Weekend plans

I have a free pass.

Because Nik has this coming weekend off work, I’d offered to take her out to lunch after sailing on Sunday, thinking it was just the one race at the Club, 1100 start, done by noon. Then I realised I’d run out of February without noticing, and the Icicle Series was now over. This coming Sunday the official racing season starts again, kicking off with the first of the club championship races; a three race day, two races to qualify, with 1200, 1400 and 1545 starts respectively.

I had been looking forward to spending the day with Nik. It doesn’t happen very often. And obviously I wasn’t going to stand her up. Yesterday evening I mentioned my mistake, said the 11am start was actually a 12 noon, but I’d only sail the one race so lunch would just be an hour later. She was cool with that. I was conflicted, after all I am what I am, but I kept that to myself; I was looking forward to lunch, disappointed to miss sailing, sure, but determined not to let her down.

And then a phone call this morning, just the usual call to say good morning and check she got to work okay, and she said, without any prompting from me, that I should sail all three races on Sunday, and instead she’d stay home and cook a roast for supper. It was like my birthday and Christmas all come at once. She actually sounded amused.

I think maybe she's planning to go out with her friends Sunday evening, so is angling for the moral high ground, but that's okay; good for the goose is good for the gander.

I’m actually really looking forward to the weekend. I’ll still take Nik out for lunch Saturday instead of Sunday, then a gig Saturday night. Then come Sunday, the current forecast looks like the day’s racing could be very entertaining.

18 knots, gusting 30+ from the south-west. It almost certainly won't come in that hard or that clean, south-west is straight in up the estuary, but if it does, it's going to be an absolute blast. I'll be sailing Amanda's Enterprise with her; I love sailing double-handers in a blow, especially when you've got a crew that's as tough as nails and afraid of neither hiking hard not getting wet when all the hard hiking in the world proves to be not enough.