I’m Back!!!
Monday 6th January. My first day back in the boat after 6 months of ‘I’m going to find myself, but not in an off to Bali way (which a few of my best friends post Olympic cycle and I’m not sure I can say I wasn’t jealous with anywhere near enough enthusiasm for anyone to believe me) but instead, in an office way’. I was excited. Instead of counting down to Christmas, I was counting down the days until I got to push my boat out onto the water. The 6th came around and I was early to the boat park, eager to get my boat off the trailer and rigged up. The British Sailing Team strength and conditioning coach, Frank, sent me a quick message asking how long I was heading out for- we’d agreed a short session to ease back in. I fired a quick reply saying I’d be on the water for 45 minutes max as soon as we’d launched the rib so Molly, my squad mate and friend, could come out and keep an eye on me.
Matilda (my third squad mate and also friend) and I reversed the van down the launching ramp so that the rib and trailer were ready to be pushed off. I jumped onboard, ready to drive the rib round to the pontoon. Matilda asked if I was ready to go and I confirmed. She started to push the rib down and the trouble began… Our rib sits inside a trailer, which is a metal construction which we load our ILCAs onto. The lowest trailer bars are pretty low, you have to duck as the rib is being launched to avoid banging your head. Turns out after 6 months away, I’d forgotten quite how low I needed to go… Suddenly I felt a massive amount of pressure on my head- incredibly I’d managed to wedge my head between the rib console and the trailer bars with the whole weight of the rib resting on it. Pretty impressive considering my dad calls me pea brain. I started screaming at Matilda to pull the rib back up, but she wasn’t strong enough and so flung herself onto the rib in an attempt to stop gravity taking its course and the rib moving further down the slope. Both of us were screaming for help, both imaging a scene out of a low-grade murder tv show where someone’s head explodes and brain goes flying everywhere. After about 30 seconds help arrived and the rib was lifted. I lay in the bottom of the rib, and whilst trying to decide the extent of my brain damage, I mentally noted I should probably message Frank to give a brief update on my progress… ‘won’t be sailing today and have decided after 6 months I still need another week off’ seemed an appropriate update as I was strapped into an ambulance and raced to hospital to glue my face back together.
However, I can now say, post a minor near death experience (I think Matilda may also be suffering slight PTSD) and a gorgeous black eye, after 6 months and 5 days out of the boat I’M BACK!!! (and dammit, turns out you do need to train – my starts are trash and my legs are in agony after two days sailing in sub 8 knots). Plenty of work to do!