A warm sunny day, a SSW breeze F3 gusting 4, an incoming tide, our old Mirror dinghy and a couple of hours free to enjoy it all!
We rig her up and get her on the water. We sail her up river to Windy Corner where the River Medina is at her widest and there is plenty of room for a small dinghy to frolic in the breeze, get very wet in the spray and bounce through the lively wavelets.
Skipper at the helm, me as crew we reached our little dinghy back and forth across the river just for the fun of it! not going anywhere, not racing around buoys but just making our way from one bank to the other.
I planned to take a lot more photos but as the wind got up in the afternoon it became quite gusty, I needed to have both hands for the jib sheet to control the little front sail (jib) to spill the wind if necessary if the gust was a bit strong.
Our little dinghy was flying nicely along and we were entertainment for the yachts circling in a queue for the lock gate at Island Harbour Marina. There are great advantages to having a little boat, we were sailing- they were motoring, sails away waiting for a mooring- we were enjoying the breeze.
From the shore, walkers were taking holiday snaps of the river and our little dinghy, I'm sure she looked energetic and happy taking the white spray over her bows and getting me soaked through and salted!
After a lovely sail we had built up a good appetite so we headed back down river to the dinghy park and The Folly Inn. The tide by now was right up to the shoreline which means no long hauls out on the trolley or wading through mud. Instead we sail right up to the pub. Of course when the pub is full of folk watching you do this I'm always thinking I'd better get this right with such an audience!
Turn into wind, lower the main, raise the centre board, have a paddle at the ready in case it's needed but much better to use the jib to gently sail to shore, land smoothly and disembark gracefully.
Yeap this time 10 out of 10, that felt good- I have been known to get in a pickle such as get the centre board jammed or trip over ropes. Thankfully with a packed pub watching our little dinghy behaved.
Looking forward to our next Cast Off
A cool drink and a late afternoon lunch.
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