After the course on Thursday, me and a couple mates from work, Nathan and Miyah, along with her boyfriend, took the centre’s keelboat for a sail up river. We were meant to be sailing to Angle to take part in a best-dressed boat competition, but we never made it. Miyah had been working late at our other site in Lydstep and so we ended up leaving later than planned. Then just as they got down to the water’s edge the piece of wood at the back of our dinghy that supports the engine completely collapsed, turns out it was rotten on the inside. This meant that not only would we have no engine but it also would not float! So we took it back to the shed in pieces and brought out one of our safety boats. This meant that we wouldn’t be able to get ashore at Angle but that was a problem for the future. We arrived at the boat and realised we had left the outboard engine in the garages as it had come ashore for repairs. So back we went again while the others prepared the boat. Finally, we left our mooring at around 6pm which left us an hour to get there with light and dropping wind and tide against us. We had a great time and with everyone having a go at everything. This was my first time sailing as a skipper with a mostly novice crew. It went smoothly though we made slow progress tacking up the river with the tide against us. Eventually, we dropped the sails and motored but by this time it was nearly 9pm and as the competition was around 7pm so we decided to head back home.