This morning we were expecting our usual 4 groups of participants, so we arranged plenty of helpers, so that we could have 8 boats on the water, and plenty of sailors to man them. Byron, Brian, David G, Ray, Jim, Rob, Philip, David W, Sue were there early, so the 8 boats were put out, rigging commenced, and was mostly completed by the time the other volunteers arrived. David made a good job out of the Boat Operations, Col went down on the pontoon, Denis checked the finer points of rigging, Rowell was wonderfully helpful, and the boats made their way down to the pontoon. Caroline and Corey hopped onto Charlie’s Chariot, which had been brought alongside by Rob, and all who wanted to went for a practise sail while we awaited our first bus-load of participants. New volunteer, Connor was one of these, and came backPhoto of New volunteer, Connor with the announcement that he can manage one of these little boats. This is great, and will be called into use next time we sail. All boats now had a sailor available, as we welcomed our little group from Fisher Rd:
Thomas, Zane, Russell, Ella, Jake, Harrison, Matthew and Jarryd.Photo of Thomas, Ella, Jake from Fisher Rd
Alan arrived about now and went out for some practise on Clea, staying out there until the last minute.
Col took over on the pontoon, with lots of help from Steve and Tony, with Bob and Ivan taking over some of the sailing. Photo of Thomas and MichaelA huge congratulations to Michael, who has had the skills for several weeks now, after some excellent tuition from Denis, but had not had the confidence until today to take a person with a disability out sailing.
Byron, Helen Sue and Kandy stayed up on the deck helping with registrations, PFD’s, time-keeping and other duties.
Soon, our group from Sunshine happened by, with Yvette, Jessica, Chris, Paul and BeckyPhoto of Rob and Paul in our 3O3 I.N.G.. All of these enjoyed their sail on the progressively calmer waters. It was lovely to see Paul, and to hear his laughter as he settled into sailing. These participants also seemed very happy that Byron was there, as he is familiar with the needs of these participants.
Kris, Paul, Becky, and Craig arrived from House With No Steps, and were each placed in a boat. Kris enjoyed the whistle attached to his life-jacket so that we all knew exactly where he was.
Ben, Eddie, Jordan, Emily and Amelia from Freshwater High found their own skipper, and went off for a lesson, today practising around the circuit using the joy-stick to steer, and also some of them taking some control of the jib. Again, these students were a great help in de-rigging and putting the boats away.
Photo of Gerrard and Patrick on Charlie’s ChariotWhile they were out sailing, Gerrard arrived with his helper, Patrick, after a morning of travel-training. Because all of the sailing boats were occupied, they went on Charlie’s Chariot, a whole new experience.
