The Authentic Turkey went to Canvey (TT10)
A little bit of this and a little bit of that and then a lot of the other!
That about sums up an enjoyable day 1 at Canvey.
By AuthenticTurkey9912
Day 1
With ‘No Worms’ reported (you needed to be there!) the flock started arriving at Costa del Canvey on Thursday ( and would have made it if the road hadn’t been dug up) However the early arrivals enjoyed a full day of sunny basting in the rejuvenated summer sunshine putting there floating hutches together on Friday whilst others trotted in.
The resident Tom Gobbler Darren made sure all were happy and well fed and the bar started its practice run for the weekend.
Despite the best attempts of the Dartford tunnel the flock grew with members turning up from as far as Northern Ireland and Pentewan in Cornwall to support their weekend Tom Gobbler host ( a frequent traveller far and wide). Unfortunately the major works on the A1 / M1, and in fact any road leading North seemed to be over running from the start of the season and there were no sign of any of the Northern Flock!
Saturday dawned in a peacefully fashion, those that had tested the bar a bit hard crawled out from their sleeping positions under boats and late southerns appeared in the car park.
No wind turned into plenty of wind and then died to nothing again. Briefing over and a tidal deadline beckoning, the flock nervously started going a float. The first daring birds to risk entering the Thames estuary on a rising tide nervously debated what would happen when they were swept up to tower bridge, however as the Tom Gobbler Boss had promised 100m off shore, the breeze filled in and boats successfully made there way down stream to the start area.
Race 1 was a light wind event including a 100degree wind shift which left some birds debating if they were going upwind, downwind or round in circles, the race officer sensibly shortened to 2 laps.
Race 2 - wind on, tide confused if it was going left or right, course quickly amended - 8000 turkey disappeared into distance and a good race was had by all.
Race 3 - wind steps up a notch, and then another notch and then hold onto your combs and sit back and hope you survive to Christmas; tide by now definitely taking you to Holland.
3 fun races in very different conditions, results on previous post.
So far we have had Sun, wind, water, a lorry load of giveaways ( still some debate if the lorry is aware of its lost cargo!) a bottle of wine, an evening meal, and band setting up, 10 years on, and Canvey still showing how to run a value for money fun event- even the hidden worms are enjoying it!
Day 2
From Wormgate to Star Wars and some dodgy pre event weather forecasts - Canvey seemed to have it all including some challenging sailing!
Saturday nights rather good ( if a bit loud for some old Turkeys) band, along with Harry the overnight mini hurricane, launched the gathered flock into a surprisingly ( many a poor weather forecast has ruined what turned out to be a good event!) sunny and pleasant Sunday morning.
The ladies in the galley cooked up a great breakfast which created the first question for the day, ‘go large or stay small’ nobody wants to risk being the largest Turkey at this time of year; then it was off to play again.
The chief Tom Gobbler informed us the water had come early today, but couldn’t explain why and just sent us on our way.
With the wind having changed direction by 180 degrees from one of its many positions the day before, the committee boat was more towards the main shipping channel and we raced back to ‘The Island’ and Southend.
Race 1 - A few port flyers hiking out at the start that became a drift half way up up the first beat, turkeys heads going in all directions trying to work out where the wind hand vanished to and more importantly where it might reappear from. Race officer checking his watch for the 20 min time limit to mark 1 and lots of us rather hoping the limit was met, only to have hopes dashed by that annoying 8000 bird making it around the mark and disappearing off. However the wind came back and the fleet reassembled from the 4 corners of the bay into some sense of order and followed the annoying 8000 to the finish.
Race 2 - The port flyer became more of a port start, the wind was up and the fleet hit the line with speed. After that I haven’t got a clue, and as it was our worst result that probably explains quite a lot!
The start of race 3 was interrupted by the ‘youth’ trying to ‘seaweed’ their ‘Grandparents’, an attempt that backfired somewhat as the seaweed end up on the crew, who then discovered that it contained a multitude of creepy-crawlies and the fleet (and probably most of Southend) discovered that the crew didn’t like creepy-crawlies (and I thought the band was loud!).
Race 3 - This became the ‘starboard flyer’ and the creepy-crawlies had obviously done the trick as the youth went on to win that race.
There aren’t many places that we sail, that there isn’t ’a way to go’ however Canvey racing offered lots of options, very little follow my leader, and always a ‘passing lane’ if you could spot it. Left or right at the gate seem to pay or not pay equally. The wind played ball and gave us a bit of everything, but mostly good trapezing sailing in generally flat water and the 5 minute delayed wave behind passing container ships just added to entertainment !
The race office (and team) were good to their word and turned races around very quickly and the sun continued to shine - what more could you want ?
Oh, did somebody say ‘more’ , ok then let’s have a Burger waiting on arrival back on the shore and the sun remaining for the boat pack down.
Prize giving produced another array of goodies including the most unusual offering I think I have seen on the circuit, of a Giant Starwars Blue print book going to that rather fast 8000 turkey and also our long distance travellers from Cornwall (who apparently needed a bigger book shelf). The ‘youth’ came second which was enough to see them also win the UKIDA overall Travellers Trophy for 2025; with Paul Grattage coming from Northern Ireland and confirming he hasn’t lost his racing skills in the last few years ‘abroad’.
If Canvey did beer, Carlsberg might want it!
