Lessons from Childhood Rollerskating

These are the lessons I learned while rollerskating as a child:

1) You will fall down, and it will hurt.
2) You will fall, specifically, on your butt.
3) If you strap a pillow to your backside, it will not hurt as much when you fall down on your butt.
4) If you don't strap a pillow to your backside, you will be sorry.
5) When you don't fall down, you'll have fun.

I find that these lessons apply equally well to sailing. I cannot count the number of times I've sat down a little quicker than expected and/or missed the seat altogether. Before I got my sealegs, I had accumulated such a mass of bruises on my thighs, it looked like a topo map of a complex island archipelago.

But, more painful and aggravating than all of these other bruises combined is a bruised tailbone. Glenn and I have both smacked our tailbones so hard they have been bruised for weeks. I suspect Glenn injured his while sitting rather quickly and unexpectedly on a winch. I bruised mine again recently when a wave leaned the boat over faster than usual, and the companionway ladder was suddenly closer than I had expected it to be as I had been preparing to brace myself against it for just such an occasion... too late.

A bruised tailbone can be so painful, it'll make you suck in breath every time you sit gingerly on a cushioned chair. Imagine, then, how often this injury is aggravated while sailing. It is surprising really how much of our time is spent sitting. And, unfortunately, most seats are not well-cushioned and we don't generally get to sit gingerly on them.

These are the times when I think back to my childhood rollerskating days, and I long to have a pillow strapped to my backside.

We are currently sailing a pleasant but bouncy course as close to due north as we can manage. Our position as of 5:30 HST is 13deg 46.3' N; 144deg 06.0' W. Our weather router has applauded our great efforts to make the 145deg W goal at 10deg N because gaining more east initially will be an advantage to us later when the winds clock around more from the north. Then, we will be losing all of that east we have gained, but it will be a much easier sail. Let's hope so.