Well the weather gods proved me wrong again and the weekend turned out to be perfect weather for messing about in boats and from what I saw a good many members did just that.

This Wednesday 26th is the last Wednesday of the fun sail series and is hosted by PYC so lets all give it one more bash.

This coming weekend on Sunday is the NSRI Barrel sail past and race. Festivities will commence with a briefing at PYC at 09h30, so come along, it's nothing onerous, and we can all have a bit of fun while supporting a worthy cause.

With the end of the Wednesday evening fun sails a bunch of die-hards will continue to get together on a Wednesday evening and sail up to the bay head where laughter and festivities are planned. It is not a race and after a meal and some beer they all motor sail back to the moorings having had a pleasant midweek interlude. If you are keen get hold of Greg Challis or Phil Downing and join in.

We are running out of summertime
Don't waste it keep sailing.
Rear Commodore

News from the south Atlantic is that the 40 ft single handed sailing vessel Kim Chow sailing from east to west on the attempt to be the first Canadian to do this was at 42 south and 7 west and going fine.

Jacana the 30 ft steel yacht was today at 90east that puts her at 3000nm from Cape Town and 1200nm to her home port in Australia, and they did this in over just one month , that was good going they were having 100nm runs every day.

It sounds from the way conditions are at the moment that we will have to move to a higher frequency to talk to these two boats. Radio propagation works on seven year cycle's and unfortunately we are now at the bottom of the cycle, that means ssb radio talk does not go that far.

We have had some very interesting French and English yachtsman visiting the club Johnny and Allan from the yacht Syzygie said they really enjoyed there stay at Durban Mariner and our Yacht Club, Borus Cousins from the sailing vessel Ouma arrived in Durban on the 15 March after a 2500nm trip from the Seychelles and having close encounters with cyclone Ivan were glad to be here. Boris a 28 year old civil engineer from France had this to say in a letter to me, people here are very helpful and smiling, its true if your told it will done tomorrow don't be surprised if it is the day after, but we always meet only charming and helpful people who always make certain we find what we need ! I never saw a French ship chandler run to the other side of town to get me a gas hose, another example is the sail maker when he delivers new sails he does not drop them on the pontoon ! He spends the afternoon setting them up check that all fits and fold them etc, helpful is the word I think, also at the mariner office they helped me with the paper work for our clearance the people of immigration office came to see us and make jokes then stamp our passports.

A favorable window started yesterday so we said Au Revoir to our French friends ,and other boats that left for East London on there voyage around the world.

Good sailing and fair winds
Roy Cook

It's quite amazing, as no matter when Easter falls either early or late, the weather always manages to sneak a cold spell on or around that weekend and this last weekend was no exception and it unfortunately forced the cancellation of the first East Coat experience of this sailing season. The rain which accompanied it was very widespread with torrential downfalls being experienced from Denysville to Kloof. I just happened to be towing a boat down from the Vaal Dam at that time.

This week is the last RNYC hosted Wednesday Fun Sail and being so close to St Patrick's Day everything should be nice and green. The next weekend is Easter and our friends at PYC are hosting their usual Dinghy Easter Regatta and we wish them good winds and fine weather.

The last evening fun sail takes place on the Wednesday after Easter and brings to a close this season's evening fun sails. My thanks go to those skippers and crews who gave up one evening a season to run the racing as race officer and sometime also as the rescue crew. This year Warren Clark was the Wednesday evening coordinator and my compliments on a job well done.

Summertime is for sailing
Don't waste it.
Rear Commodore

THERE WILL BE A JUMPING CASTLE & EASTER EGG HUNT FOR THE KIDS.

LIVE MUSIC & BRAAI ON THE LAWNS.