From too much wind to too little

What a weekend. Too much wind on Saturday 3 September and initially not enough the next day. Nicky, one of my regular crews, came down this time with her husband Rob. He is not interested in sailing (but is a bird watcher having been a gamekeeper in Scotland) so he stayed ashore. He shone at backing Little Dragon down the ramp and holding her until we were ready to head off and then having the trailer back on the ramp when the time came to pack up. Come again Rob!



There was a strong NW so we reefed. The observations at Yamba said 18 knots gusting 23 knots although it was probably a little less up at Harwood. Very, very gusty. It was a club championship race and we signed up just for a bit of practice although the rest of the fleet were all dinghies. By the time we got to the start the committee boat had turned into the rescue boat and was zooming around attending to capsizes. So not only did we DNF we also DNS. I wasn't at all surprised that the second race was cancelled. Little Dragon handles well in those conditions and it was comforting to know that the rescue boat was out if... But the only injury was to my arm which was almost pulled out of it's socket holding the mainsheet. Maybe it's a warped sense of fun, but Nicky and I agreed we had fun. No photos that day - too busy handling the boat.

The next day was so different. In the early morning there was a light SE but by the time we launched it dropped to almost dead calm. Initially we motor sailed but after half an hour or so a light afternoon breeze set in and we had a pleasant sail up to the bridge and back.