So, Rolf has this boat, right, which – quite frankly – costs an awful amount of money to keep and to sail. And he lets people come and sail with him, without charging them for it. Even so he has problems getting enough crew members to sail some of the regattas. Is it just me, or is this a bit strange? Does Rolf know only weird people? (Well, he knows me, I’m weird, is that evidence? But I will come sailing as often as I possibly can, and I won’t be a beginner – also known as landlubber – forever, so eventually I might even be really useful on deck.)
The boat is lovely, by the way. She’s an Elan 40 called Spirit of Islay, and has her own website.
Anyway, we were out for a few hours this afternoon. There did not seem to be any wind at all but we got a sail called a “windseeker” up and suddenly there was a little wind after all. Very strange. I obviously have a bit to learn about wind and such. The boys got to practice exchanging the windseeker for the “Genoa 1 light”, putting the latter up on the “inside” before hauling the former down. While they were busy at this I was set to tend to the helm, which seemed a bit rash (“You know I can’t even drive a car, right?”), but was fun. And then they decided to try the spinnaker, and the wind promptly disappeared again.
And it rained most of the time. Still, sailing. All v.g.