Fractal Blog

We're back in the UK after a two-week holiday in Turkey to catch as much summer as we can manage before yet another winter. Sun, sea and watersports equipment -- what more could one want from a summer holiday? The Sports Obsessive has managed to learn to windsurf to the extent of winning the race during which this picture was taken. Up another Sunsail mug. I, too, can windsurf now, for small values of windsurf. I.e. I can stand up on a nice big board with a tiny-ish sail, and I can sail it forwards, frequently turn it around successfully, and sail it back, in light-ish airs. Windward progress for me still requires a lift from a safety boat.

Despite surfboards being the new toy this holiday, there was still a lot of sailing, in comparatively high winds. This laser sail was on its very first outing, in a force 5. Zoom.

From time to time, in a force 6, zoom inevitably ends in splash.

When fast dinghies are too much hard work, there's always the option of a big, steady, luxurious yacht. If you were lucky enough to obtain a slot, at least, since demand for them is high. Every skipper has to take a parking test, which consists of reversing the yacht towards (but, critically, not into) the jetty without scraping the yachts on either side. I passed with flying colours. Hence this is me helming the yacht in a force 6. The wind was a bit much but it was fun driving a 33ft boat anyway.

Talking of winds, we had several very windy days (force 6 and above). The first day the beach crew let out everybody as normal, but put up the orange flag, meaning only competent sailors should go out. A veritable capsize feast and some broken / lost equipment later, kit got restricted to Topazes and Laser Radials, as the safety boats were getting overloaded. The final day regatta was cancelled due to high winds, and replaced with the Topaz Challenge (zoom-splash, see above), and the yacht race was replaced with the Dragon Cat Race. This consisted of Hobie Cats without sails on (Hobie Cat + paddles = Dragon Cat, get it?) and the idea was to paddle them round the course. In a serious off-shore breeze and without rudders, nobody had quite expected that this simple instruction would be so hard to carry out. Cheating was prominent.

On dry land the pace was less exciting. This kitten had made the jetty bar into its local hunting ground, snoozing outside meal times, frequently on customers' laps.

We watched some glorious sunsets during the fortnight, and this paraglider provided the perfect focal point for this sunset shot.

A sliver of a moon, setting within a few minutes of the sun. We had a lovely holiday.