Saturday was a lovely day for sailing with sunny spring weather and a light breeze which gradually picked up as the morning progressed.
Our fleet and equipment storage were great shape to start the day thanks to a team of volunteers who, on Wednesday, had re-secured the fenders on two boats, renewed the windscreen on Charlies Chariot and cleaned out and audited of our storage cupboards. Thanks also to Jeremy on Saturday for making a quick trip home to get tools and screws to secure the pontoon ramp before we commenced operations.
Starting with 14 then later 16 volunteers, 5 boats and some early sailing arrivals including Andrew, regulars Elizabeth and later Vanessa and also Tom, Will Riley and Math, we had an enjoyable day. Cory managed our radio communications with his usual aplomb, while both Michaels manned the pontoon, Warwick skippered Charlies Chariot, later relieved by John who with Jeremy and Patricia earlier registered visitors and fitted life jackets to our regular and not-so-regular sailors until being relieved by Jackie and Ros. Sophie, Denis, Peter, John, Skye and Rob were kept busy taking our sailors out for some fun on the water as well as being surprised by a bonus sighting of a pod of dolphins which surfaced right alongside their boats.
A special guest on the day was Makiko Iida accompanied by her friend Tim Leehy. “Maki” who was visiting from Sailability, Tokyo, Japan, enthusiastically sailed and observed our operations, which she conveyed directly in real time to her own Sailability group which was operating simultaneously. So she was able to show us via her phone how their 303 boats were launched and operated in Tokyo. Maki intends visiting other Sailability clubs during her 3 week Aussie stay.
Once again thank you team for yet another very successful sailing day, bringing smiles to all participants.
