Island Picnic 29.06.23

After the recently enjoying the successful Sail-Meal-Sail trip with other SAMM members, on June 29th some members of the Balaton Group orgnised sail to the Mar Menor’s Isla Perdiguera for a picnic.

The three Sailfish 18 boats based at Los Narejos (Alcazares) set out at 10.30 with Robert Hudson and Colum McDermott on Vision. Nik Novak and David Shephard on Ginetta and Laura Moir and Julian Pering on Sirocco. In a light breeze from the South East they sailed to the island. Laura a new member with no sailing experience was able to take the helm.

Lavanter, an Araez 22, left her berth in Los Urrutias marina at a similar rime crewed by Jez Clarke and Keith McKintosh. They anchored off the island to the East well offshore to avoid grounding the keel and were ferried in by Ginetta. who had anchored closer to the Island with Sirocco, whilst Vision with her keel raised moored on the West side.

Most people first enjoyed a swim or paddle in the East side bay, but not too close to the shore as that is always an area where weed, flotsam and jetsam gets caught.

On the sail over and in the waters around the Island there were "Fried Egg" jellyfish in abundance. It is hoped that these non-stinging jellies are be a good sign as to the health of the Mar Menor.

After a picnic on the island the team collected all the plastic debris they could find. Thankfully not as much as was collected on a similar day in 2021.

A good sail, on a beam reach, back for the three Sailfish and, although people had taken plenty of drinking water, after a long hot day a large shandy at a beach cafe was more than welcome!

A SAMM Day Out 16.06.23

Two of the SAMM Groups, Balaton and Shoestring, enjoyed a fun sail-meal-sail on June 23rd, organised by Balaton Group leader Julian Pering as part of the SAMM Social calendar.

Two Shoestring boats Uno and Cuatro and three Balaton boats started from their base at CAR, Los Narejos on the Mar Menor at 10:30 with the SAMM support boat, crewed by Martin and Norman, following along; all heading for the La Playa restaurant at Los Urrutias. Some wives and other members were to meet them there.

Two of the Balaton Groups Russian members we're sailing Sirocco with new Swedish member Nils. Vision was crewed by their German member Jurgen with Jez and guest Shelley, Ginetta by Julian with Colum and Laura.

The five boats sailed through the gap between Pediguera and Baron islands on a south easterly breeze then turned West towards Los Urrutias. Well most did! For some reason Jez was convinced that Los Urrutias was further down the coast and instead of following the other four boats decided to sail on South. Once they realised the mistake they put away their sails and motored in order to catch up.

The Shoestring dinghies put into the beach adjacent to one of the new jetties while the Balaton boats anchored offshore due to the shallow water.

Everybody had an excellent menu del dia At La Playa restaurant with 22 people from SAMM attending. After lunch Julian accepted the “Parrot” (a prize for a Balaton member who messes up) from Sergey for the mistake of not putting Visions keel down at the start of the last race day. However, he was pleased to immediately pass this to Jurgen and Jez for heading in the wrong direction this morning.

Over lunch Colum and Laura asked if they could join the Balaton Group and have since done so.

The dinghies were able to get quickly away once the lunch was over and the Whaly gave the crews a taxi ride out to the Balaton boats. As requested by Martin, Julian helped push the Whaly off the jetty and, as a reward, was soaked to the skin by the prop wash when Martin deliberately revved the engine. Unfortunately no video of this ambush.

On the way back the boats had a lovely beam reach sail in a decent breeze. Sirocco decided to take a route to far to the east the crew not knowing they should steer for the blue building which shows where to head to get back to CAR. Jules phoned to get them back on track and they were not far behind, coming in fast on the good breeze.

Whaly Calendar is available

The Whaly calendar is up and running. It can be accessed from the Members Only Page. You have to be registered on the Whaly calendar to book a slot. If you want to be able to book the Whaly for a session, please contact the membership secretary at membership@sailingmarmenor.com

---