let's go fly a kite...

Another first today.

Finally, the moment arrived to try out the spinnaker. It's something as a dinghy sailor I've never had to do. All of my dinghies have been really simple things, just a small main sail, or a main sail and a foresail. Nothing more complicated than that.

It was first mooted at the end of last year so I dug under my bed in the forepeak and found the huge bag of magical mystery material. I pulled it all out for inspection in the comfort of a warm club house. the whole thing was packed nicely, pulled out again, packed nicely again and then stashed away back under my bed.
The plan to go out with it between 25th and 31st of December never came to fruition, tides all awkward to get out of the marina and then strong winds set it back.

But then it all came together today, after a furious 1 hour of tidying below to make it safe, the engine started nicely after 3 months of sleeping and the small can of spray oil made slippy all the moving parts of the spinnaker pole.

Spray hood down... chug out of the marina for the fist time since December and what a fabulous day!

and my best friend came along for the ride to show off her catalogue pose.

all in all, a successful first go at flying a boat-kite.

the 25 hour day

I was lucky to be able to join a late season trip to Dunkirk on the local RYA school boat Piranha, run by crouch sailing school.

What I didn't realise was that I would be finishing my coastal skipper practical during the trip.

I joined 3 other crew (Caterina, Steve, Hugh) and skipper/instructor Nick.

Amazingly good weather meant we had a lovely trip over the channel and back again.
Excellent sea conditions too. The best way to spend the clock change weekend with the extra hour.

I really really enjoyed it.

the direct link to the pics: Dunkirk trip

claustrophobic

I'm enjoying having the facility to enable me to power my heater. Its nice. Its convenient.
I'm also enjoying not having to row out in the storms and heavy weather we've had over the past two months.
But I crave some space to breath.

Being in the marina I'm so convenient for people to just pop in and see me.

I dread the tap tap tap in a morning at a weekend. When I'm trying to catch up on sleep deprivation. When I'm catching up on some "me" time.

My day job is quite intense. People asking something of me every few minutes throughout the day. I commute on a packed train, I answer the phone, I answer the people I work with constantly. They bombard me with requests. We demand this, we demand that.
It feels like this Billy Connolly sketch:



So, I crave solace.

I do not crave company.
I do not crave love.
I do not crave hugs.

I'm really looking forward to being back out in the river.

six weeks until my marina mooring ends. Lets just hope the weather warms up a bit.
Otherwise I'm going to be cold.

Marshmallow boat

It snowed.