I’ve been thinking about humility this week.

I’ve been thinking about humility this week.
I have been going through a very painful evaluation of my Business these last few months. I’m not as successful as I thought I was. It turns out that my loyal clientele, is not so loyal. Humility 101.

This weekend, Lauralee and I decided we would keep the boat at the dock a few more weeks. We would rather be at a mooring, because we prefer to sail on and off our mooring. But the evening Launch service won’t start till May; and I need access to the boat after work. So we will have to use the engine to get in our slip.

Now I’ve been getting pretty good at entering our slip. I did it all winter by myself. So of course, on this Saturday, a beautifully, warm, sunny day… The peanut gallery was out in full force. And I had great difficulty getting in my slip. I think it was because I didn’t want to mar my newly waxed hull. The bottom line is I slipped trying to fend off. Got one leg soaking wet, and had ten people shouting instructions at me from the dock. Humility 102.

Last night I sailed CIB on an Easterly. The wind was blowing side off 20 to 30, and the waves where pealing west to east. Deciding what to rig was just a guess. I rigged a 4.7 and the JP109. It looked really windy out there, but I was concerned about the long slog through the breakers to the wind line. I actually made it out OK. I was pretty proud of my self . There was the opportunity for massive air on the way out. One attempt was all I needed. I got so high I bailed and spent the next 10 minutes swimming after my gear. Once I settled in, the wave riding was “epic”. What a feeling! I was charging down 10 foot wave faces, getting 4 or 5 bottom turns and cutbacks out of a wave. I imagined what it must have looked like to the people watching from shore.

After 2 hours I was exhausted, so I sailed for home. As soon as I hit the wind line I went down. Instead of slogging for home, I was getting sucked out under the impact zone. Eventually I swam my gear in, only to get put through the rinse cycle in the shore break. More like stone washed. I got sand and pebbles in places… But I made it in; and tomorrow I will have to look over my gear very carefully to see how much damage I inflicted. As I took one last look out at the water I realized that you couldn’t see far enough through the rain to the overhead swell we had just reviled in. In fact from the beach it looked kinda’ small. In fact if anyone had actually tried to watch us, all they would have seen was a few guys bobbing around. Hardly epic. Humility 103: advanced placement…I know better.

Lesson learned…I didn’t go out last night for anyone else: I went out for me.