We hear from Lilly, aged nine, who was sailing with her Granny and Popsie on ‘Charm’ for the 2024 Summer Cruise. She has spent several weeks to ensure her report misses no details of the adventure. Her carefully handwritten four pages have been transcribed for your Editor by Granny.
I started my journey at Titchmarsh Marina on Wednesday where Charm was berthed. We were given a lift by Josh in his car to Walton and Frinton Yacht Club where we had dinner and talked to everyone. I had ordered chilli and I said to my Granny. ‘Hopefully it won’t be too spicy’ It looked great, but it was very hot. Too hot. The pudding was delicious. Next day, I woke up and was very excited about my day out, we were going to visit the Naze Tower with all the Gaffers. When we arrived, a lady who was in charge, gave a long interesting speech about the Naze Tower and told us that there were museum pieces inside the tall building. She also said there were shark teeth on the beach that you could collect. After the speech, Granny, Popsie and I went up the Naze Tower looking at the beautiful art pieces. Finally, when we got to the top after lots of stairs, we saw the amazing view and Charm in the distance. When we were up there, everyone was chatting and taking photos. After we had finished looking at the fantastic view we walked back down the staircase and when we got to the bottom, Popsie took me to look for sharks teeth on the beach. Sadly, we didn’t find any, but Popsie went into the shop and bought some for me. We had some lunch then it was time to leave.
As soon as we got back to Charm in the afternoon, we got ready to sail to Stone Point. On the way, we made something for an Old Gaffers Bake Off. The rules were simple, we were given 2 tins without labels and whatever we found in the tins, we had to create something with it. We found kidney beans in one and mushy peas in the other. If we had been able to guess the contents of the tins before we opened them, we would get extra points, but sadly we didn’t. What could we possibly make with these things, then suddenly the Sous Chef Granny and I had the best idea ever! We would make a picture of Stone Point because that was were the competion was being held. We got to work making it while Popsie sailed Charm down the river. We used cake as the sand, mushy peas as the land, rice with blue food colouring for the sea. The Naze Tower we made out of a chocolate flake and chocolate biscuits as more land and to finish it off, we used the kidney beans as the lines of the sunken ships and Skittles as the buoys! When we arrived at Stone Point, we jumped in the dinghy with our masterpiece and sailed ashore. I put our picture of Stone point on the table and waited for the judging to commence. The judges talked about all of the entries and tasted them. The judges were Pete and Claire and had chefs’s hats on. We didn’t come 1, 2 or 3, but I got a chocolate bar for best creativity.
Next we had lots of fun on the beach, ate a BBQ, then hopped in the dinghy and rowed to Tempus as Mike had asked us to go for a drink. Then the day was over and I thought this was my favourite day of the week. The next morning I sailed the dinghy with Popsie and I practised tacking. We then sailed Charm to Pin Mill and picked up a mooring. Suddenly, it got very windy and the dinghy kept banging into Charm and Popsie said he wasn’t sure if rowing ashore for the BBQ was a good idea. Popsie was most worried about rowing back in the dark with the wind blowing a lot. We eventually decided that we would have to drive to Pin Mill so parked Charm in Levington marina. I played with Max at Pin Mill and everyone chatted a lot. I couldn’t go dinghy sailing the next day as the wind was still too strong. So, we had lunch at the Lightship and it turned out that it was the Funday there and they had lots of races. I did a rowing race and was second. I thought this was good fun. We drove to Royal Harwich and when we arrived everyone was chatting so we said ‘Hi’ and I played with Max again and then it was time for dinner. Dinner was great and so was the pudding. It finally came to the awards and some people were given trophies and some were given bells. It came to the end and then they suddenly announced my name and I was so happy. I got given a trophy saying Little Gaffer and a packet of Twirls, it was for taking part in everything. When I went up to get my prize I had a photo with Pete the Knife and I was thinking what a great week on the boat I have had. It was now the end of the night and the end of this amazing adventure. I can’t wait to be on the boat again.
The End
Words: Lilly
You must be logged in to post a comment.