This has to have been one of the best sailing days ever!!!! Blue skies, light Northerly breezes, a comfortable temperature and lots of good friends made this a memorable day.

We also had some really interesting participants today: a new group from Inala consisting of Adam, Danny, Angela and Leanne with helpers Steve and Kate had a great time either sailing, observing in the Support Boat, or just veging out on the deck. We also saw for the first time in ages Grant, Kerry, Anna and Ashley from Washington House, while our regulars Kate the Great, Jonathon,Photo of David and his mate, Jonathon, Denis, Matthew, Alan, Michael, Maureen, Megan, Denis, Nina and Luca soaked up the sunshine and the light breeze.

Luca sailed the dinghy all the way out through the heads, steering with the joy-stick and learning to tell where the wind is coming from.

Photo of Philip in Alan Wood, but not in the water yet.

We said hello to Philip, who is going to learn to sail solo in Alan Wood, using the servo as part of his Duke of Edinburgh Award. He will also spend some of his time volunteering, and be a good friend to some of his mates, who will use Philip’s project as the subject of the short film they are making. In order to carry out these challenges, we are modifying Alan Wood to suit Philip’s abilities, so it is also becoming a Sailability Challenge.

Of course, to make all this happen, we had a unique set of volunteers this morning. Thank you so much to Helene, our Sailing Coordinator, Judy on the pontoon, Ralph on Charlie’s Chariot, who was also putting a couple of new drivers through their Safety Competency Test, observers; David (W) and Helen; sailors Jacob, Rob, John, Denis, Jim, David (G), Evelyn, Peter (H), Evelyn, and Bob. Helen did her wonderful registrar job, Yuka helped with everything, Sam was the time-keeper, Tony was everywhere, Philip was a great help on the pontoon, Suzanne, Sue, Marie took their turn cooking sausages and helping with life-jackets. And everyone helped with the record washing down and putting away.

Many thanks to Rob and Sam, new volunteers today, who jumped straight into it and got to work.