I took a swim in the San Francisco Bay on Thursday.

It wasn’t intentional.  My normal sailing partner couldn’t make it to sailing class, so I was left as the odd man out.  Rather than watch from shore or try to swap places with somebody else, I decided to try sailing single-handed (that is, by myself).

The 420-class boats we used were designed to be sailed double-handed, so I adapted by rigging only the mainsail.   After a brief acclimation period, I headed out from the Redwood City Turning Basin, home of our dock, towards the Bay.

Though light in the protected basin, the winds grew heavier as I got closer to the open waters of the Bay.  By the time I was at the power lines separating the Bay from the basin, it was blowing between 10 and 15 knots.  The water was dotted with whitecaps.  One of the boats in the class capsized.   I sped on, my dinghy planing over the water on a beam reach.

Before long, it was time to head back to the dock.  I felt like I was getting the hang of sailing the 420 single handed — tacks, jibes, and whatnot were all becoming as familiar as with two people in the boat.  Things were going great until I was nearly at the dock.

By that time, at that location, the wind had died down except for an occasional strong puff.  I was tooling along, about 100 feet from the dock, when a sudden wind puff came from an unusual direction.  The puff caused an unintentional jibe — the boom suddenly came around towards me, and I found myself with a sail in my face on the leeward side of the boat.  The combination of the sail, the wind, and my body caused the boat to heel way over.  As soon as I realized what was going on, I jumped to the now-windward rail and tried to flatten the dinghy.

It was too late.  The boat capsized, and I went into the water.

The water wasn’t as cold as I had expected it to be.  It was almost refreshing as I swam around, grabbed the centerboard, and righted the 420.  I moved quickly to the stern of the boat and pulled myself back in over the transom.   I brushed aside some playful ribbing from my fellow sailors and soon arrived at the dock.

My first unintentional capsizing.  Strong winds? No problem.  Light air? Problem.  Ha!