Well what a weekend we had! Once again the “Quarter Deck” was filled with buzzing, expectant cruisers all more or less on time and ready for the countdown smartly at 10am on Saturday morning.
The agenda did not disappoint and there was a warm welcome from our host Richard Balfry, followed by some interesting and inspirational tales of journeys taken by several intrepid members to The Baltic, Belize and The Arc 2023, and then the exciting announcement of a new Corinthian Race Class (a take on gentle pursuit racing for cruisers; do ask for more details) – this certainly got us all inspired.
After a delicious lunch, the traditional graveyard slot was re-invigorated with an awe-inspiring film of Shackleton’s Exploits in the Antarctic – it was humbling and made all our exploits seem slightly less adventurous in comparison! There then followed a lively discussion about the potential pitfalls of running a yacht and about what could possibly go wrong!
We adjourned in time for the rugby and then reconvened for a delightfully jolly supper in the dining room.
Sunday saw all 54 of us (a record number) back ready for a cruise along Northern Spain and a gory discourse on major medical emergencies at sea (thanks Dick). This was followed by a thought-provoking insight looking at paper charts vs chart plotters and a demo of how to deploy a life raft (which involved tossing it from the balcony). We were all intrigued to see what was actually inside as luckily few of us have had direct experience of this. A big take away from this was to make sure it is tied on before deploying!!
The forum was then rounded off with an excellent talk on how to get the best out of the Isles of Scilly (not the Scilly Isles) and the Channel Islands.
So an informative and varied weekend of talk and chat, making us all super keen to get back out in our boats. Huge thanks to everyone who helped and contributed to another successful Cruising Forum weekend