30/5/21 Brightlingsea

 A lazy morning, full English breakfast and then off to the beach with the kids. Esmé was excited to skate with the Freewheelers again, not least because the biggest kid of all (David) is happy to give tuition! First stop was the skate park where even I was cajoled onto skates for a short wobble before enjoying watching the kids (both little and not so little). After a while AJ had had enough of climbing the ramps (he's not in to skating so much) and so Patrick and I headed to the beach with him, however we were soon joined by the rest!

The kids had a great time digging and paddling and generally being kids. It was a nice change to see AJ and Esmé with younger children as it gave them an "excuse" to "play" rather than be the hormonal tween/teenagers they are all too fast growing into. AJ volunteered to be buried and Clara took great delight in pouring water over him.

After drinks, Nana's Anzac biscuits and ice creams we decided to head back to the boats for lunch... only to be distracted and waylaid by the playground. As we sat watching the kids have yet more fun we began to contemplate the detail of our planned BBQ tea at Point Clear. After a few calculations we realised that we'd only be able to get dinghies back into the marina until about 7pm therefore we needed to head over there rather earlier than planned. As time was running away from us we headed back to the shack for burgers, hot dogs and chips to feed the kids before heading back to the boats to pump up dinghies and prepare food for the beach!

Whilst Patrick and I did all the hard work pumping up the dinghy the kids enjoyed games they hadn't seen since last summer. The new Makita inflator was rather slower than manual pumping which was disappointing but very soon we had a floating tender. AJ helped us to get the outboard attached and we were delighted to find that it started almost first time.. Result!

Patrick then got some rest while I sorted out provisions for the beach and at 5pm we headed over to Point Clear... hastily adding coats to our packing list as the sky was looking rather gloomy!  Hero David did a double dinghy run to pick up the Tomahawks as their outboard was out of action and a pleasant but crazy evening of windy, sand blown cooking ensued, remining us of Pirate weekends of years gone by.

AJ was a little disappointed at not being allowed to swim but the tide was ripping past really fiercely.... perhaps tomorrow AJ?

Mr Tomahawk quickly commandeered a dinghy left on the peninsular to create a make shift windbreak and cooking commenced. 

You kind of have to be somewhat nuts for this game but the kids had a ball!

All too soon we realise that time was running out so everything was hurriedly packed away and we launched ourselves and our kit into the dinghies, knees disappearing into the mud as we tried to push off. After a false start or two we finally manged to get deep enough for the outboards to work and made our way back to the big boats, relieved to make it over the marina sill. After a quick tidy up Patrick, Esmé and I headed over to Freewheel for to say goodbye in case we missed them in the morning. They need to be out at 5am to get over the sill where-as we could be a little later so we might not get to wave them off if the duvet seems more appealing!

After a quick drink we headed back to Laurin for a final tidy up ready to move on tomorrow!