First East Coast NBOC Fleet Meet

Enjoying pre-dinner drinks on the aft deck of Katriona

The weekend of 25/26 July saw a select group of 4 East Coast boats meet for an inaugural East Coast Fleet Meet at Woodbridge Tide Mill Yacht Harbour. Estuary Pilgrim and Triana of Hamble are based in the marina, with Katriona and French Franks making the short passage from the River Orwell up to Woodbridge on the early Saturday morning tide.

The safari supper on Saturday evening started at 6pm with drinks on Katriona and concluded (joyously later than planned because we were all having so much fun) around midnight with coffee, after dinner drinks and cake served by Elaine and John on French Franks. Peter and Margaret from Triana provided a delicious fish mousse starter, elegantly served on fish shaped dishes acquired that morning from one of the many high standard charity shops in Woodbridge! Following a mild chilli con carne main course on Katriona we moved to Estuary Pilgrim for a sundae – chosen on the basis that sundae glasses were the only container that Ron and Wendy had 9 of! Throughout the evening good conversation and wine flowed freely, with topics including Nelson Boats (of course), neurosurgery and Cuban Cigar importing.

French Franks had to leave on Sunday morning, and Ron and Wendy had to start preparing for their trip to the Netherlands, so just the crews of Katriona and Triana made their way to HMS Vale for pre-lunch drinks and then on to the Unruly Pig for their social Sunday tasting menu, which was most excellent and necessitated a late afternoon nap for both crews.

On Monday Peter and Margaret had to return to London, but Ron and Wendy joined Ruth, James & Alice for a most interesting visit to Woodbridge Boatyard, provide by the general manager, Matt. We were surprised there was so much to see, the tour taking nearly 2 hours. The highlight was seeing the excellent progress being made on Miss Moneypenny, a beautiful wooden Nelson 26 undergoing a full restoration.

Everyone had a wonderful time and are looking forward to the next event. Hopefully this short blog post will encourage more East Coast members to join next time.

• 

• 

• 

•