It is six thirty on Friday, 27thAugust, masts are proudly singing in the mild Hamble wind. The sun is setting, a not so seemingly distant orange ball, while six youthful punters thankfully sit on deck, slowly sipping their cold, bubbly champagne, welcoming, in anticipation, yet another Bank Holiday weekend of unknown sailing delights.
A few discoveries had already been made. First, we all arrived on time, the traffic had been kind. Robert discovered that he could leave the 'bowels of government' at 4 and, via Southern Rail, be on the boat by 7; Karen had generously cooked a Boeuf Bourguignon, discovering the saltiness of kosher meat; I discovered that Tesco sells Gazpacho; we all jealously discovered Philip’s hidden talent – a medically trained ability to speedily use the knife to minutely chop the toppings for this summer soup; and finally, the discovery of all discoveries, our Commodore and Alison had left all their sailing and sleeping gear at home!
The sun shone brightly the next morning when we awoke, inviting us all to a positive day ahead. In his briefing, Philip introduced us to Appaloosa, a Bavaria 36, which soon proved to become a disappointment. While below deck all was homely and functioned well, above, the boat strained to pick up speed. Frustration grew as a few technical problems became apparent: the wind instrument never worked and, at times, the speed log and chart plotter gave misleading information! We continued to sail. Continue reading 
