Strandbeest

Late this morning the ‘youngsters’ set off for the Blue Dot Festival at Jodrell Bank. Needless to say, we don’t go with them, though we are invited. Much as Bjork with The Halle sounds appealing, wandering around for hours on a damp July day does not. We wave them off, and return to Hoylake beach, hoping that the sand yachts we saw yesterday have returned. 

Apparently, Hoylake’s quite a Mecca for this sport, the huge expanses of flat sand at low tide ideal for racing. Yesterday, we only saw them packing up, but today they’re out in force. Initially, I photograph them from the promenade, tiny figures on the distant shoreline. But temptation proves too much, and I begin the long, long trek along the sand that has been compacted by the towing vehicles. 

G follows me, keen to find out more about this pastime, and we discover they’re a friendly bunch, explaining how the race is won by the number of laps completed over a set time. We watch, G chats and I take photographs.

There’s something otherworldly about these landlocked sailing craft, and whilst these sailors are a lighthearted down-to-earth bunch, my mind is drawn to sci-fi scenes and to the stunning creations of Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests. If you haven’t seen these amazing creations, there’s information in the link below.

https://www.strandbeest.com

It’s this that makes me choose my main - the simplicity of colour and the light rather than the more vibrant action in the collage extra. 

The tide is turning when we leave the beach behind, the sand-sailors packing up.  The others in our party won’t return until after midnight so we head for home. 

It’s been a busy but delightful weekend of family reunions and birthday celebrations (though Daniel’s is officially tomorrow, we celebrated it yesterday while we were all together). There’s a couple of collages is extras.

Many thanks for your kind comments, stars and hearts for yesterday’s wind turbines - apologies that today’s blip has more than a passing similarity!