Sometimes I have a glut of friends volunteering to crew. This time my luck was out. They all said it would be great but.... As Little Dragon hadn't been out for a while I decided to go down to BRSC anyway knowing the forecast was excellent.
With a spot of help to stand the mast I rigged and with a helping push was launched. No spare crew hanging around the club that morning so I set off single handed. I prudently headed up towards the Harwood Bridge against the tide and the very light head wind. It took me two hours to tack up there and run back to the club house feeling ready for the ham and salad roll that I had equally prudently ordered earlier. I surprised myself by really enjoying being out solo, a quite different experience to chatting with a crew - although perhaps I won't venture out solo in stronger winds. What surprised me even more was being met by the BRSC rescue launch on my run back. Members were getting concerned about my welfare - late for lunch is not a Ditton trait. I was just fine.
The other reason that the rescue launch was coming for me was to tell me that they had found me a crew for the afternoon racing. Slightly crossed wires - I have no intention of racing this year. My racing crew, Richard from Sydney, looked very crestfallen. We reached a quick compromise. I would take a 15 minute break for my ham and salad roll and a cuppa and then we would join in and "gamon race". It turned out that Richard is a boat owner and an enthusiastic racing skipper. So I said "go for it" and he happily took the helm, but I did stipulate that we shouldn't get in the way of anyone competing in the club points series. That wasn't a problem as Little Dragon was, as usual, slower than the rest of the fleet. I am not at all sure if I made the right choice to crew not helm. It was hard work leaping around the foredeck getting our whisker pole out on each short run.
No photos this time - bit hard when single handed and/or gamon racing and I haven't got into the current craze of selfies.
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