Changeable

Not a bad day's sailing. Considering we had 3 boats out of action due to them being elsewhere, and another 4 boats out of action due to their owners being elsewhere, I guess a turnout of 5 boats was pretty good. Great to have Mo & Holly back too.

The AM race was OK, albeit all the reaches were a bit broad due to the wind being less than expected.  We got ourselves a bit of a lead and prepared to repel any advances from Mo & Holly or Nick & Karen, but they spent most of their time scrapping with each other and never really got close.  Bob & Paul fought it out further back with Helen & Paul in the fleet boat, the latter eventually retiring with a broken tiller extension.

During the PM race the wind built up to something genuinely interesting. Our start was a good one, in that we arrived at the committee boat, got the kite down, gybed round it and then sailed across the line as the gun went, but it didn't leave much time for getting the course. So Nick and Karen were leading at P, with us just behind so we wouldn't go off the wrong way. Then they had an unexpected kite in the water and under the boat issue and had to park up to fix it. We zoomed off towards H at high speed, thinking to take in the committee boat en-route and get the course from that, but the wind was too strong so we gave up on that idea and just winged it from there (round H and back through the gate), and it seemed to turn out OK. Then a lap later the wind dropped to zero and we retired at OL, leaving Mo and Bob & Paul to limp over to an impromptu finish line and take the honours.

Good fun, but it highlights the difference between having enough boats out there and not having enough boats out there.  With a turnout of 6+, it always seems pretty good, but get down to 3 or 4 and it gets far less interesting.  Hopefully the missing boats and owners will all return refreshed from the menders & mountains respectively, and we can get back to business as usual.