Dad arrived yesterday morning, having towed the cat all the way from Spain. It had been stripped for the journey so, as you can imagine, rigging it took ‘quite a while’. Jordan was at hand with the camera to catch some sunny pics of confused sailors![/column]
Rigging the spinnaker chute was the most fun as none of us had ever sailed with one before. A quick look at the instructions and we were none the wiser. After a process of logical elimination we were ready for our first voyage – in Fishguard harbour!
A gentle onshore wind was perfect for getting a feel for it. Not sure we got the full hit of the fruit with three people on it!
After a number of dunkings we were starting to look like we knew what we were doing. The audience that had gathered along the breakwater wall was beginning to thin out, obviously having had a good look they discovered that we were just practicing, so not worth watching. Think they were waiting for the Coastguard helicopter etc. No such luck.
Jordan had telephoned the coastguard prior to our Big Launch informing them where we were going, our expected return time and that we would be practicing capsizing and righting the cat, so if they did get any 999 calls from worried bystanders, it was all planned and we were OK.
The water was surprisingly warm. Handling was sluggish, not sure if it was lack of wind, number of people on board making us ride low in the water or just that its a cat (slightly larger than a Topper Dinghy).
I’ll take the camera on our next adventure and get some pics of her on the water. Hopefully the dogs can come along too!
