Sailing in Cowes Week - 01

Life on the Ocean Wave – 35 years later!

Back in time … I used to crew on a regular basis first of all in the River Mersey (Near Liverpool) then later on the Menai Straits (North Wales). But when I moved away from the sailing club, I packed in sailing mainly because I was no longer near the sea.

35 years later, I was at the county show in Newport (Isle of Wight) when I came across a charity “Saleability”. I chatted to one of the volunteers explaining that I wanted to get back into sailing but not done so for a long time. They said to come down on Monday before noon and I could go out on their boat. However, it was the ‘wrong’ charity because the one I wanted was Autism on the Water. They have a nice steady cruise yacht to plod around the Solent.

Autism On The Water

I chatted to the guys at Saleability and they said you would be bored with our group but would be better off sailing with ACF (next door). A nice lady phoned Matt to mention they have found a victim with sailing experience and is autistic. I could imagine his eyes lightening up.

“Come down tomorrow” Matt said so I did and we had a long chat about the charity, sailing etc. “Be here on Friday for a short training session”. Matt needed to check out my experience in boats.

We went out on Friday and I had a go at working the jib, the main and helming. It was good fun.

“Be here tomorrow for 9am” Matt said, “we will be racing.”

To be continued ….