What makes you happy?
With the easy accessibility to media and each other now days there are not many opportunities and places available to have limited contact with other human beings, where there is no TV, no newspapers and very little mobile network coverage and to challenge yourself. Sailing is one of those pass times that can provide this type of opportunity to separate us from many of the trappings of our modern world. I spent last week with friends walking in the snowy mountains which is another way of achieving the separation from many of the modern conveniences we think we need. The things that brightened up our journey were very simple and uncomplicated. Like the rain stopping so we could pitch our tents in the dry, knowing that every day our packs would be lighter after eating our days’ allocation of food, being able to get up a hill without blowing a “foofer valve”, discovering you remembered to bring a tooth brush with you, going to bed early and not worry about getting enough sleep, successfully navigating to the place you planned to be, and, camping near a puddle of water big enough to freshen up in at the end of the day. These were the things that made us happy.
Of course you don’t have to be on a week’s bushwalk to discover the little things that make you happy, we all no doubt have other ways of divesting ourselves of the complexities of our lives where we are in a position to experience the little things that make us happy.
Let me continue by saying that for some of our PKSC members it’s been a tough week and you may think that there is nothing happy to extract from times of sadness. But there is another side to this I believe, and that is how we react to our friends who are experiencing sad times. This Saturday at the sailing club I witnessed a number of little but important interactions that demonstrate friendship, support and respect and, in particular to those of us doing it tough. It demonstrated once again what good can be achieved by a group of people with common interests. It’s not all about winning or being the best. Just knowing this, knowing that I am amongst people that go the extra mile to support a friend in need, with no strings attached, makes me feel happy.
Something else positive about Saturday was how the afternoon around the lake race turned out. In the morning from the comfort of the PKSC we looked out to a soggy and windy sailing prospect for the afternoon’s event. Even the planned junior camp was called off so there was not the pressure to take aboard a junior or two for a TY race. None of the TY sailors were showing much interest in rigging up and going out in it. Begrudgingly, Rosstered Off with Jim, Dave, Shaun and some juniors aboard whos names I didn’t get , Momentum with Barry, Ray, Dillan, and maybe another junior aboard, Serenity with Wayne, Daniel and Mika aboard and Froufrou with Andy, Richard Lech and me aboard launched and, as luck would have it, the rain stopped and the wind abated to make for very pleasant afternoon sailing conditions. Thanks to Brad and Hayden for setting a good around the lake course. We all had some good spinnaker rides apart from Serenity who lost her spinnaker early in the event.
Pointscore 22, Around the Lake Race Results
Position Boat name Time in minutes PBH (CBH)
First Froufrou 100.19 (100.19)
Second Rosstered Off 101.519 (99.64)
Third Serenity 101.521 (107.88)
Forth Momentum 102.45 (100.36)
Please note that the PBH corrected times are given to the third decimal place for Rosstered Off and Serenity to distinguish between their finishing times. It was a very close handicap finish indeed.
We only have a few more sailing weeks to go so I hope that those of you TY sailors able will make the effort to sail the last of the Saturday afternoon races.
The end Trev.