Not an apology

Our ex supreme leader, Tony Blair, had this way of giving an apology that was nothing of the sort. Being an ex-lawyer it would sometimes take some time to decode the layers of waffle to work out that what he really was sorry about was that no one realised that he, as the supreme leader, was right.

But I'm not even going to try to match TB's non apologies and just say I am really glad not to have been on the water this weekend.

It was really really wet, really really cold and really really windy. On Sunday it went from F4 to an estimated F8 in a couple of minutes together with horizontal rain that reduced visibility to 100m or so.

Those that signed up for the Hamble Winter Series (I mean, honestly, doesn't that name tell you everything you need to know) reported back:

"You get up at a most unsensible hour to sprint down for the Hamble Winter Series, only to get there and be told at 7.20am "all racing is cancelled". You look at the weather and think how the dickens could they not see this coming and cancel it the night before"

Instead on Saturday I went to one niece's birthday party and then on Sunday to another for "the twins" spreading a cloud of presents behind me like a good uncle should.

Forget wet and dry suits, this is winter and I don't want to go out there!