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Getting back on the water

Having had issues with my shoulder from the Race To Scotland adventure it was great to get back out on the water this weekend to give it a lightweight workout in the Highcliffe Sailing Club Icicle Series. The forecast was for light winds (something I’m not so strong at sailing in) and a wind chill of around 1 degree – so the not the most motivational welcome back to sailing, but I needed to give the shoulder a try out. Luckily there were plenty of visiting Aero sailors from the local area and all of “Team Highcliffe” were out, questioning each others sanity for sailing in these conditions. Having broken off the ice from Yoda’s boat cover the next decision was whether to wear the fur lined hat with ear muffs or man up and get my Rooster beanie out. In the end the fear of the heckling I would receive meant the Rooster beanie won out! The first race involved 4 attempts at starting before we got a good one – hanging around for 20 minutes in those temperatures isn’t fun! The first race was slow – and as I said earlier I’m not good in light wind conditions- so I was slow and towards the bottom half of the race. The plus of a slow race is that you get to chat to fellow sailors – yes they can be friendly when not totally focused on winning a race – and all the sailors around me were not going to be winning the race! I even had time to check out the sail settings of other Aeros to see what works better in light winds – handy because I need to improve if only to reduce the length of my sailing days on Yodare!! By the end of the race there were no complaints from my shoulder and the wind started to pick up a little for the second race. This inspired me to get a better start and by the end of the three “not so slow” laps of the course I’d improved on my Race 1 performance by several places. The sailing club and tea were both hot and welcoming after the races and it was good to know that the shoulder felt OK – hopefully it will last out the 130 plus islands of 2019! Here’s looking forward to having a blog about going round an island rather than a race course!