Sailing is one of the best activities for taking away the pressures of life , the wind the sun, water, and being out on your boat.
So without going to far into my private life I have found sailing as a means to control stress.
While out on the water yesterday in Port Stephens I notice the racing fleet zooming around their course , I say zooming as there was a strong wind and even being reefed down all where leaning gunnel down, myself included.
All was going ok until they came over the horizon at rapid speed.
What to do I thought my anxiety cutting in big time, very strong winds and me sailing solo.
So I stay on my tack longer than I should putting me in close to the rocks on a Lee shore to let them go past then a lucky tack through the waves and I am now on a starboard tack pulling away from the shore.
Before I knew it I see a few more yachts coming up they could easily see me and I needed to make ground , I look under the boom and can see they have all cleared me so started to feel relieved, (I suffer anxiety) I hear a yell and look up and one of the yachts that past has a bloke yelling out to me, I manage to hear him say are you in the race?,
I said no then he goes off his head yelling FU@# OFF OUT OF THE BAY.
Now I know racing can be competitive but natural obstacles moorings , land , navigation marks, and other boats out on the water , I would feel are part of the course, also being a closed water way I would have thought it was a privilege not a right to be able en masse to use the water way.
Of course this set of my anxiety , the very thing I was out sailing to alleviate, seems it has become the norm in racing circles that they are above the rest of us out on the water.
Just to make it clear I try hard to do the right thing by the racing fraternity but when there is so many yachts in a small area using the same wind it becomes quite daunting.
Not only that each yacht is a representative of its club .
So let's hope that that was just one bad egg in the beautiful water ways of Port Stephens.