“….looking smarter than she or any of our boats have ever looked at the end of March”
We used to have had several outings already by late March, racing in the Warsash Spring Series, but that was thirty years ago in Mithril, our Sigma 33, twenty years ago in the previous Mostly Harmless, our Prima 38, or even ten years ago when we were still regularly racing this Mostly Harmless fully crewed. More recently, the opening events of our season have been the JOG Nab Tower and Great Escape Races. However, because the priority has always been to get a afloat with the boat prepared to race – but not worry about appearances – we have generally started the season with the boats looking, dare we say it, just a bit grubby.
Looking at the forecast for Saturday (F5-F6, and about 10 degrees C) and at our respective degrees of fatigue (the skipper completing the last week of her final placement for her Physiotherapy MSc, and the foredeck monkey/sheet grinder/navigator very busy with his new part-time job in Jersey and chairing a professional regulatory hearing), we decided to give Saturday’s Nab Tower Race a miss, but were entered for Sunday’s Great Escape Race (a trip down to Lymington, back to Spithead and then finishing on the JOG line at Gurnard). But the foredeck monkey/sheet grinder/navigator went down a with a nasty cold so, although the forecast for Sunday was more benign, we gave it a miss.
Nonetheless, with Mostly Harmless launched and in the water, the foredeck monkey/sheet grinder/navigator/boat domestic, feeling a bit better by mid-morning, set off for HYS. After a couple of hours blasting with the pressure hose the boat is looking smarter than she or any of other boats have ever looked at the end of March.