Something was in the air again. Sailability Manly, almost blown away by the last few days of strong winds, again surfaced on a perfect sailing day, along with our wonderful team of volunteers for Wednesdays.
Denis, Helen, Ken, Rob, Ragnhild, Luke again arrived bright and early to put 7 boats out because we were expecting 5 or 6 people with a disability, as well as 22 volunteers, some of whom needed some more training before they are certified as competent. One by one, the others walked in, until our full complement was there. John W, Eli, Caroline, Wilma, Warwick, Heather, Jennie, Michael, Corey, Jim, Ivan, John B, Peter, and Helene took their places either in the Hansas, on Charlie’s Chariot, or on the pontoon. Charlie’s Chariot, which had been not quite securely enough tied to the deck took off on a journey on his own before being spotted by the eagle eyes of Ken and Warwick. Ken and Rob hopped into a rigged Hansa, and caught him before he rammed any of the moored boats, to be motored back to the pontoon.
Slowly, our participant sailors arrived for their sail: Jack took off with Rob in Vin and had a very leisurely sail around Manly Cove. Monique arrived next with Natalia, then the Sargood crew, Ken, under the watchful eye of Jake, who took off with Jim looking like a masked ranger in Black Swan. Later, Ben also had a sail with Jim.
Rob brought Jack back for a ride in Charlie’s Chariot, and swapped sailors to Limor. Limor’s son, Shalev also had a sail close to Mum, but with great speed and lots of leaning over the side. Kel arrived with Harrison, and Harrison’s twin brother, James. James is learning to sail so that he will be able to take Harrison for a sail sometime in the future, and Harrison’s priorities are to sit comfortably in the boats and enjoy the ride. Anthea, (otherwise known as MUM) and another son, Rex took off in Charlie’s Chariot so that they could watch this spectacle, so the whole family took advantage of this experience.
Today certainly got the vote of the best days sailing this year, even beating those November days.
Everything was packed back away by everyone cooperating and having fun wetting each other under the hose. A special thanks to Helen and Wilma who coped with all of those signatures, contact details, masks and sanitising used equipment, and of course to Corey, who managed the radio and recorded times boats were out.
- Jack and Rob in Vin
- Warwick and Caroline in Eli D
- Sharing Manly Cove with us
- Monique and John in Ralph Newman
- Ben and Jim in Black Swan
- Harrison and John in Ralph Newman
- Warwick and Ken in ELI D
- Rex watching brother Harrison from Charlie’s Chariot. Great photo, Heather.
