Monday morning, 11 December 2006, dawned a fresh and sunny day – as most Mondays are in Port Elizabeth. For 7 local boys and girls it was the first day of their SAS Level 1 sailing course (the first official course presented by Development Sailing, so everyone was a little nervous to get it right.) The children’s emotions ranged from excitement to apprehension to complete indifference (Mom just wanted them out of the house!)

Once the paperwork and the parents were out of the way, the lessons could begin. In his introductory talk, Sakhumzi emphasized 2 points: safety and FUN! The first question posed to him was : “Will we actually go on the water today ? “ The ‘yes’ reply saw eyes widen with enthusiasm, even from the ‘indifferent’ corner. And sure enough, there were were seven 09’ers bobbing on the favourably calm waters of our harbour that afternoon, albeit in total disarray amongst shouts of ‘how’ and ‘which way?’ Bash and Ocean also had their hands full but they guided the children ably and no (significant) damage was done.

And so the early mornings and late afternoons continued for the rest of the week. Tea time and lunch times provided welcome relief from the heat in the training room and new friendships were formed. Confidence on the water grew exponentially from day to day until our commodore presented SAS certificates and log books on Friday afternoon.

The proud smiles and last question of the week “When does Level 2 begin?” were reward enough for those of us involved in the peripheral organisation and a great compliment to the three coaches. Well done guys! Get it right we did!

By Lee Godwin

Photographs here.