What a wonderful weekend sailing. It started off slowly, fitting the floorboards and seats after their stay in the shed over winter. Then Ellie arrived and we had a cup of tea, before fitting the main sail to the boom and seeing how the goose neck worked on the new bracket attached to the mast. When all the sails were up satisfactorily..... we took them down again while we got changed.
Then the sailing began. It was a beautiful day, bright sunshine and a steady force 2 wind. We sailed back and forth and up and down, round the buoys, and practised our man overboard procedure. Ellie had just been on a rudderless sailing course, and demonstrated how to turn the boat using the jib and leaning the boat. We had the lake to ourselves in the morning, and at lunchtime we were joined by one laser and one scorpion - a beautiful boat with polished wooden deck. The sun kept shining, the wind kept steady and it was glorious afternoon.
The next day looked dark and gloomy, and quite uninviting, but I was glad to give my new spray top and salopettes an outing. The wind was a little stronger and there was a group kayaking from the nearby Bendigg centre. There was also a group from the scouts getting their boats ready, and they got on the water while we came in for lunch. It is great now that there is more water and we could leave the boat in the water tied to the jetty. The wind was stronger after lunch, and the scouts had already capsized some of the of their smaller boats. We sailed amongst them for a bit and then charted our own course up and down the lake, while the wind grew stronger. There were more white horses about so I guess it was force 4, and the waves were coming over the bows and giving our spray tops a run for their money.
It was me at the helm when we capsized. The annoying thing is that it is difficult to remember exactly what happened. It was just after going about. With Ellie's dry suit and the thermals under my wet suit it was no great shock to slide gently into the water. We were both well trained at Glenridding, and righting the boat, and getting both of us on board went like clockwork. Limping back to the jetty with the boat full of water was not too difficult. The real problem was when the boat was on the cradle pulling it out of the water. Even with a lot of help it was no mean feat. we got it up enough to bale water out without it flowing back in, and then, when it was light enough, up further to let the water drain. Thank you to all you helpful people at Killington Sailing Association.
Altogether a wonderful weekend
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