Rowing, drifting and a little sailing

The BBC had promised sun and light winds at Rutland but while I got sun, the wind was non existent. Rutland is about 90 minutes drive from home and is big enough to offer good sailing. I stored my last boat at Rutland but the Bayraider is a lot easier to trail and rig so it lives on the drive at home. Only the fishermen are allowed petrol outboards on the reservoir, some of the yachts have electric outboards but I have oars that until today, had remained unused. Even when there is a good wind blowing on the main body of water the creek were the slipway is can be very, very sheltered. The lack of wind in the creek has led to some comical efforts of trying to get back to the pontoon, the last 100m has taken 20 minutes on a few occasions. Today I had to row out of the creek and then drift around in the sun before a breeze arrived and got us moving. Despite very little actual sailing being out in the sun was worth the trip and it certainly beat mowing the lawn.