What a great Saturday sail this was, even scrumptious because of the lovely food provided by volunteers for the Naming Ceremony for our new 2.3, (new to us anyway), Ralph Newman.

It was wonderful that 11 of Ralph’s family joined us this morning for this ceremony, and some of them even went for a christening sail, some on the Ralph Newman, and others on other 303’s.

Joining us also for today was a fabulous new volunteer, Juan, who will be a blessing to us, obvious by his love of hard work, and the speed with which he picked up some of the necessary skills.

We not only had the Newman Family with us, but also our lovely groups from Lorrikeets and Kookaburras, Rap’N’Rave, the Baines family, the Williams family, Jonathan, Judy, Johnny, Sid and Rajni, and our lovely new volunteer from Balmoral House, Susie.

Our team for today was: Sailing Coordinator, Caroline, who did an excellent job coordinating the sailing, the Naming Ceremony, lunch and morning tea, then stayed to the last with the packing up, locking away, etc.

Support Boat Drivers: Warwick and David W.
Observers: Eli and Lyn.
Pontoon Manager: Jannie, then Jay.
Sailors: David G, Jim, David W, Vince, Helene, Michael, Nick, Denis.
Ray was the excellent time-keeper and radio operator.
Wilma did a wonderful job vacuuming the boat-room.
Helen was the registrar and chef supervisor for Tony, who was the cook.
Lyn helped the hordes with the correct sized life-jackets.
Ros gave her a hand with this as well as numerous tasks on deck.
Jim was a great help on the pontoon along with Juan, Penny, Ivan.

It was great to see Alan back on the socialising scene, even though he did not quite feel up to sailing today.

The best part was probably the rapid getting everything away back into it’s correct spaces, and when the final boat was put away, all breathed a sigh of relief that a busy day had ended.

Participant sailors today were: From Rap’n’Rave with helper Karen, Kate, Rob, Lisa, Michael, Ross, Brent. Baines family: James and Ben with Mum, Betty. Judy with helper Rita. Lorrikeets and Kookas: Saskia, Zac, Michael, Jake, James, Maggie, Luke D., Lucas, Summer, Arun, Matthieu, Cayla, Jai, Jasper, Laragh, Toby. Johnny, with helper, Mel. Sid, with Mum, Rajni. Last to sail was Robbie, with helper Kosh. Susie came to give us a hand with washing the boats, and Ben supervised the cleaning of the barbecue.