sailing lessons

I now understand fully the term "fair-weather sailor". To sail in fair-weather means to sail when the wind is steady and gentle, without fear surprises or capsizing, or running into another boat. I was not a fair-weather sailor today, I wanted to be but had no choice but to head out into the 20+knot winds in my small one-man Sunfish. I had committed to the lesson and I did not want to appear weak, as if the high winds were frightening. Oh no, not me, boy; I am salty. So out we zipped (E too) in our little boats, sails pulled tight against the wind, tacking this way and that through the minefield of buoys and boats to get to open water. I failed miserably on the first go, with a t-bone into a friend's sailboat and then once freed I was blown down onto another boat. At that point I lowered my sail and called our instructor for a tow. I realized as I was waiting for my tow that part of the problem was the rudder wasn't all the way down - hence the lack of control when I was trying to tack out of the way of the first sailboat. Later, rudder and sail under control I was practicing my tacks in high winds hiking out as far as I could to keep from tipping over...and boom, two times, over I went. Of course expletives and SHARK were being muttered under my breath as in "I better not be eaten by a ****ing" shark" as I tried to right my overturned boat. Back on board, it was a miracle my little waterproof camera had not found the bottom of the ocean (and my leg hadn't been bitten off). This was the only shot from my adventure and honestly I have no idea how I took it. It was such a fun morning, and lots of hard work.