Olympic torch brings summer to Bristol

This week has seen the passage of the Olympic torch through Bristol, leaving summer in its wake! As I sit in my living room this evening I’m looking out at a raft of colorful kayakers who have entered my little water way, and sailboats drifting by beyond the blue bridge. It’s warm and hazy - like East Coast summers (though not QUITE so hot and humid). The sun is still remarkably high at 7:30pm, making up for the short days of winter.

But the real excitement this week was the Olympic torch, which arrived in the city on Tuesday evening and departed on Wednesday. Tuesday’s event brought the torch to the center of town, which means the harbor. And the harbor means boats, which in my world means the sailing school and the sailing club across the way! The sailing school had been asked to supply kids in boats for the torch event. Last week Rupert (the connection between the sailing school and the sailing club) sent a message around to the club to say that they weren't sure that they would have enough kids to fill the boats, and did any of us want to be part of the sailing escort for the torch? I of course said yes. The plan was that we would sail the Access boats - cute boats with colorful sails that are designed for handicapped sailors - and accompany the sailing school kids in their boats.

Not surprisingly, when we arrived the school had found kids enough to populate all of the school boats... and what they needed were adults in the support boats, to shepherd the kids. So that’s what we did. It was a riot... I’d describe it as somewhat organized chaos. There seemed to be only a loose outline of a plan. We had been told to be ready to sail at 5:30.. shortly after that we escorted (or towed, in our case) the kids in boats part way down the harbor, where we assembled for instructions. Which were that we had to wait an hour! They soon realized that that didn’t make much sense, so sent the kids back out on the water to sail, and gave us instructions for guarding the perimeter (to keep the kids out of the center of the harbor until they were ready for us). 

And so we puttered around and delivered kids’ lunches and rescued boats that got hung up along harbor walls and dodged errant boats and watched over capsized boats and shouted instructions to the less experienced kids who claimed that their boats wouldn’t work correctly! And all the while the kids were giggling and waving and shouting and just plain excited. 

All of a sudden we got the word to start herding the sailors into the city center where the torch was being ferried across the harbor from the south side to the north side. The torch bearer was Blair Hannan, a woman who sails with our club - she has a rare degenerative disease that has left her without the use of her legs, but she has become an expert sailor and is hoping to make the 2016 paralympic team. Her boat was escorted into the harbor by some rowing skulls and gigs, and was followed by a gaggle of kayaks - we were coming from the other direction so that there was colorful chaos on the water in the city center as Blair used her traveling torch to light a large Olympic torch on the pavilion in the center of town.

With remarkable timing, some of the famous Bristol balloons drifted overhead as the torch was being lit... 

Rupert sent us all the following message from the sailing school folks (WESSA - the West England Schools Sailing Association) the next day, which describes the event nicely:

Geof and I would like to pass on our grateful thanks to all of you for your brilliant work last night with getting the sailing fleet so magnificently in the right place at the right time!!! As with all these occasions there were decisions being made instantly, which required immediate action that often had to be changed because of situations beyond anyone's control. Wind conditions varied and activity on the water varied thus not making briefings easy. AND WHO told anyone the torch would be 20 minutes early???!!!!!! But for all this - to see virtually ALL our boats on the water, filled with young people, who sailed so well, with so few collisions - was SPECTACULAR!!!! The BBC, RYA [Royal Yachting Association] and the Local Authority have passed on their appreciation of the occasion and I know that all of you have done WESSA proud in front of a very important audience...Rupert, can you thank your club members for being there, not sailing as we thought, but getting on with what they were asked to do. They were brilliant!

And Alison sent me some photos from her perspective, including pictures of me handing out lunches and in the melee!