Easter Monday

On Easter Monday I went sailing at Killington with Chris and David.
We could see one boat already on the water as we left the motorway, but as we arrived Ian & Geraldine were just finishing, so we pretty much had the whole lake to ourselves.  There was one young lad getting a canoeing lesson, watched by his Dad, and we enjoyed the company of Jane, who was doing some repairs to her Laser in the clubhouse.  Later, Tony Longworth arrived to do some strimming around the grounds.
It was quite blowy, so we put a reef in the sail, not very expertly, and the sail creased badly and the boom was very low until Tony showed us how to tie the clew to the outhaul first, and round the boom if at all afterwards.
Given the wind conditions, David decided that reading in the fresh air or in the clubhouse was better than sailing, though after we came in for lunch the wind dropped a little, and he was enticed out, and quite enjoyed it.
I need more practice at coming into the jetty, and after one near miss turned round and ended up being hit on the head by the head as we jibed.  Thankfully this was when Tony was there and he talked me through the next approach, steering three boat lengths downwind of the jetty before turning to wind.
With the sail set better and the boom higher things felt much better, and Chris took the helm and did very well. It was after that when I was helming that we had a particularly strong gust, and we stayed upright by letting go of the tiller and sheet, effective but not very good at keeping control. There was quite a bit of water beneath the floor boards after that.
We have no pictures to show, although I brought a camera we never took it out, partly because it was quite busy sailing and partly because there were no other boats on the lake. Still a good days sailing.  A rare day, a force 3 coming from the North.