Stellar!

Why are some days on the water kind of blah - and then just when you least expect it you have a day that brings a huge smile to your face?

Yesterday afternoon was one of those special sailing sessions that make you glad to be alive, glad you sail a Laser, and glad you have such good friends to go Laser sailing with.

The only word to describe it is… stellar.

Stellar - definition:

exceptionally good, outstanding, 

marvelous, outstanding, superb, 

first-rate, out of this world.

The omens were not good at first.

On Monday I had floated the idea to a few friends of sailing Lasers in Bristol on Tuesday afternoon 

We agreed to check the weather forecast on Tuesday morning.

One of my friends was concerned the winds would be too light.

I had seen some forecasts that suggested we would get showers and even thunderstorms.

Tuesday morning was very foggy with no wind.

In the end we decided to go sailing anyway.

At lunch time the fog cleared and a southerly breeze started to build up the bay.

When we launched in Bristol around 2:30pm there was a juicy 10-12 knot breeze from the south that was stirring up some interesting crunchy waves.

We raced WL courses with rabbit starts around a couple of government marks.

Somehow I had got it in my head over the winter that this is about the most boring way imaginable to spend a couple of hours on the water.

I was wrong. We all had a blast.

It was one of those days that repaid hiking hard, sailing the boat flat, and working the boat through the bigger waves upwind. In spite of my sore back on Monday after sailing on Sunday, I threw myself 100% into the fray and worked as hard as I could.

It felt fast upwind and my back wasn't hurting. Is adrenaline a painkiller?

Downwind it was possible to catch rides on some of better waves and I played around with different angles until I found out what seemed fast. I felt loose and relaxed in the boat.

I can't remember the last time I had so much fun in a Laser.

And so to Redlefsens for some pasta and a couple of glasses of Warsteiner Dunkel, and the usual exchange of information about why A was faster than B today and the usual trash talking about all our sailing friends who weren't there. (Only joking people.)

Stellar!