Easter Monday with Charlie and Barney

17 April 2017

My niece Charlie and her husband Barney came to see us and to go sailing today. There was a cruiser race going on but we'd decided beforehand that we were just going to go out for a bit to potter around. The clubhouse was fairly quiet so we left Catherine with a cup of tea and got the boat ready.

Charlie and Barney live aboard a narrowboat near Oxford so I knew they'd be OK with tiller steering. Leaving Barney on the helm I went forward to hoist the main, and got it good and tight this time, Very light winds in the river so plenty of time to get it right before we motored out to sea. Charlie particularly enjoyed waving at the people along the harbour wall.

We could see the cruiser race fleet in the distance but there was hardly any wind. We got the genoa unrolled and had a quiet and pleasant sail up and down near the harbour entrance, Barney on the helm. We tacked around a couple of times looking for wind but in the end we just enjoyed the peace and quiet. We could hear the sounds of Littlehampton and the waves on the pebbles. A couple of motor boats passed nearby. The mainsail seemed to set well though without wind it was hard to tell!






After about 45 mins it was time to go back and we had a slow motor up and down the river looking at the boats, then I went to the mast and we dropped and flaked the main away before I drove us back into the berth. Catherine was waiting patiently in the clubhouse and Charlie had brought a big rhubarb crumble cake which was just the job!


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