I was down to one beautiful assistant - but big shout out to Sue B for the heads up about the Elton John tickets. The week before I had taken out my phone and iPad in an attempt to get tickets to see Elton John but of course completely locked out and only available at about £700 each on a secondary site. But it seems that Sue B gets “special” emails and using her link, I was able to secure two tickets without having to take out a mortgage.
Plan Your Work But Work Your Plan
Anyway, decisions again about what to do. Always have a plan. When being involved in Dinghy Instructor or Senior Instructor Courses I always encourage candidates to “Plan your Work but Work your Plan”. It was, as mentioned, a glorious day for sailing and some were still a bit bruised from last weeks activities, so a gentle cruise (with a race back of course) was the order of the day.
Rockley is everyone’s favourite destination (due to the free Purbeck ice cream they get there) but the wind would have made a long beat back and it is always good to get the hard part of the sail out of the way first. This meant we were down to visiting Shell Bay restaurant which is just the other side of the chain ferry on the Studland side, however it seems that they didn’t open until midday!
So, a quick call to the Royal Motor Yacht Club (the RM) to ask if we could beach our boats on their small beach and sit on the terrace for tea and coffee, pretty please. Oh, and one or two of the group are members. “Of course you can, Sir”.
So off we set, with a slight upwind leg to see if the beach was big enough. It was! Just.
We were also joined by my daughter Charlotte and her crew, Anna, who were out practising in her 29er as she has a few competitions coming up. A 29er is a very tippy boat so we planned on tying her alongside the RIB which we would anchor off the beach. The only problem we then had was getting the 29er sailors and the incumbents of the RIB (myself and Jill) ashore.
By hook and by crook we all got ashore to be met by the staff at the RM who expertly handled one of the largest tea and coffee orders they had had at such an early time of day.
When you are sat in idyllic surroundings, tea or coffee in hand with a cheeky bit of shortbread thrown in, chatting to friends, it is amazing how time flies.
There was no rush to get back on the water and back to reality, but many had school pick ups and if we didn’t move now we could be there for ever.
More fun and games getting four of us out to the RIB without getting my shorts wet and then set up for a downwind start back to a race mark “Parkstone Dental” formerly known as Haven (Other dentists are available).
The Fusions were given a 3-minute start over the Lasers and we had a downwind start and then a simple run all the way home.
It was very tight sailing as you will see from the video of the finish with Pip (last weeks twisted mainsheet sailor) taking line honours, from Lucy and then Claire. What no Yvonne? And what happened to Ruth and Emma? Lucy didn’t even have any battens in her sail!
Interesting question (which I have just asked myself). I suppose with a solely downwind leg, when you can just aim at the finish line, all sailors in identical boats can go just as fast as each other and it is hard for one boat to break away due to the wind shadow created by the boats all around you.
In the Lasers, Jenny took line honours followed by Lis G (Yes!!!) then Liz F. Only 3 Lasers finished as the other three stopped off for a swim a la Mamma Mia style.
And this week, if there was a vote, would probably be voted as the BEST EVER - and all we did was go sailing.
