Glorious

I can't believe how wonderful the weather was today. Alison's dad Robin has been wanting to go out with us and he's down for Alison's birthday next week. I was very skeptical last night. XCweather was predicting 5-10 knots of wind and I thought we'd probably be motoring everywhere. We got to Mersea around 11am and had a lovely row to Robinetta. Dawn, the Thames barge that lives on the piles up the Thorn Fleet, was on her winter berth on the mud near the Oyster Bar and they had raised sail and it was drawing. All the flags were showing a nice southerly breeze. At least my pessimism meant I was happily surprised!

We raised the main on the mooring and left Worm there for a nice day sail. As we left I'm pretty sure I saw Maid of Tesa coming down the Strood. We turned up river onto a really nice reach, hitting 6 knots SOG occasionally on the flood. There were a good few boats out but nothing to match the height of the summer. We got up past Osea Island, and had our pasties and turned around and came home again. We put the motor on to get back around the west end of Osea as the tide hadn't turned and the beat was a bit slow going. All day we kept getting buzzed by a P51 Mustang. I wish I could have got a picture of it and some part of Robinetta.

Mersea is a fascinating place for boats. I'm sure it has a much more diverse set of rigs than almost anywhere else. We saw two junk rigged boats as well as other gaffers and of course the sprit sailed Dawn. Even some things with funny pointy sails. OK, actually quite a lot of them.

Never let it be said that the OGA is not inclusive. I've yet to see a junk with an OGA pennant but today we saw/met:

• Rob Williamson and Maid of Tesa, a bermudan Vertue
• Mike McCarthy and Emma Hamilton, a classic motor cruiser
• Bernard Patrick and Molly Cobler, a clinker-built gaffer launched in 2000
• Phil and Wendy Wetherill on Spare Rib, a ... RIB
• Pioneer, a 68ft fishing ketch, built in 1864 and rebuilt 1998-2004

Wendy called over as we were lowering sail by the Mersea Quarters cardinal, saying that she must have seen half of the East Coast OGA on the water today!