We were greeted with a lovely sunny day with light westerly breezes for the 25 participants but with only 13 volunteers we were all working hard to keep the waits for a sail to a minimum and ensure everyone had fun on the water.
After almost single handedly emptying the gear shed Warwick took over as captain of Charlie’s Chariot with Ken and Mai serving time as observers and photographers. Eli took charge of the desk with Corey reliably taking control of the radio.
A shortage of sailors had us put out 5 boats plus Clea for Ivan. Sailors were initially Jenny, Jim, Michael and Jeremy with Petra also taking a boat out with participants for the first time. Sailor of the day award goes to Jenny who after being pushed into the wharf somehow managed to get the boat turned around and out to sea in the fickle winds. Honourable mention to Petra who took out 4 participants on her first morning sailing with our clients.
Malcolm as ever was a reliable rock on the pontoon until he was called out to sail as our sailors came in to try to warm up with a coffee or tea.
On the participant side it was a question of who didn’t come down to enjoy a sail in the sunny conditions. Liz turned up first and was quickly out with Jim closely followed by Ivan in Clea and Grace with Jeremy. Kyle went out with Petra, James with Michael and Eddie with Jenny for the first sail.
The kids from Royal Far West then turned up with brothers Lawrence and Zayse heading out as well as twins Angus and James and Allison and Audrey also heading out for the second round of sailing as the wind picked up slightly.
The next round of participants arrived as we sent James, Tarek, Ella, Alyse and Craig out for a sail as Malcolm was pressed into sailing duties to allow Jenny to warm up on shore. We then rolled another group of participants through with Hanlon, Sam, Adam, Luke, and Virginia getting out for the final sail whilst Rodney took control of Charlie’s Chariot.
Luckily Marc turned up towards the end to help catch and pack up all the boats to finish up a great and busy day of sailing.
