I have not posted much about sailing because I have not done much. I feel guilty about this, not about not posting but about not sailing.

I think there are several reasons.

The first is the Geneva Ski Syndrome. If you live in Geneva you only go ski-ing if the snow is perfect and the weather is beautiful. If you go on a ski holiday from Middlesborough, you ski all day, every day, even if the conditions are atrocious. If you live in Okinawa substitute sailing for ski-ing.

Another reason is technology. I have an app which is amazing. It is Windy. It tells me exactly what the wind strength, wind direction, wave height, temperature, rain possibility will be.

In the er old days, you had a look around and if things were not too bad you would go sailing. If things turned out to be too hairy you would go back again.

Now you look at your IPhone, 12-15 knots of wind? North east wind, 1.5 meter wave height. Ooh, better not go out. Windy doth make cowards of us all.

Another reason is age. I am not as sprightly as I once was.

Anyway you will remember that the boat filled up with water in incredible rains before I was able to rig the cover. Read this https://thequietripple.com/2020/10/22/wet/

A few days ago, I take off the cover and survey the damage. All the lockers are full of water, everything in the lockers, tool boxes, rope, picnic table, cleaning stuff, clothing, etc etc are full of water. I pump and swab out all the water and give everything a clean. It is now beautiful weather and the contents of the boat lie steaming at the pontoon.

So today, at last, I go for a wonderful sail. It is the very end of October but still air and sea are warm.

We sailed out a few miles, just looking at the sea. Then we went about and sailed back in. Ha! what was interesting about sailing back in was a 30 foot Bermuda rig yacht that was also heading for the marina. She was way ahead of us but we were going faster and we caught right up. Not sure the big boat was trying very hard. The Norfolk Gypsy is a good boat.