Awesome!

Had a full complement of crew last night! Bob, Alan and Andy again, Kevin Stacey, who is a special friend, being the person who helped us join the yacht club and is a very, very experienced sailor, plus two friends of his, Ray and his daughter, Tanya.
With a 3.5m swell and a brisk wind, it was a very exciting few nautical miles, lots of speed and heeling over (more about the speed later).
Sirocco was put through her paces well and truly, and surprised us all by gaining significantly on the faster, bigger yachts - not that it was a race at all - and I discovered, much to my amazement that I have a little competitive streak; I've never considered racing before but I realised last night that I would probably rather enjoy it......!
I took the helm once again to put her back into the pen and I must say I did it rather well, better than the week before, in fact. Practice, practice, practice I guess.
Very civilised apres-sailing nibbles and wine, followed by spending the night aboard, so much better than the other side of the bridge - quiet and peaceful.
Oh yes, about the speed - the consensus was that we were doing about 7 knots most of the time; I'd like to report with a little more accuracy, but can't due to the fact that the chartplotter is in the workshop to be 'looked at' as it doesn't work, and without it, none of the other instruments function - sailing by the seat of our pants! Good eh?