At our March meeting Clifton Warry gave a very entertaining talk about life with the RNLI. After the meeting Peter Tyler presented him with a cheque from our club made up from donations from our members. I’m not quite sure what Donald was doing here.
There was a total of five boats at Fambridge. Papa Romeo, with seven on board, Storm with five, Rioja with four. Jackalope sailed out of Althorne with two on board and Drie Gebroeders, who is based at Fambridge has a total of four on board.
The day gave us a good sail up the river where we showed the Icicle Race competitors from CYC how to get the best out of the wind. Arriving at Fambridge we tied up outside a 60 foot barge/house boat, who made us welcome. Haggis took longer to cook than normal and after making fast we all retired below to eat our grub. Then on to the Dutch Barge yacht owned by Hilary and Ian, for the form of social entertainment that only boat people seem to achieve. The whisky flowed, the meat roll slices, cooked by Hilary, were eaten and the snacks completed with delightful mince pies cooked by Lynda
The compliment of twentyfour club members was completed by two sea dogs, one belonging to Hilary and the other to Neil. These real woofers, inspected us all at different times and decided we were friendly and thus OK. We called up Norman Hummestone, who ran the first rally some 12 years back, and wished him health by drinking our drams
Time flowed away and we suddenly woke up to the fact that we needed to sail back to Burnham. Reluctant to leave the warm cabin it took a little time to get back onto the appropriate boats, but this was finally achieved and as dusk was falling, on came the navigation lights and the convoy headed eastward to Althorne & Burnham. A dark night gave some members their first experience of night sailing, which was an enjoyable experience, they said!
Boats & People attending
Papa Romeo Les, Philip, Bob, Peter B, Joan, Alan P, Donald
Storm Peter T, Mick & Maggie, Roger G, Maureen
Rioja Mark & Lynda, David & Tracey B
Jackalope Neil & Alan S
Drie Gebroeders Hilary, Ian, Mark & Barbara Salmon
