Poor Chessie, broken collar-bone damned those white horses..
Me.. no buddy-crew... no Ent sailing...
So not sure what happened for those lucky 20-odd Ent sailors who went upto Tynemouth.. all i've heard is that Steve (young Charlie crewing) got a 5th and a 9th on Saturday with Tim and I guess Salty crewing were leading after two races..and that Steve was well on the way to being properly soulsailor-oiled when his last Saturday night text reached me.... after that who knows what happened... apparently it was a top weekend but thats all I heard....
Hope you guys had some good breeze and top sailing, be it cruising, training or racing...
So I'm at sat here listening to Bondi FM,
Actually I'm revisiting an old favourite, its a Net radio station, packed full of sunshine and chilled grooves..perfect for what is a damned hot and windless evening...chek it out my little groovers..
Anyway, what did the weekend deliver for soulsailor, well Saturday was a typical family kinda day, Sunday Claire went off shopping with her sister to the big city, and I endeavoured to pack too many activities in with my kids!
Had a good day on the hottest 12 hours of the year, went to the park, had a chilled lunch... I've got a thing for GM bread, ham, mayo and a hint of mango pickle (NOT chutney)...spicy but cool, ye baby.. anyway after luch picked my mum up and we went off to these hills about 40 mins drive away, thank god for air-con... so were up these hills with great views across the south midlands (and the M40), my kids rock climbing, looking for fossils and basically running free which is nice when its a fairly safe environment, then after spending too much time under the sun we went of to Draycote on the way home, my dad rigged the Solo up for us and me and Flynn (the youngest) went for a yacht...
He did a little helming and them spent the rest of his 1/2 hour yacht "fishing" with the main sheet, walking confidently around the boat, splashing the water and then sitting "on the rail" stylee feet dragging in the water having a cool time...
Then me and Rowan went out... Flynn fell over in the water and laughed...oh to be young! Rowan did a load of helming, he looked so confident and "tweaked the tiller" really well to keep us on track... he even took the mainsail and, in a very pleasant F2, I (yep daddy) went and sat by the mast and let him get on with it... he did great, responded to my odd prompt... towards you, centre, pull the main in a bit... it was wicked i was soo proud, the boat slicing through the ripples, sun shining..great.... then he even managed to do a tack...just but it was his first unaided so that was V cool... we talked about doing a capsize drill as it was soo hot, he wasn't keen.. we;ve agreed to do a couple of stages.. next time we sail I;m gonna "drop" him out the boat so he can floagt, fairly close to the sure in his lifejacket and I'll sail back and pick him up... next stage is to do it for real.. looking forward to doing that, I think then he may be ready to try an Optimist... we shall see, no pressure.... so then he went up and sat around the mast and we did some great fun roll-tacks and playing around in the odd puffs of pressure, a cool half hour sail... so boat away, beer and drinks for the kids in the club and then home... top day, nice Sunday...
I've gott a join DWSC now I think, keep taking the boys out..whether I'll buy a boat remains to be seen...not cheap though, guess thats why Soulsailor RAcing Association came into being.... gonna cost me around £200 for the rest of the season AND £30 joining free, i've been a member on an off for over 15 years...a joining fee pisses me off but for the kids I may have to just do... 3 post dated cheques need writing this week or next week...
So this evening, stressy day at work and spent 1/2 hour as the sun was drifting away putting up the "soulsailor gazebo", anyone remember that "construction" we put up at the last Ent nationals in Abersoch... that was a fantastic week.. damned funny watching the gazebo ambling down the beat 'cus we didint tie it down! Well its back up again (with a little help from some tape) and its staked too..so hopefully no wandering and should give the kids some shade from the crappy UK heatwave..and stir memories of Abersoch...groovy...
Right... night time, though I may not sleep cus its damned hot... got chilled tunes dancing round my brain, if you can't sleep then go to Bondi FM....if you do sleep dream of waves and a gentle breeze...or maybe clear blue skies a F4 and a fantastic reach...
4 comments:
Well done Dad. By the way, how old are your kids?
Cheers, 3 & 6.... think I started Optimist sailing at the age of 7...
Yeah - 6 or 7 seems to be the magic age when most kids are able to handle a sailboat on their own. I used to take my boys out for rides on my Laser when they were much younger to get them used to having fun on a boat and holding the tiller etc. but they didn't do Opti classes until they were 7.
Of course your kids have sailing champion genes so are likely to be infant prodigies.
Your boys will be Olympic sailors of the future. I think what you're doing with sailing and them is great.
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