Our fabulous Wednesday team poured into Manly Yacht Club early after the news that the weather was gorgeous early, but could change during the day to windy and unpleasantly cold.
Michael B was our irrepressible Sailing Coordinator, John the Support Boat Driver, with Michael S as observer and photographer, Jim, Jeremy, Vince, Jonathan, our fantastic sailors, Corey on the radio, Denis taking care of the rigging, Brian and Eli on the pontoon, Helen as registrar.
We decided that 30 minutes was probably as much as our young participants would need, as the wind came up, the waves became quite tall and we had many people up on deck waiting for a turn.
First group to arrive was Arranounbai Special School, with their brave contingent: Gigi, Alex, Miguel, Ethan and Bernardo, who chose to ride on Charlie’s Chariot. Jenny and Michala were the chief helpers for this group.
Northside arrived next, with Jamie, Ella, Alysse, Tarek with helper, Marie. They all loved their sail in the strengthening breeze, and were all proud of the wetness of their clothes when they disembarked.
Then came the tiny fivesome from Fisher Rd; Sai, James, Edgar, Riley, Sam are all loving their sailing now that we are getting to the end of their sailing sessions. Sandy the teacher is becoming such an expert volunteer for us, we welcome her to our ranks.
Next group to arrive was Sunnyfields with Vanessa, Luke and Anna with helper Tomoko. At some stage, Ben arrived with Mum, Betty, and went off for his sail.
Last of all, the Fighting Chance bus arrived with our final group for the day: George, David, Nina, Sophie, Vanessa, Sharon, and last of all, Sascha, who ended up too timid to actually go out sailing, but did manage to sit in the boat for a few minutes. Thanks so much to the helpers of this group who were such a help to us, with the waiting time, and helping to place their participants into the boats.
But wait, all is not finished, our beautiful Zoe arrived with her new helper, cheerfully embarked with Jim, and was still smiling when she came back, wanting to tell everyone how wet she was.
The wettest of all was our Michael B, our incomparable Sailing Coordinator who ended up soaked through to the skin after a fall caused by a determined rudder, which did not want to come out until it had dropped a sailor into the water.
In the meantime, poor David W was working in the boat room, repairing the servo, Alan Wood, which hopefully will be ready by next weekend so that Judith can go for a sail. This job was going so slowly that David did not have the opportunity to go sailing.
Thanks so much to everyone who came to Sailability today, it is days like this that we really appreciate our volunteering choice.
