Sailing The Blackwater: Maylandsea Bay: call that Frostbite

With the sun rising out of Canvey Island and setting in Thurrock it was the best of days with bright blue skies and a building westerly breeze. The wadding birds had at last freed themselves from the ice-topped saltings and were once more flickering in the sky in huge numbers.

The fleet was much reduced, may be attending burst pipes or worse, but the hardcore management team appeared on an upper and it was Billy, The Galley’s birthday, 18 a number long forgotten by the management team but recognized as a Lotto number.

The Race Box this week was in the good hands of Paul Wilkinson. A mid distance course was posted and the fleet took to the water. With space to spare it might well be that the adrenalin was not pumping with the fleet making a casual, almost an “after you” type affair.

Well that was all but Kevin and Philip ‘Fireball’ who appeared to have lost the plot, drifting up to the line with an abstract approach not often seen on the Mayland start line. It was not to be Kevin and Philips day, for later following two crash jibes, a wobble and a broach struggling to round the Jetty mark, the pairing were the first to enter the Splat the Duck competition, and gain a place in this series.

Jenny Ball, ‘Laser radial’, had a good day winning the start and ripping up the first beat to mark one and leaving Peter, ‘Laser’, for dead. Jenny lost out a tad to Peter on the reaching legs but stayed in touch to finish 3rd ahead on corrected time by 6 seconds and in the 2nd race 4th with an error free race to be 3rd overall.

Peter Playle, ‘Laser’, stretched some muscle, sailed a flat boat and enjoyed the days racing having seen off Martin Tarling, ‘Laser’, by two minutes in the previous race (Today Martin was taking a lay day) but Peter always a good competitor made light work of the 14 to 18 knots and showed no sign of resentment at not leading the Splat the Duck competition, finishing with a 4th and a 2nd to be 2nd overall.

Is the Jacko jam pot dripping? “Maybe” and what of the head cam bit? Is Lorna going to tolerate seeing if Jacko is turned on? How long does it take to kill battery life in subzero conditions? A request to ware the head cam hat back to front so footage of the trailing Fireball fleet could be seen quickly fell apart as it would need to be (sideways on to get the footage but then the chin strap would need to be held in the wearers mouth and as Jacko rarely keeps his trap shut it can be, and anyway footage of the lovely Lorna would be more fun than the align trailing Fireball fleet.

And what of the race; well it was not a bad Merlin day and Lorna was gagging for it. The kite work was spot on, all but when Jacko forgot to pull the guy string, dropping it under the bow. The race was full on and with L’s encouragement Jacko was seen to sit out and look nearly fit. The pairing finished with two bullets to be first overall