Sailing on Windermere

Today was the second of our Officer of The Day duties this year at the South Windermere Sailing Club. This is a great opportunity to play at being Captain Pugwash chugging up and down the lake in the tub-like Committee boat.

The OOD role carries responsibilities: the most stressful of which is setting the course. The sailors can be very unforgiving if you set a dull course, and it has to be said there are limited permutations with only 8 buoys to select a course from. The other major responsibility is keeping an eye on the fleet, and being on hand to help with capsizes.

The wind today was not too strong or flukey and the racers were all experienced or sailing boats that rarely capsize, like these flying fifteens. Watching sailing in anything other than stormy conditions is not the greatest spectator sport, but these two helms were having a real head to head. The boat on the inside has outmanouevred the other, getting the inside line rounding the buoy. They kept changing position all round the 4 laps of the course, and at the end they were so close at the line that we weren't sure who had crossed first. Fortunately, they agreed who had won and we weren't called on to arbitrate.

I might have included sailing in my life.turns list of laments to lost activities, we have done so little this and recent years. In fact, we have spent more time in the Committee boat than sailing ourselves. It didn't help that we broke the rudder the last time we went out a couple of months ago. The good thing today was that one of the sailors in the fleet today is a cabinet maker, and he has offered to make us a new one. So we will be back in the water again soon in time for the Autumn Frostbite series.

After my wobble last week, I am trying to be more disciplined with my time on blipping. I was very tempted by the setting sun back in Arnside this evening. As the sun was going down, the light shafting through the clouds was golden with beautiful reflections off the water and mudflats. It would have been more eye-catching than this, but consciously I left the camera at home not to get distracted into looking for something better. Instead we just enjoyed the view.