a string of days, think about what your preferred parameters are, and change them a little. I was astounded the day I put a smaller headsail on my little Irwin, reefed the main, and took her out in 20 mph. She sailed like a little cream puff. Set to handle the winds, it was just no big deal.
Stretch yourself. Don't let yourself get set in a rut. You'll learn things.
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