Last Saturday Dave, Kren and I finally took the sailing lesson we booked at the Sydney Boat Show back in August. We travelled up to Church Point, about an hour north of Sydney, for our lesson with All Sail.
Church Point is located on a stunning natural inlet, and despite the rain forecast we had gorgeous sunshine. The buildings at the wharf are run down and drab, but luckily that's the only thing that lets them down. We didn't have high expectations as we entered the Waterfront Cafe via their grocery store for lunch before our lesson. However, the food was excellent and sitting on the deck jutting out over the water we had great views.
Our lesson was interesting! We were on the boat with another gentleman, Viv, who had been brought the lesson by his wife for his birthday. Our teacher was a Texan, whose name I can't remember. His approach was very different to the sailing lessons I had with Jonathan when I first arrived in Sydney.
He showed us how to hoist the the sails and cast off and then that was literally it. There was virtually no instruction, other than every 45mins he called for the person at the helm to change over and the odd instruction to tack. It could have been disastrous, but I actually quite enjoyed myself. I've never had 45mins uninterrupted at the helm of the boat before, even if I did make a bit of a mess of keeping a straight course. Dave and Kren were definitely less impressed with the lack of instruction although they both did better than me!
I think we had an almost perfect day; sunshine and a constant but mild wind which was perfect for beginners. The area around Church Point was beautiful and I'd like to head back to the nearby Palm Beach before I leave.
On the way back to Sydney Viv and his wife kindly gave us a lift, saving us the bus ride. Are people that friendly in the UK? We all thought probably not.
Oz certainly has some beauty spots!
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