As we're now living close to so much water, we've always intended to get more involved in water activities and have dabbled with kayaking and snorkelling, but are also intending to try sailing and surfing - of course - at some stage. So when we saw an advert in the local paper last weekend for a free 'Try Yachting Day', Sue and I signed up!
Saturday fortunately turned out to be the best day of weather over the past week and mid-morning we headed up to Pittwater and the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club that was hosting the day's event. There were about 30 people who turned up for the day and after a coffee and short introduction we were allocated our yachts and met by the 'skipper' - in our case, Roger - and it was just the 2 of us joining his yacht.
We followed him out to the jetty and met the rest of the crew - 7 in total - who were preparing the beautiful looking 37-foot yacht and we had a brief explanation of the procedure onboard. I was also allocated a job since they were a crew-member short for the race, which was taking place in the afternoon between about 20 yachts in different classes.
After motoring out from the club and getting the sails and position ready for the start of the race, it all kicked off at 1.30pm and we spent the next 2 hours following a course up and down Pittwater, so plenty of changes in direction and adjustments to the sails. My job was 'dumping' the rope off one side of the boat when we changed tack, so it usually meant that I was one of the first to move from sitting on the side of the yacht, down the angled deck to the rope that was to be released, and then climb up onto the other side of the yacht as it changed direction. Sue was also changing sides at the back of the yacht as she was sitting behind the wheel.
It was quite a windy afternoon and an exhilarating few hours with some time to also enjoy the views and all the yachts behind us, as ours won the race! The crew all work together on a regular basis and were very efficient, plus they were all very welcoming to us both and were happy to answer our questions and explain what was going on! After the race Sue steered the boat back around Scotland Island to the club and, after sorting out the yacht, we all had a beer in the bar where there was a small prize-giving ceremony for the winning yachts.
The day was great fun and we both plan to do more when we can - whether large or small boats!