Ready! Set! Swim!

     It was 84º on our porch yesterday.  A brisk breeze blew and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.  It couldn’t have been more perfect for all of us here in Oysterville!
      The kids and dogs swam.  The stalwart sailors raced in the annual regatta.  We kibitzers and old folks carried our chairs, refreshments, and binoculars down to water’s edge and enjoyed an afternoon as close to perfection as you can get this side of heaven!
     One thing we ‘Oystervillains’ know is that you can’t count on the weather.  Yet year after year, Chris and now his cousin Tucker, have confidently chosen (months in advance) a Saturday in August to hold the Oysterville Regatta.  Their guide, of course, is the tide table, for sailing in our very shallow bay is best done on an incoming tide and when it is high enough to get the boats into the water.  But, even weather-wise, they have always lucked out and this year was no exception.
    The boats are 14-foot laser class sailboats.  Yesterday there were eleven in the race, their skippers (three women, eight men) ranging in age from twenties to sixties and all with a variety of experience.  None live full-time in Oysterville so their opportunities for practice runs had been slim-to-none.  And as one of the sailors told me during the celebratory dinner last night, sailing on Willapa Bay is “a bit different” than sailing on the Willamette River – or probably anyplace else.
     Yesterday’s regatta was more exciting than some years – several collisions and numbers of ‘dunkings.’  No one said so, but I think the wind was trickier than usual.  One thing about our bay, though – righting a capsized boat is fairly easy.  You can usually stand on the bay bottom to right your craft and be, at most, chest deep.  Most of the sailors who capsized were up and in the running again almost immediately.
     Everyone finished the three heats except for one unfortunate skipper whose ‘boom fastener’ (my technical term!) was damaged during a collision and eventually gave way just when she was on the homeward stretch.  But, like every other participant, she was glowing with pleasure as she recounted the race.  “It was SO much fun out there!” she said.  And that was our sentiment exactly, though from the landlubber’s perspective.  Definitely a perfect bay day here in Oysterville.