Work Party

This was the first work party of the season and was supported by approx. 25% of the membership; excellent considering the bitterly cold morning. The plan was to ready the club for the start of season in late March.

While Bryan directed the work and indulged his pyromaniac urges, Diana Carpenter & Joan Garrett were hard at work in the galley making tea & coffee and preparing lunch. Four teams set to work. One in the trailer park clearing nettles. Along the bank another cleared brambles and fed Bryan’s bonfire. Another worked on the inside and outside of the clubhouse while the last worked on the new storage extension digging out the area behind the rear foundations. Oh yes! And Pete Carpenter worked on his own preparing the safety boat for launching.

By early afternoon everybody was ready for a break so when it was announced that lunch was ready nobody lingered outside. Hot soup was followed by bangers and mash with fried onions, Luvly Jubly!

Soon after lunch everybody got together to put our safety boat Aquarius SC back in the water. She will be going down to Tim Barfields in a few days time for her annual engine service. She started first time! A good omen for the coming season I think.

My sincere thanks to everybody who gave up their Saturday and came down to help out. They were :-

Joan Garrett, Pat Irving
Liz Archer, Graham Thompson
Mike Baker, Roger Wheeler
Nigel Knowles, Pat Halling
George Bray, Bryan Clements
Dave Jennings, John Neale
John Tomkins, Richard Cannon
Pete Carpenter, Diana Carpenter
Gordon Courtney, Joan Courtney
Bob Sumner, Janet Edwards
Eric Bridgewater, Charles Dennis

Laurie Bridges

My apologies if I missed anyone but at least the weather was dry, if a tad cold. We got a hell of a lot done despite the fact that poor old Nigel snapped his shovel. Even a representative from the catering company that we are considering using for our next annual dinner turned up to give us the once over. Poor girl must have wondered what she had walked into. However Bob, Janet and Diana must have schmoozed her because I’m told ‘Food for Thought’ will be happy to tender for the 2004 club dinner. Now all we need to do is get as many people on the water for the spring series and I shall be a very happy little Commodore.

Mike (Over Easy) Baker