The early morning weather was marvellous, sun shining, a light breeze. All looked to be a good day for a sail. A further look at the forecast showed cloudy skies, strong winds, a short shower around 9.00 a.m. What do we believe? We decided to go ahead with Sailability as it still looked like a beautiful day, despite the rotten forecast, but at least if we had to abandon it wold have all been worth the effort.
So our fantastic team of volunteers went down and sat in the pouring rain for twenty minutes or so, while consuming tea and coffee. Slowly, the rain decreased, down to almost nothing, and the wind was also decreasing down to almost nothing. This was our moment: the A team arrived with their helpers, Greg and Kerry. The boats were rigged, Charlies Chariot picked up, radio tested, and the rain stopped, leaving cloud, a very slight southerly breeze, and many willing people. The A team consists of Alistair, Adam and Andrew. These three had a great time on the water, as the breeze started to blow by the time they were out there.
Then Ben, Kane, Adonis, Krissy, Tamara, Luke and Rodney arrived with helpers Amber, Annie, Jack and Nathan. Rodney chose Charlies Chariot for his ride, and the others all sailed. By this time, the wind had swung around to South Easterly….a great breeze for us because it is regular and strong, and easy to get over to the other side and back again.
It wasn’t long before the 2 Alans, Danielle, Dianne, Brad, Steve, Carlo, Stuart, May, Denise, Peter and Patrick arrived with helpers Gaynor, Alan and Bella. By this time, the weather had settled into a steady light rain but that breeze had risen to around 10 knots. Several of these decided to sit it out under shelter, but Steve, Carlos and Brad sailed while May and Peter supervised from Charlie’s Chariot.
Callen and Alex from Sargood arrived with helper, Jacob. By this time, we had our three strongest sailors on the water, so these guys had a fantastic sail across the bay and back again several times, enjoying the heeling and righting of the 303’s.
Our fabulous crew for the day was:
Sailing Coordinator: Brian. (We’ll give you this job again, Brian.)
Radio: Corey and Tony.
Registrar: Helen.
Charlies Chariot: Warwick and Eli.
Sailors: David W, David G, Ragnhild, Jackie, John.
On the pontoon; Alan, what a great job, Thanks, Alan.
Helping in other sundry ways were new volunteer; Donelle, Nola, Mark.
Putting away was swift and efficient, thanks everyone for helping, and being part of the team.
- Jackie and Alastair in Woody
- Helpers of a A Team , Kerry and Greg
- David W and Adam in Alex
- Andy and John in Ralph Newman
- Ragnhild and Tamara in Eli D
- May in Charlie’s Chariot
- Ragnhild and Callen in Ralph Newman
