This Winter sailing is fantastic!!!! The weather was gorgeous, and our team of volunteers fantastic. Once the morning chill wore off, it was off with the heavy jackets, and delightful in the full sunshine. The wind was a variable westerly, but stayed fairly steady around 7 knots, giving wonderful practice to our sailors, and enabling some of our more regular participants to take the helm, especially on the coming home run.

Our team for today was:
Ray, the Time keeper,
Helen, the chef and registrar,
Wilma on Life-jackets,
Sailing Coordinator; Crosbie.
Pontoon Manager, David G then Kevin and various others.
Our Support Boat Driver was David W, observer: Lyn, Photographer, Ken then Lyn.
Sailors were Helene, Ivan, Michael, Denis, Mal, David G, Cathy.
New volunteers this morning (having a ball) John, Penny, Val were fabulous.
Tony helping everywhere he could was carrying out some amazing tasks.
What a team!!!!!

Lucky we had such a great team, because we had lots of participants this morning.

Our regulars Ollie, Judy and Sid had a great time.

Our new groups for this morning; Lorikeets and Kookaburras came down in force:

Saskia, Arun, Zac, Michael, Jake, Jamie, Matthieu, Monty, Gorad, Paul M, Paul T, Oscar and Bart all had a wonderful morning, enjoying the fresh air, the scenery, the sailing boats as well as the support boat from some of them. Thanks so much to their wonderful carers who kept a sharp eye out, and helped with the waiting times, the morning teas and lunches.

Daniel came down with his wonderful news of his smoking ban. He definitely looks a lot better without the smoke wreathing around him.

Sam came with his mum, Kate. What a difference in his condition in the 6 weeks since we saw him last. He is sitting up in the boat, enjoying his surroundings, voicing words, and showing enjoyment with his intuitive signing, Hi Five and Wow. Thanks also to his carer in the Support Boat, Alex, who always keeps a careful eye on her charge.

Jackie and Duncan arrived with helper Kundan and managed a turn at sailing as well as the Support Boat.

One of the duties of the Support Boat this morning was the rescue of a mooring buoy, which was determined to be kidnapped and tangled up by one of our sailing boats. But all ended well, the main-sheet disentangled, and the mooring successfully freed, no damage done.

After this came the inevitable washing down of boats and putting away which was done with wonderful good spirits, making the task a whole lot easier.

Cathy, I do hope you managed to get that splinter out before you went home, that looked extremely painful.