As of last Friday, I officially became another year older. A fairly routine day at work was lifted by Dad buying me lunch at my favourite café, and then that evening he took Nikki and I out to my daughter's pub, The Old Restoration over in neighbouring Cheltenham, where they were hosting their usual open mic night.
I bought supper for us all in return for Dad's driving, so enjoyed a drink or two, and then I took my spot on the stage at around 2230 for a few songs. Some friends, Jack, Leah and Loki, kindly joined me so I guess you could say I had a new band for my birthday. We played a couple of covers together and one of my own songs. It was very good fun, and the audience were very kind.
The following morning I failed to get up in time to make it to karate. Not a grand start to my 51st year, but we still have plenty of time to remedy the failing. I shall start on that this evening.
A lazy day on Saturday was followed by a surprisingly riotous gig with my "proper" band at The Dolphin in Oldland Common, on the outskirts of Bristol. I then successfully managed to drag myself out of bed the following morning despite the previous late night, to make it to South Cerney to rig the Albacore with Amanda in time for the first race.
It was a chilly start to the morning. The temperature overnight had fallen to -2°C so I had to crack the ice of the boat cover before I could remove it. The sun was bright however, but the wind was very light and shifty. As the morning warmed, the sky became dotted with fluffy cumulus, crowning thermals as the irregularly warmed air began to lift. My guess is that the disruption of the lifting air either amplified the very light breeze, completely dampened it or even, on occasion, shifted it unexpectedly by up to 180°.
It was though basically very light and extremely shifty. But surprisingly good fun, usually enough to keep the boats moving, and so made for some very good, very tactical racing. Our friend Andy and his partner gave us a good run for our money in their Graduate for its first outing of the year, beating us on the water in the first race by about 30 seconds, and so easily taking the win and putting us into second after the timings were adjusted for our respective handicaps. The Grad is, theoretically, a much slower boat than the Albacore. It wasn't in that first race, though!
The second race saw us neck and neck for most of it, until we were able to finally pull out ahead of them on the penultimate lap. We nipped around the second windward mark just in front of the Flying Fifteen fleet and found clean air for our run back down, but left the Graduate swamped amidst their pretty spinnakers as they all followed us around. The clean break gave us enough of a lead to finish first on the water and still 11 seconds ahead of the Grad after the timings were adjusted for handicap, giving us a win for the second race and a good start to the Spring Series.
Getting home from the Club that afternoon, Nik and I were treated to a visit from our son Ben and his partner Hannah, up from Bristol to wish me a happy birthday.
A lovely finish to a very fine weekend.
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