Swale Match called off

Sadly we did not get the chance to see if Bonita would be romping home ahead of the fleet with a coat of  freshly applied new paint on her bottom. This years Swale Match - which would have been the 47th  - was cancelled due to forecasts of gale force winds. Strong winds in early August are rare, and I dont remember the race being called off before. However the talk in the local chandlers shop was that it has been cancelled once before but noone was quite sure when. More often we dont have enough wind at this time of year.

However the decision to call it off was clearly the right one. The first day of Cowes week was cancelled due to the storms and the cross-channel ferries were having difficulty getting into Dover harbour. I went up to the sea wall on Saturday morning to look at the boats out on their moorings. Although the boats were safe enough they were rolling around in the waves and it was certainly blowing hard with frequent even stronger gusts. No other boats of any kind were out on the river and I resisted the temptation to row out to Bonita in the dinghy to see how she was getting on.