The Dinghy of Terror: A Summary

It was the final sailing lesson of this block, and I suppose everything was going too well. The time was ripe for a nightmare sailing lesson of legendary proportions. I did wonder if our dear Fluke, the otherwise aforementioned Dinghy of Joy, was actually a sea devil in disguise, and was I fighting Satan's wind, but I think more accurately, there are two sides to sailing and by definition, two sides to Fluke. 

The lesson was laser dinghy carnage, so there were too many events to go into detail on, but here is a bullet point list so you get the gist:

1. Lazy A's sail ripped from her mast, and we had to moor her to a buoy. She wasn't retrieved until much later, so she was out of this one. The instructor said he had never seen this happen to a laser. 
2. On my second gybe in the Hartley, I stood up and was thrown from the boat. First person overboard. Lost sunglasses but managed to get back on the boat. 
3. Went for a rest in the RIB and then helped assist with securing Fluke, who kept capsizing on the other trainee. The wind had obviously picked up, and I had been struggling to stay on the wind in the Hartley. Need to work on my tiller technique. 
4. Battled to get Fluke side towed into Littlehampton Harbour with the mast hanging out the other end. We sat on the mast and prayed we didn't go sideways into the training wall. 
5. Re-rigged Fluke, I do not lie to you. 
6. I was set off to sail to meet the Hartely, which had sailed to the RNLI station in the river. 
7. I failed to tack, got stubborn, started screaming at the wind, drifted towards the wooden sticky things, had to be saved by the RIB, which proceeded to cause one or two of the three capsizes that then happened in quick succession (they let me go too soon at one point). 
8. My head was smacked by the boom. It hurt for a moment, but then nothing. 
9. I miss the dagger board on Fluke and end up requesting to come aboard the RIB. 
10. I swam to the RIB and was then dragged into the boat so violently that I was breathless on the deck for a while. 
11. I get up, and everyone notices the massive bruise on my head. 
12. Instructor checks me for a concussion. 
13. The man in the maintenance boat watches the whole rescue and wishes he had recorded it. It was apparently so funny watching a woman drifting whilst using colourful language at the top of her lungs. I don't find this out until the next day.
14. I crawl out of the RIB and onto the pontoon. The instructor takes me for first aid. 

And that is all I can remember. I am now an Arun River legend, apparently. If only we had the CCTV. Yes, probably bearing away would have been a better idea than getting stubborn and trying to force the boat around by strength of will and profanity. Wild. Totally World.