Sail away with Paul Chopin.

I met up with my son in January 2013 on a trip to White Hart Lane to see Spurs play, a team we both support, when discussion turned to golf and sailing. It transpired that he and a group of his friends were to play at Celtic Manor in February days before my course started in Gibraltar. Any spare places for two others? Yes, so down to Wales we went with golf clubs and another golfing colleague. It was bitterly cold, the course was rock solid, the golf wasn’t too hot but the craic in the evening followed by the odd vino or three was excellent. Couldn’t face a full English breakfast, can’t imagine why, but at our allotted time we were bussed down to the 2010 course to play our final round. Needless to say that the scoring wasn’t too good but the three of us ended up with an award for our troubles. My son got the longest drive on the Montgomerie course, Graham got runner up in the stableford competition and I got the longest drive (and parred the 18th) on the 2010 course. The following day it was off to Gibraltar to begin the sailing course, but before that my son and I drove up to Sierra Nevada for a day’s snow-boarding. Fantastic snow conditions, excellent weather and a great day was had before returning to Gibraltar. We met up with Peter from Rock Sailing School that evening just so that I had an idea of where to go the following day for the start of the course. A nice Italian meal, a good bottle of chianti and some beers before settling down for the night then off, bright and breezy to begin the course on the Monday.