August and September are very busy months for the club, there are several important dates in the Calendar. So we decided to take Etta to the club for 6 weeks rather than travel up and down every weekend. The club had organised a mooring for the Commodore (thank you Derek and Ian) so we were all set to become guest moorers.

The first event was Competitions weekend, but the members are not so keen on competitions anymore. On a personal note I can hardly blame them. The few that Andrew and I  entered have almost resulted in divorce, but that’s another story.

Luckily we had a Hog Roast in the evening and thanks to the nimble footwork of Graham and Ella and team, and the forward planning of Clive the steward, the event moved seamlessly from its riverside location to the cover of the clubhouse when the heavens opened. It was great to see so many Foreign Cruisers there. Missed them all already.

Next weekend we had a fairly impromptu Pudding party , and an especial thank you to Fran and Shirley and Frances who helped with providing the puddings. It was financially quite successful so maybe there are more to come.

The Association of Thames Yacht Clubs (ATYC) held their annual rally in Kingston over the bank holiday weekend. Again, there were not enough participants for the competitions , and indeed the overall turnout was disappointing. But undaunted, at least a dozen TMYC bostas turned out. And there were some 20 odd boats in all. Most of us made the London River boat club’s bbq,  and most of us hid on the boat on the Sunday as the torrential rain didn’t ease until the evening.

As August drew to a close we were grateful that the major club cruises were run in June and July when the weather was so blissful. Lucky us.