Saturday, July 23, 2016

Time on the Water

One of the messages from our coaches that really resonated with us last week was the need for time on the water. This boat is a trip to sail, just making it go forwards requires an incredible about of concentration, but we're looking to do more than just sail. We're looking to race. To that end we need to log those hours sailing now so that when we get to the race course we can think about racing while knowing that the boat is still going forward and turning as it should. This part of training, this logging of hours, this is the grind. Don't get us wrong, we love sailing, but somewhere around figure eight 45 of the day we don't love it with the excitement and bliss of our junior sailing days. We love it for the sweat dampening our wetsuits from the inside out, for the the holes we rip in our knees from falling again and again, for the minute of breathless silence in between sets that we spend doubled over and panting, boat head to wind. We love it for the 9:00 bed times we keep because we can't stay up any longer, and we love it for the aching shoulders we squeeze back into our trap harnesses the next morning, ready to get back to the grind. This isn't the glamorous part of skiff sailing. It's the part that they would make into a montage if they ever made a realistic movie about sailing. But in the boat we don't get the montage. We live every hoist and rounding in real time and sometimes have to remind ourselves that we love it. We do.

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