It's going to be windy
So, a fruity forecast which set off the WhatsApp 2 whole days out. Excuses, valid and otherwise were coming in. But some were keen for a coffee and to have a look. As we got down Mel was keen to tell us all that she was stuck in a Click and Collect queue at Tescos (Yes, we were surprised, we were expecting Waitrose) and that she would down “ASAP”. Well it must have been one hell of a queue as she turned up about an hour later when we were already on the water.
We shall go sailing
Anyway, I digress. The classic standoff, no one wanting to make a decision, so, “who you gonna call”, or something like that. They turned to me with hope in their eyes, hope which slowly faded as I, who also wasn’t too keen to be honest, made the call that “Yes, we shall go sailing”.
It is after all, only 15 knots out there and you only regret things you don’t do. Liz (or E Fleming as she keeps signing the tally sheet as …), after a short discussion joined the other ladies in sailing a Fusion. But we also had a Feva with us. Off WhatsApp Emma contacted me to rant and rave about a *****y Inset day on a Thursday, can she bring her son? Of course. He looked excited and certainly keener than all the others to get on the water and to go sailing with his Mum. (He is just 13, he will grow out of this.)
Let the fun begin!
With a building forecast, let's keep it simple and have some fun. Oh and 2 of my trusty volunteers had also found better things to do, so just Sue with me looking after the chocolates. So, a nice fetch (a close reach) up to Poole Quay then a fast blast back downind and let’s just do that a few times.
Well, the only complications that we had (to begin with) were some Harbour Cruise boats quite reasonably using the Main Channel but we all survived the initial skirmish. Now for the fun bit. Downwind sailing in 20+ knots. Ruth and Katey had reefed their sails and I simply enquired if they were interested in having the reefs taken out for the downwind bit. There was no need to swear, I thought, but I got the gist of what they said.
Sometimes sailing upwind is a bit of a slog, but the downwind bit came really make up for it. Cue the very exciting video!
Same time next week?
Yes, we had some capsizes, we learnt that in that wind, “Weight back” means exactly that. The key was to find a route through the waves to make sure that you didn’t slam into the back of a wave and come to a grinding halt and skew up to wind. If the boat is rolling a bit too much then pull your sail in, then make sure that you let it out again. And in the gusts? Bear away and grin from ear to ear.
And the” Best Ever Inset Day”? Well that was heard coming from the Feva, but you’ll have to watch the videos to see who said it.
The chocolates? Well there was no time for them out on the water so they came out back at the club where we all logged onto the club’s wind thingy which showed that we had gusts of up to 28 knots. Respect ladies.
Same time next week?
Peter
Inset Day on a Thursday...why oh why?
Oh, and the asterisk on the heading. Well who ever thought that an inset day on Thursday makes sense? Everyone knows that they should be a Friday to give us all a long weekend. The reason given is that if every inset day was a Friday then the children would miss lots of Friday lessons. Fair point. But my youngest, who was also on an inset but had no intention of going sailing (he isn’t 13….), thought that it would be simple to have Friday’s lessons on Thursday and have Friday off. The next inset day you could have Friday’s lessons on the Wednesday.
You get the picture? Simples. Genius that son of mine!