At work, but not at work

Today we had an out of office day.  We met early and were taken to Brightlingsea for a days sailing.  We met at Brighgtlingsea Boat Park and Ride, where we were given some brief instruction and introduced to our skippers.  There were four boats - Brightlingsea class dinghys, with the skipper and two of us on each boat.
We had been told to bring warm cloths, and a complete spare set - which I had done because I was fairly convinced that I would get the prize for first in the water.  After the initial briefing we were provided with 'water proofs' and life jackets. Then it was off to the river side, and the 12 man motor boat that would take us to our dinghy and would be the safety boat for the day.  Our Skipper was Keith, who immediately informed us that he was deaf in one ear and hard of hearing - with a hearing aid in the other.  We were left at our boat while the others were taken to theirs.  Keith began looking at the boat and seemed confused.  He explained this by telling us that the boats are built to the same specification but are fitted out differently. He was having some trouble raising the sail, the mechanism was jammed.  We were quickly found another boat, and towed out of the creek.  I was paired with the only person in our group who had any sort of sailing experience.  We practised turns and the various manoeuvres we would need for the afternoon race.  Almost immediately we had our first brush with the water as my colleague reacted to a situation by pulling the rudder instead of pushing it.  Suddenly, instead of looking at the horizon, I was looking at the other side of the boat!  Keith righted the situation very quickly.  Too soon it was time to head back to the Colne Yacht Club for lunch.

Despite Keith's concerns about the potential speed of the boat - which had lead us to get our excuses in at lunch - we set off for the race.  Backwards and forwards trying to hit the start line at the right time.  Class flag at  minus five minutes accompanied by a hooter, 'Blue Peter' at minus four minutes and another hooter, Blue Peter down at minus one minute, class flag down and the race is on - we were second.  It turned out that our skipper was a former champion racer, and had won eight years in a row.  He knows a lot about racing yachts. His fears though were soon shown to hold water (bad expression) as we were passed by another boat.  Still third is GOOD when you're expecting fourth.

After the race we sailed up another creek, and practised some of our not yet acquired sailing 'skills'.  It was here I dropped the jib ropes at a bad time leaving us still in the water as the other boats caught and passed us.  ( No, it wasn't part of the race, but we were in front for the first time.)  We also ran aground once.  Then back to the moorings as the temperature dipped and I was glad of all the layers of cloths I was wearing. 

Tea and cake rounded of the day nicely.

My shoulder had not been stretched beyond its capabilities, and is still improving.

Our Christmas Event was over for another year.

A very enjoyable day