One of the joys of my job is that I get to go sailing. Constantly. As in everyday I get to be on the water in a boat and enjoying the sea. The other day, I was out on a Sonar. It’s a 23 foot keel boat that is designed as the International Sailing Association Federation (ISAF) Paralympic class 3-person keel boat. I was out on it taking pictures for the Disabled Sailing Associations Martin 16. Shortly after (and before) these pictures, the mast on the martin 16 fell off of the boat and all pictures stopped as my boat rescue training came in to play and I (and the other staff of DSA) had to perform a rescue before the boat (and the sailors) drifted in to the rocks.

The people in the boat, Max and John, are also instructors of DSA. John, a new instructor to the program was learning the boat during this sail. In the picture below, he is hoisting the boats “turbo kit” asymmetrical spinnaker. Max is a returning instructor coming back for his second year at DSA.

Of course, I was turning around for a better angle on the boat when the mast fell off and I missed all of the action. It’s funny how a split second decision can cause you to miss the shot. Since the sails went swimming, we had to wash and dry them to get all of the salt off. Below is Lukas, another new instructor, and Head Instructor Evan having a laugh about the incident that just went down.