This is probably the wettest and greyest summer I can remember, but even so, we have had full Youth Sailing Weeks running since the start of July and the weather hasn’t damped our spirits or stopped the fun!
Chris went away three weeks ago for a week, leaving Breesh and me with eight kids for the week. All future staff holidays have subsequently been cancelled! Thanks to Tom Howitt for stepping in to help for the week. It was an enjoyable week. George and Hugh passed their Stage 1, Kit and Laura returning from last year completed their Stage 2, Tia and Isla have nearly completed Stage 3 and James and Greg had a good week building up their experience in the 420 in preparation for Stage 4.
Chris arrived back in work on the Tuesday morning of the following week a wee bit tired after the Steam Packet had made some slight adjustments to their ferry schedule ‘Sorry Sir but you will need to go to Heysham and won’t be home until 6am’. No sympathy from us though, Breeshey had worked many extra hours the previous week! And it was a week of noisy boys and Kate the only girl on the course that week. Kate and her brother Joe spent most of the week in the 420 working toward Stage 4. And the rest of the terrors in Teras! Well done to the boys who all completed Stage 2.
During that same week I ran a Youth Dayskipper Theory course, Becky, Guy, Ben and Alex were are brilliant group to teach, a good bit of boating experience between them and brains which are used to studying made the week an absolute joy. See you all for the final exam in September….
Then there was Marine Day in Port St Mary on the 9th. We were supposed to be running boat trips but alas the weather was set against us! Still it was a thoroughly enjoyable day.
Which brings us up to last week, another eight kids, another week with Ffinlo! Last week was a cracking week, everyone on the course had sailed before, all were keen and much fun was had. Friday’s Pirate Day was also Kieran’s 10th birthday – thank you for the cake! Matthew, Georgia, Declan, Keiran and Max all completed Stage 2, Ffinlo and Jamie acheived Stage 3 (I think they are our youngest Stage 3 sailors aged 8 and 10 respectively) and congratulations to Georgie Drinkwater who demonstrated some excellent sailing skills and completed Stage 4!
And it was Jon’s turn for a busy run on the water. Every day for the past seven days he has been running powerboat courses; one adult Level 2 which is to be completed tomorrow, 3 x Youth Level 2 on Tuesday and Wednesday, 2 x Youth Level 1 on Thursday and 3 x Youth Level 1 on Friday, followed by 3 x Level 2s over the weekend. Only one more day and you can have a break hun!
And finally congratulations to Ali Hinds who has just passed the Dinghy Instructor course at Plas Menai a couple of weeks ago. She’s already been in helping out this week and is a welcome addition to the instructing team.