In Irons

Early November found us finally getting some time over a long weekend to get acquainted with sailing together on our recently purchased sailboat.  We had searched for a long time to find the boat that would be either a “forever” boat or a “starter” boat.  One that we might be happy with for a very long time, or would give us the experience of sailing together as a team and deciding if we wanted to go bigger or smaller or even change to motorboat vs. sailboat.

The boat is 29 feet, English, sturdy and a joy to sail.  We’ve put in new cushions, a new main sail and are having a wonderful time getting to know its personality.

My husband has sailed much more than me, but after not having a sailboat for over fifteen years, there is a little learning curve to get back into a sailing comfort zone.  I’m always impressed with his abilities to master skills.  Watching him sail not only improves my skills but also make me feel incredibly safe when he is at the helm.

Sailing is much like the dance we do through life.  Every action has consequences and outcomes that we may not have anticipated.  If you’ve rehearsed your steps to a certain rhythm and suddenly the tempo changes on you, you might stumble, trip your partner and lose the magic of the moment.  In sailing, wind, currents, and many other things will change that serene “Waltz” moment you were just enjoying to a “Quick Step”.  But if you’ve prepared for those moments, they can easily be incorporated into the dance.

When you need to get your sailboat going in another direction than the wind is letting you—you “tack” the boat.  Tacking is the act of changing tacks (or the boat’s heading in relation to the side of the boat that’s closer to the wind) by turning through the wind. When you do this, you will enter a “no-sail zone” as the boat moves from one side to the other.  This is also called “being in irons” if you don’t turn the boat all the way through the no-sail zone during a tack or if you move too slowly during a tack…and also if you try to sail too close to the wind direction.  If you are “in irons” your boat has stopped moving and is stuck pointing directly into the wind and you are going nowhere.

If you are a beginner, you can get caught “in irons” quite a lot.  It takes some experience to learn how to be patient, keep the mainsheet loose, push the tiller to one side and the jib sheet to the other until you can trim both sails in on the best side to work with the wind as the boat accelerates and then be able to steer straight again when the boat begins to move forward.

Sailing or not, there are many times I find myself “in irons”.  Stopped when I didn’t want to be and looking for the best way to get started towards the goal I had set for myself.   It happens more times than I’d care to admit.

Is it lack of discipline? Was I misguided? Am I weak and not able to see that particular goal through to its completion?  Why am I successful at some goals and a failure at others? How is it that I can’t easily change my tack and find another way if the original heading didn’t work for this journey?

Unlike sailing, these goals are not new and I am not a beginner at setting them. There is a list of goals for my life that I measure as necessary to feel successful and I’ve yet to reach them. Am I pointed directly into the wind and going nowhere?  Or perhaps each change of wind or heading was necessary to eventually reach a safe harbor.

I’m convinced that if I want to get out of these irons, I can. With enough confidence in myself, I may have to tack a few times to reach my destination, but with kind winds and enough love I’ll get there.