Thurlestone Arch

Oh dear, oh dear! Why I hear you ask .. well today we joined some other home-eders for a day on the beach at Thurlestone in South Devon. We took the kayaks and paddled through the natural stone arch at sea, them we swam out the 200 yards or so and swam through the same. The sun was shining, the sea was blue, the raw untamed nature of sea, stone and us made a fantastic picture. I forgot to take the camera.

Indian summer

Driving the Dart Harbour Yacht Taxi around the harbour this afternoon was made very pleasant due to gentle winds, sunshine and interesting people to talk to. The only problem was that it would have been a great day to have a sail. The picture below was taken by John, a colleague who is also a yacht designer.

BRNC Volunteer Band

Since the removal of the Royal Marines Band from Britannia Royal Naval College last year, there has been much effort into creating a brand new volunteer band. This happened last night on Monday 7th September 2009, an historic occasion when the BRNC Volunteer Band was re-born after an interval of 60 years during the tenure of the RM Band. We had over 30 musicians turn up, many of them ex RM Band, and the standard of playing gave me much to be enthusiastic about.

Hazel and Regatta 2009

Dartmouth Regatta 2009 came and went with the usual invasion of tourists all eager to see the rowing, flying displays and the Royal Marines Band. In between such excitement they caught crabs, chalked pretty pictures on the pavement and risked their lives on the fairground rides. I performed my duty as safety boat for the guides rowing practice, and in one of the pictures you can just about see the guide teams rowing to victory against the scouts - hurrah! We had a special treat when Hazel, my older sister came to visit for a few days. She and Lynn visited Greenway House, the former home of Agatha Christie; no doubt you will be able to read about this on Lynn's blog. You can see them both aboard Jireh travelling up to Greenway Quay, where they were charged 75p each for the privilege of landing!