So, Friday knackered another crap weekend at work but at least the weathers good... love sunshine me!
Saturday..James came and dumped his Bro's Ent with me ready for the inlands in a couple of weeks, its nice to have a boat around the house again..bit like having a pet...painted the garage door green in the midday sun, not necessarily a good idea but got the job done...watched the football, uninspired, then my dad rang to say that "people" would be lighting the BBQ at Draycote around 6pm...did we want to go, have some food and chil.... Yey!
So.. after a trip to Sainsburys to stock up on BBQ food we end up at Draycote, me Claire the kids... mum and dad there already, BBQ just started and a couple of large camper vans parked up... one of them pumping out Jack Johnson... 2*Yey!
Kids go off and play, we get the drinks in, BBQ hot enuff, get the food on and chill...big stylee.. suns on its way down, the water (Draycote Water) is calm with a light breeze... we meet some new people, listen to tunes I know, some new ones I want to know and chatted with the family.. kids played football, fed the ducks.. the "vaners" put their case o' beer into the resevoir to chill, it was great the food wwas ool, had the best beef steaks of the year..with chilli sauce and a pint of bitter... our kinda hosts were gonna crash the night, we stayed a couple of hours enuff for a leaisurely meal, some great conversation, watched the sub start to set and to knacker the kids out.. we were chilled, kids were tired and happy and these guts, about 6-8 people were gonna keep the party alive, in a totally chilled way till the early hours...that is the soulsailor life.... a weekend of sailing and then proper chilling-out, thats what the world is here for... thats what we should be doing (living so close to DWSC)...maybe I really should join the club....
BTW Paul Young and Charles Morrish re-enacted the legendary maiden voyage of E1 and E2 the very first Enterprises on Saturday.. yep the Midland and Scottish nutters (respectively) sailed across the channel in 2 Enterprises, got to Calais (I think) told their 4-wheeled lift back to blighty to stay on the ferry and (apparently cus the French authorities dont reckon an Ent should be leaving their shores and crossing the channel) then just tacked round and sailed home to the british shores... I hope theres photos and a bit more info to come.. I'll chase but well done guys for staying safe and recreating those classic sailing hay-days!!!!
So Sunday, lesurely morning then off to Shustoke (a small resevoir just south of Birmingham)with the kids to catch up with friends and watch a bit of the Enterprise Open...
Got there part through the 2nd race, Chimp in the lead and Steve-PB in second.. as far as I can tell thats how the final results of the day ended up... it was good to catch up with everyone, not a "full turn-out" but a fair few... breeze was shifty and dropping, sun blazing and it all looked good fun (except for sharing the course with GP14's!)...
So from there my kids were hankering after another sail so back down the A45 to Draycote, sailing kit on and in the most breeze either of them have been in (F3) we went out sailing in my dads Solo again... took Rowan out first.. think we may have gotten onto the plane in the gusts he enjoyed it, a bit of spray and tipping (a little intrepidation from him) and then he had a helm, did some "sitting-out" and we had a good few "blasts" up and down the lake.... then it was Flynns turn, again lots of spray, he had a little helm and he did (for a 3 yr old) some major hiking out... so much in fact that his hat fell off!! Arrghh we did a quick tack and managed to rescue it, just managed to ge thim to see the funny side before tears started so that was cool, so a very soggy youngest son got back to the Shore happy... decided to get eldest a lifejacket... think this is gonna be a regular thing through the summer.... definately gonna have to join... family membership £200-odd...Ouch!
Finished the weekend with - Off to the pub for dinner with family and parents... bed for the kids and we stayed up till it was dark sipping beer, chatting and watching hedgehogs and bats in the garden... I love sailing, I love summer, I love being chilled... night night...
3 comments:
Little kids just love to hike don't they?
That story about Ents crossing the channel reminded me about one of Michael Green's Coarse Sailing stories - got to dig it out and blog about it one day.
Fantastic stuff.It must be great to get the little ones out on the water.
Do any of you have an Ent called Treebeard?
Tillerman - look forward to the story.. I'll do more details about the English Channel crossing as and when I can.
Fuff, Yeh its great to get them on the water they seem to enjoy it and they're not afraid to say when they've had enuff.. so they're happy theyre learning its great.
Not sure about "Treebeard" I mentioned it in a post a year or two ago but noone commented...
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