Birthday

No, not mine. M celebrated another click on the age clock with good grace, and I suspect appreciated the card, but the day was full. As I’ve already mentioned she’s keen on sailing so at 9am we were off to the club – her for a lesson and me to see what I could do with busted ribs. Even raising my elbow above the shoulder is painful at the moment, so hauling sheets is out of the question.

As it turned out she got not one but two lessons in, and I filled in the time doing a shore class for the newbies. This involved explaining how a boat worked, the points of sailing and some tips and tricks for getting on in the club. One bonus was that all the students were keen and eager to learn, and I raised some smiles explaining how things worked. After the lesson I dealt with some individual questions, gave a little (hopefully good) advice and then found the day leader and offered to do dogsbody work.

As it turns out the commodore (or Her Grand Fluffiness as she prefers to be called) needed a hand marking up and sorting some new foul weather gear so we spent a happy couple of hours deciding what to keep and what to chuck. A huge shout out to West Marine (the go-to place for Bay sailing supplies) for giving us a massive discount on foul weather gear. It’s thanks to policies like that which keep the sailing club going, and it’s why I buy most of my sailing gear from there.

M came back from her second sailing lesson with a huge grin on her face and a walk that suggested some serious hiking out and high speed sailing. The wind had picked up and she and her instructor had been scudding over the waves. It’s a joy to see someone when they’ve had the sailing rush and it’s really kicked in.

After the lessons we headed home for brunch (scrambled eggs and smoked salmon) and cava mimosas - although as designated driver I stopped after one. Then we headed into the city for dinner with a good friend and then home for an earlyish night in, we are getting on after all :)