Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Saturday, 10 September 2011

words fail me..............

There are insufficient superlatives to describe today..................................


The day started with pigeons getting up early to get the prime seats


With the Sound in early morning being like this...........................

EMPTY!

........and it ending up like this.........................

And in between?
Well there was this.............................

..............and this................


this....................

and this...................


Yes dear readers........today was .........................


So.......................



Home for the second leg of the ACWS second leg 2011


And although the winds were too strong for Arwen to sail out today (25 kts)...........here is some of the action she missed..................

helicopters buzzing the crowds and boats

the world's top sailors racing for us

 and all of these are for my best sailing buddy too.....my daughter....who sadly had to return to University today and so missed all of this........and I missed her sharing it with me too

the support crews making sure everything was as it should be

the boat crews doing final preparation checks

the crowds coming out to support the oldest international sporting trophy  in the world

with the most cutting edge, technologically advanced multi hulls

Awesome!!!!!

Today I got interviewed by the TV, sneaked in slightly early to the sailing village, met some lovely French security guards, a former British Olympian kayaker, a lovely couple from USA worried about their Irish Ferry crossing tomorrow night (I'd be concerned too given the national weather alert we've all been put on), had a lovely Bacon bap and Latte and got a prime viewing spot on the Hoe........its been heaven.........this is as good as it gets! Well, almost, I missed daughter No. 1!

I have so many great photos (well great for me), some amazing video footage and stories to tell so I'll spread them out over a few blogs.  The America's Cup in my fair city.......a once in a lifetime event!

Steve

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