Day race

make tea - tea spills out a bit - thick rubber mug blue colour

enough tea

tea steam fragrance sea fragrance spray vapour

rubber safety jacket puffy collar against the face - cold - tug on jacket straps

check racing notes in the little black book of waterproof pages

how many buoys

fourteen buoys

14C to port next buoy

tack in

pull excess sheeting in winch winch winch

the stiff sail surface is sonorous in sunshine

the wind now whistles wheezes shrieks

backstay rings turnbuckles ring the rigging rings

sea fragrance sea spray sea vapour

buoy ahead - approaching - gaining - barely visible then visible very clearly then towering over our heads

coming up close to the buoy - an immoderate lump of metal bobbling on waves - painted in vivid colours

not to reach out not to lean out hold out against the urge to touch it

seawater boils between the buoy and the hull

seawater sprays our shoes as the boat passes the buoy

time to make a turn again

let sheeting off the winch with a tug then loosely wind the other sheet on

check racing notes next buoy to starboard

let the sail out

aft wind fills it in with an explosive sound

calm peaceful silence descends on boats travelling downwind

sunshine reaches me warms me

there's a treat in the right pocket, squashed, gooey and welcome

unstick it from the pocket

detach it from the waterproof zipper

munch

it goes quickly

the temperate sunlight is now heating the waterproof suit up

looking forward to turning again

the buoy is here

cradle the winch crouch on the topside

reign the sheet in

soon ready to gybe pull the length of it by hand and winch it tighter later

watch the world - the horizon - the shore spin like a carousel as the boat makes a large dancing gybe

the mainsail is now flat and tight like a vertical cinema screen

then it goes through the wind line and swells filled in with air and increasingly gibbous

the boom follows tugged by the mainsail

the boom lowers its great mass is losing to gravity

the boom jolts to the side with a CLANG!

no one is hurt

the mainsail fills in like a slice of a balloon

release jib sheets to let it find the wind

winch winch winch come close to the wind and tighten

the rigging roars again

hundreds of metal parts clash and ring with the sound of dancing ornaments

the boat's nose splits the waves and sends up a spray

vapour and water come up higher than the deck - land on my face - land behind the tall yellow collar

it's a horizontal climb upwind and it feels like gliding over the surface

peel away from the view

check racing notes next boy to starboard twelve buoys ahead

now coming into a group of boats and circling the jury boat

ride away and forward twelve more times until sunset

the final buoy is a yellow one

first past the mark wins the race - this boat wins the race

unstinting orange sunlight

the wind is almost gone

rest on topsides and make way towards the marina

graze on a sandwich put the sails away while coming into the canal

ride with the motor now make tea again

moor the boat stash cups away and shower

the evening is now lapis blue and the marina lights are on

the wooden piers muffle all sounds

evening meal comes with racing results and gossip

-

this boat won the race and a special prize from the organisers, a blue box

we look surprised but grateful and take the box away to the table

we sit down and look inside:

it is twenty thousand pounds...