Despite the obvious challenges COVID-19 had put in our way for our Spring Rally, our Rear Commodore – Offshore wasn’t going to be detered that easily, and the Rally went ahead, albeit in a ‘virtual’ format.
It was difficult to decide if this activity should sit within ‘Afloat’ or ‘Shoreside’. We weren’t able to gather with our boats, but it was officially a Spring Rally – so ‘afloat’ it is.
There were at least 40 participants, which is a great attendance for this unusual event. It was fantastic to see so many people joining in.
Nick had arranged several activities to keep us entertained, the first being a bake-off. He’d supplied us with his signature flapjack recipe in advance, and many had tried their hand with that. There were also contributions in the form of banana cake, carrot cake, battenburg and victoria sponge. Ultimately, Alison’s chocolate covered flapjacks won, and her prize is to let us taste how good her baking is when we meet in person!
Our second event was Crafty Craft, which had a wide range of interpretations by entrants. Some were handcrafted, some could float, there was even a creative cucumber-based entrant. There could only be one winner, and that was a valued member of the club, who is very rarely actually invited to any events (although does turn up univited with great regularity). The one and only ‘Uncle Albert’ was onboard with Andy Holloway, although looked more of a passenger than an active crew member when it came time to tack.
Our evening entertainment was rounded off with an emoji quiz courtesy of Peter J. All answers were sailing related, with many being buoys that we’d normally have expected to see close by on our way to a Rally. Mark and Laura were the worthy winners for this event. The quiz is below, for anyone who’d like to try their hand.
It was a great shame that we were unable to hold the Rally in person, but at least we could see lots of familiar faces. Let’s hope it wont be long before we can actually venture onto the water, and meet up in person.
