Sailing

This morning Luke, Gavin and I went sailing with some of the crew who Gavin is doing the sailing challenge (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) with in November. The crew needed to practice some drills, Luke is a very useful sailor so he was needed, and I cannot honestly say I did any sailing as I sat quietly in the corner, sheltered from the wind and concentrated on not feeling seasick! I know nothing about sailing so I was no use to anyone in any case. They had practice putting the spinnaker up and taking it down, without any problems thank goodness, and testing some new equipment. I met the crew member who is in charge of catering, she does not have an easy task with a crew of eight for anything between 15-20 days at sea and no provisions along the way.  

There were all the usual Sunday morning regattas and races going on, and this is a shot of one of the boats racing. We quite often got caught up amongst them but had to get carry on with our course so as not to disturb their racing. I see that nowadays many racing boats have black sails, being carbon fibre, and they make quite a sight against the hazy grey/blue sky.

We left by 2.30pm as Luke had to get the 4pm train to London as this week he is doing a one week work experience/internship and all the candidates had to meet tonight to get through the administration so that no time is wasted doing that on arrival tomorrow morning, as they have a rather intensive week.

While we were sailing Adam was in Cambridge at a power lifting competition! He did okay, beat his personal best but did not qualify for the South East this time, maybe next time. Thomas was at an all day orchestra practice at school. As this is the last week of term they have three big concerts to perform and so many hours of practice is required.