Sailors love to talk, or more exactly, to show off how much they know.  They fill their conversation with as much techno babble as they can thereby impressing, if not their listeners then at least themselves.

  So here's my story.  Now a beginner is in danger of showing that a little knowledge can be dangerous.  I hadn't been sailing all that long when I had the opportunity to make a complete ass of myself and I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.  I had spent a long winter reading a "How To Sail" manual and even though I'd not done a lot of actual sailing, I figured I was ready to solo sail.  My task was to sail solo down Narragansett Bay from Providence to Warwick,  about a ten mile sail, and pick up a friend and his girlfriend and take them out for a couple of hours.  The going to Warwick was a "piece of cake" and I confidently brought my boat right up to the dock and tied her off without a bit of help.  Friends showed up and off we sailed...for about fifteen minutes when the girlfriend erupted from, well we weren't at sea, so it must have been "Bay Sickness".  So we returned back to Warwick marina and as soon as she set foot on the dock her color returned and she felt fine again.  We had a drink and they departed.  While we were celebrating her return from the near dead I hadn't noticed that a large and quite impressive new sailboat docked just a couple of feet ahead of mine.  On board this vessel were two couples,  each couple comprised on one "Barbie" and one "Ken".  The Barbie's were clad in Bikini's and the Ken's in Ralph Lauren active wear.  The two Ken's left the boat on some mission or other leaving the Barbie's chattering, laughing, and drinking white wine.  Now the wind had piped up a bit and I decided to change my headsail to a working jib.  No roller furler for me.  I'm a purist and hank on my jibs.  So I went forward, exchanged pleasantries with the Barbie's and while smiling and maybe even flirting a bit, I went about unhanking the genoa and hanking on the smaller jib.  My plan was to impress the girls by raising the jib, untying the dock line and let the wind blow the bow out and off I'd go.  I had to turn my back on the sail and the girls while winching up the sail so when I heard the robust female laughter I turned to see my jib upside down.  I had been so impressed with myself that I hadn't paid attention to the job at hand.  So I lowered the sail, quickly went aft, started the motor and left red faced.  I'm sure that the two Ken's also enjoyed a good laugh when they heard the story of my "Just Showing Off".