The first camp of the year was held over the May Bank Holiday weekend. The prospect of good weather encouraged 25 people from Cody to come sailing.
There were eleven boats. It was dry weather but slightly cool at night for those camping. With a low tide in the harbour roughly in the middle of the day, a sail with a lunch time stop at East Head was the objective for the Saturday sail.
The start was delayed by a lack of wind before it appeared and the disappeared again as we launched. The boats sailing included a few Comet trios: (club boat and privately owned), a Wayfarer, a Pacer, an RS Vision and a Weta Catamaran. Wondering what to do with no wind and the tide turning to go slightly against us, we debated landing on Cobnor point. Then, suddenly, the wind did fill in and we were able to do a slow sail to East Head to windward, presumably from a sea breeze. We had a late lunch on the beach before heading back to Cobnor. On the way back the wind had shifted 180 degrees and it was again a windward sail! However, the wind was a now more consistent and we had the tide with us so got back to Cobnor relatively quickly.
The evening was pleasantly sunny but it was cold once the sun had gone down. A small camp fire helped warm people up, except for a few that went out to dinner at the pub in Chidham village.
The next day, Sunday, was quite a bit more windy with a Force 5 forecast. The wind was North Easterly and we had a low tide near lunchtime. This meant that our options for a lunchtime stop were limited. We tried to find a beach that was not a North to Easterly facing that we could land on for lunch at low tide to avoid a lee shore. Unfortunately, most of the beaches in Chichester Harbour that are not North to East facing and can only be reached at a higher state of tide. So, it was decided to do a later sail to Dell Quay when the tide was high and which would not be on a lee shore. However, some attendees had only planned to come for the day so a lunchtime sail was arranged as well which included the possibility of landing at Hayling Island SC. However, when we set off, we discovered the wind was quite frisky. One of the boats did capsize and after a lively sail we decided not to sail to Hayling Island but to return back to Cobnor.
By the evening the wind had moderated a bit and a few boats did a lovely evening sail to Dell Quay and had supper at the pub. We were joined by Ginny in her lovely new boat (see below) that she had built herself and displayed at the RYA dinghy show.
After stopping at the pub, we went back to Cobnor in the setting sun. It was nice chatting around the camp fire once again and to warm up.
The next day, Bank Holiday Monday, the wind was once again quite a bit frisky so most decided not to sail and went for a walk instead or packed up camp. The walk around Cobnor point is delightful and a bird watchers paradise, with many wading birds. Most of us had packed up and gone by Monday afternoon.
It was lovely weekend and a great camp to start the main sailing camp season. Simon M.