Becalmed
28 May 2018 Bank holiday Monday and a cruiser race was due to start at 1030. After hanging around the clubhouse I found a couple of new members Viktor and Barbara keen to have a go, so off we went. It was a bright sunny day with a nice wind in the river from the North and we set out in good spirits expecting some decent sailing conditions. Race officer Nick had set a start line just outside the river entrance and there were about six yachts milling around waiting for the start. The wind was dropping away all the time. For the first time we saw an actual seal swimming along behind my Seal 22 which was quite exciting. We positioned ourselves up-tide of the start line with two minutes to go just as the wind dropped to zero, so the tide carried us through the line for what turned out to be quite a decent start as half the fleet were becalmed well out of position! Turning to port we aimed the boat at the South mark just as the wind switched to a SWly and we picked up a bit of spe