At the Civic Reception beside the Old Custom House, the Mayor of Ipswich presented all Round Britain Cruise skippers with an individual plaque in recognition of their achievement.
After joining the Jubilee Party celebrations on the River Orwell, the RBC fleet had not yet quite completed their circumnavigation, which technically started in Ramsgate. After departing Suffolk Yacht Harbour on Monday 7 August, ‘Lahloo’ and ‘Cygnet of London’ joined the Jubilee Cruise and stopped overnight for the beach barbecue at Stone Point. The Cruise fleet then sailed south to West Mersea where ‘Lahloo’ retired ‘for a rest’ since this is her home port. ‘Cygnet of London’ continued with the Cruise fleet but was thwarted in completing her RBC at the weekend when the lock gates at Chatham Marina trapped eleven of the OGA Cruise fleet!
‘Onward of Ito’ departed Levington early on Monday morning, finally arriving in her home port at Greenwich Yacht Club at 0100 on Tuesday morning. ‘Barbarossa’ is also now back in her mud at Benfleet Creek.
We had a marvellous time at the OGA60 Jubilee party, and the East Coast summer cruise is continuing down to Chatham over the next few days. It’s clear the OGA is in robust good health on the East Coast. However after more than 3 months away D and I thought it time to go home to catch up with the real world. So we left Levington at around 6.30am. We had a westerly wind about force 4. We made good progress and arrived at our mooring on the Swale at about 4.20, high water. Our mooring buoy was covered with weed after being unused in the water for so long. And so ends Bonita’s second circumnavigation of the UK. We have had our share of difficult weather, but we very much enjoyed going round with the Old Gaffers, got to know some very remarkable sailors and visited many places we might otherwise never have seen.
Mike Beckett, ‘Bonita’
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