Capsize

Capsize

-June 2007 I don't know the full date. San Francisco Yacht Club camp. Capsize training.

I was at the San Francisco Yacht Club sailing with Harrison, my friend. We were at the dock and we jumped onto a small optimise boat and those are pretty light so you don't want a big gust of wind to come. After sailing around in the harbor for a while doing all of the boring stuff, such as how to make sharp turns, and how to make the boom turn to go in a different direction. We decided to have some fun.

We were going to have fun but then we had to go to the capsize training. Capsize training is were we flip our boats, fall off, flip the boat back over and last grab onto a rope and get on the boat. As we were coasting back to the dock I could see the younger kids going before us, it looked like a lot of fun.

Everyone said that it was very fun but that still didn't change my opinion. We were walking along the wood panels to where the training was. Harrison and both thought that the councilors were very annoying, so I didn't listen much to the councilors. Harrison and I both got on the same boat, and sailed off through the water. We stopped where all the other boats were and grabbed the mass. The metal felt weird on my shriveled up hands. I leaned back one way and he leaned back the other way. My hands almost slipped, and if they did, I would have fallen backwards off the boat. After that fail we both leaned the same way which, I guess was the right way because we hit the water pretty fast. When we were falling I saw the whole thing in slow motion. I could see the sail come down about to cover me like a blanket on a rat. I could see the boom about to come down hard on my head. By the way the boom is a metal pole that holds up the sail. When I hit the water it was like braking through a thin layer of ice. I plunged far down into the water. As I rose I noticed something slippery, big and thin like a tablecloth. I realized that I was under the sail. I couldn't get up. I swam vigorously to the left. I felt as if I wouldn't have enough air to come to the surface alive. Fortunately, I did make it because if I didn't I wouldn't be writing this today. I hit the surface just in time, and gasped for air.

I realized obviously that Harrison was up before me, but only by a couple of seconds, because it turns out that he hit the boat and It was also had a hard time getting up for him. We grabbed onto the boat and tried to flip it. It took us a couple of tries we but eventually we got it. When the bottom of the boat hit the water the boat caused a small splash. Harrison grabbed onto the boat to get up. He looked off to the side and said "SHARK."

I didn't believe him, but sure enough, I did see a shadowy figure swimming off to the side. I was so scared that I forgot about getting back on the small boat. After a few seconds I saw that the color was yellow. I looked up and saw that Harrison was climbing onto the boat. I tried to but my life vest was to bulky. "Harrison, help me up" I said. He grabbed my slippery hands and I did the kicking motion through the water. I got up to the boat and said tiredly, "thanks". I looked back and I did not see the shark. We sailed off and then I thought to myself What if I didn't make it out of the water ? I probably would have been unharmed but it was still one of the scariest moments of my life... so far. It was a great experience but I was lucky that I wasn't on a big boat because if I was I would not have been able to get back onto the boat.

One last thing, after that I found out it was just a sand shark.