Chichester Marina, Last Night of the Proms! - 2 nights Spree Dave and Cathy

Rally to Chichester Marina Dates - 9 th -11th September 2022. Lead boat - SPREE It was a fine weather weekend starting with a cold North Westerly breeze on Friday, moderating later. It was also just after the death of Queen Elizabeth and a number of boats cancelled in consequence, as did the members who had arranged to attend by car. The Last Night of the Proms was also cancelled (that’s Proms, Mike. Theres an ‘r’ in it). Perhaps we can try this again next year. Nevertheless, in the event, ten boats attended, with four of them coming on the Saturday. Nine of the ten boats were sailing cruisers and only one (Liberty) was a power boat. Two were catamarans. The Friday sail over was very pleasant, despite the contrary tide and the chill in the wind, with boats making 5=6 knots over the ground. Berths were allocated pretty much at random so we were scattered over the length of the marina with Spree on the “wrong” side. Walking exercise is good for you! Friday evening drinks were well attended. We ended up with 13 people sitting on Spree. By dinner time the chill was increasing and the members dispersed to get their meals. Quite a few, including yrs truly, went to the café. I cant speak for others but we were a bit disappointed with the food there. Perhaps it was just an unfortunate choice from the menu! On Saturday Cathy went to London and left me minding the store. The four Saturday boats turned up. But a couple of expected boats did not. Some crews walked up to Dell Quay for a nice pub lunch whilst others relaxed around the marina or went for shorter walks. It would be helpful if members could inform rally leaders and marina offices if they decide not to come. For this rally Cathy set up a Whatsapp group which gave easy and convenient communications for attendees. Drinks on the pontoon were really on the pontoon on Saturday evening, and most of the crews came, a couple of them in their tenders! The evening sun shone on us and it wasn’t nearly as cold as Friday evening. A few people were exhausted and didn’t attend the pontoon drinks, but everybody turned up for the meal. Dinner was in the Chichester Yacht Club where the staff had taken the reduction in numbers (just 21 diners) in their stride and had arranged two long tables for us. We sat down to an excellent meal with very good service which was much appreciated. I think everyone had a very pleasant meal and enjoyed one another’s company. You can see that John has his Tricorn hat on, which was passed around for the CYC staff. It’s a good hat for this purpose!