Helpers today:

Sailing Coordinator: Brian; Pontoon Manager: Col; Boat Operations: David; Support Boat: Barry, Ken, Jim. Photographs: Sophie. Registrar: Helen; Life-jackets; John P; Radio: Sheila; Sailors: John B, Michael, Steve, Jim, Helene, Denis, John W, Bob; Helping on deck; Philip, Tony, Malcolm, Georges, Warwick; Time Keeper: Ray. I hope I have noted you all, it was so lovely to see everyone pulling together as a team that I may have missed someone. If so, I apologise.

We were visited by our annual one day influx from ICMS. Thank you for all your help today: Nook, (the leader), Jerome, Nguyen, Ta Duc, Rohan (the surfer) Flavia, Sophie, you all did a wonderful job in an often confusing situation.

Also on hand were David’s Family, Sue, Tom and the rest of the gang.

With plenty of helpers, we put out 7 boats and got started early as the breeze was a perfect 6 to 7 knot north easterly and we had plenty of helpers on deck and on the pontoon.

Charlie’s Chariot was still up on the slips for a final touch up by the mechanic. Barry brought it down and we were ready to go.

First participants to come down were Royal Far West: Dylan, Sharli, Sabari, Hayden, Lauryn, Izzy, Richard. One of these decided not to sail, but the rest jumped in the boats with their eager sailors and were off to the other side.

Next to arrive were Arranounbai School: Jatin, Kit, Sarah, Jonah, Joe, Michael, Lhamo, Riley, Wenbin, Evie. This opens up a whole spectrum of possibilities. Some can walk, some can talk, some are tall, some are small (sounds a bit like Dr Seuss) but they did keep us busy thinking up ways to keep them comfortable in the boats, In the meantime, those not on the water were having morning tea, playing, talking to the gang of helpers, and all having a good time. The timing worked perfectly….we had just finished taking these little ones for a sail when our friends from SEALS arrived. Dacy, Daniel (the birthday boy), Nikita, Nicki, Tom took their turn in the boats, thoroughly enjoying their sail in the freshening breeze.

At some stage in the morning, the alert drivers and observers on Charlie’s Chariot noticed a problem with the engine and brought it back to the pontoon. We quickly borrowed the support RIB from Manly Sailing and were back to normal operations in just a few minutes. While this was happening, David took the engine cover off, poked around for a few minutes, found the problem, fixed it and we were back in business. Thank you so much, Manly Sailing for your generosity, and just for being there ready when we needed you.

Jordan and Amelia arrived from Freshwater High at the same time as our House With No Steps group: Mickey, James, Ross, Nina, Chris, and Stephen. Our rapidly overheating sailors and helpers were quite relieved when all had finished their sail and we were able to pack everything away, It was only later that we realised that the temperature had soured to 36 degrees, so it was time for a cool drink, and a rest in the shade.

Thank you so much everyone involved for all the work everyone did today.