Reading another post, I got to wondering, what's the most selfish thing, or maybe the biggest lie you've told, to have a sail?

Anonymity guaranteed, we're all friends here.....

I ribbed a mate of mine for going sailing when his wife was due to have a baby. Sure enough she went into labour whilst he was on the water. Someone overheard our exchange on the beach and thought it was newsworthy!

A Few years back I had just moved to Torquay and just drove down from Newcastle to be with an old long term girlfriend , and it was Xmas day big family hooraa? and it blew a friggin gale 40 knots all day, I just ate wished everyone a very Merry Xmas and left God Punished me as it was freezing and only had a springy?The car park at Point Danger was covered in hail but I copped it when I got home?

I can't say I've ever done anything to send myself on a guilt trip aside from the odd white lie at work. It does remind me of a story I read in a sailing magazine though.

One of the regular crew on wild thing had been refused a leave pass over Xmas break to compete in the Sydney to Hobart. Resigned to his fate, he sits mournfully watching tv as the wife steps out to do some early Boxing Day shopping. As luck would have it (or not have it, depending on perspective) he received a rather excited phone call from the skipper of wild thing to inform him that one of the crew for the race had fallen ill and couldn't race. The skipper insisted he pack a bag immediately and proceed straight to the boat via a prepaid taxi. What could he do?

later on the strife arrives home to an empty house. hubby's probably popped up to the deli to get the paper, she presumes. "Ah well since he can't be in the race I might as well let him watch the start".

As she flicks the box on, there's some footage of wild thing sailing to windward, low and behold, there's hubby in amongst the rest of the crew sitting on the rail, with a big smile on his face.

Would have loved to be a fly on the wall to see how it all went down when he got home....

Thats a great story^^^

worst I've done is leave my wife with our 2 boys for 8 hours in Fiji to sail cloudbreak instead of going to get them lunch.
www.windsurf.co.uk/featured/the-punters-guide-to-sailing-15-foot-cloudbreak/

it it was worth all the pain I suffered after.

I'm considering cancelling my anniversary dinner this Saturday if the forecast remains the same

Wind is blowing, I have the kids with me…
I rush to the Playgroup session, drop them with some parents friends.
Rush for a sail (45 min full speed).
Pack quickly and rush back, reverse car and totally destroy the rev mirror against a pole in the car park…

Punished ?

Not me, I swear, but a friend of mine, nobody here knows me anyway.

About 20'ish years ago, one of the regulars at our windsurfing spot showed up one day to "just check it out", because he had his infant son with him strapped in the baby car seat. The conditions were really good............
Do I need to finish the story?
Yes, he also had his equipment with him, and yes, he rigged up, locked the baby in the car, and went for a sail for over an hour.
Long story short.
None of us ever saw him again for about a month after that, and he missed a lot of really good days.