Sorry, it's been a while. No big changes here, just the usual thing: life getting in the way of sailing. Today was my first day out on the water this year. Even by my tardy standards, this was late in the year to get started, and it wasn't even on Arabella. Instead, I hosted29 colleagues and clients for a day's racing in three Beneteau 40.7s, laid on by Ondeck.*Lots of fun in some not-especially-demanding races - but for me the important thing was to get some practice in on foredeck work and hoisting/dropping the spinnaker in light winds. With the Round The Island Race looming in a couple of weeks, I wanted to keep working on my confidence and ability with my least favourite sails.
After four hoists and drops, and a few dip-pole gybes, I felt a bit more comfortable.
*Note: I received a typical 'Mr Angry' email during my recent lengthy absence offline. My febrile correspondent accused me of using my amateur - or is that amateurish? - blog to disseminate disguised advertising for Ondeck and demanding a full explanation of my connection with them. I was too busy doing stuff in the real world to be bothered to compose a reply mounting a spirited defence against a raving troll lurking in the virtual realm. But just in case you're wondering, I am a satisfied customer, who pays full market rates like anyone else, and just once, for this year's Round The Island Race (reported here) my firm and theirs joined forces to get publicity out for the sole purpose of raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support. Anyway, this is my blog and if I want to say Ondeck a lot, I will...