A return to the beautiful Staithe suite for both events.

The turnout for this season’s opening dinner dance was as last year, 33 members, some came by car, but most on 12 boats moored in the basin. The weather was generally sunny, but very cold in an easterly breeze – nearly zero degrees at night!

The cold air rather spoiled it for gathering around the boats for a chat, but we all managed to enjoy the weekend on the lovely Beccles quayside.

11 boats were there by the Friday evening and a few of us went over for fish n’ chips from the “Cod House” around the corner, eating on our boats, before an early night. It rained heavily overnight and still some showers remained on Saturday morning as we welcomed in our last boat.

Not much to do on Saturday, the weather curtailing any activities – except for a few members going up town to the shops.

Myself, Jen, and both Sandras, went up to the hotel on Saturday afternoon, to prepare the raffle table and place the menu cards on the already set tables. There were quite a few raffle prizes to stick tickets on, and more were donated later in the evening.

Back then on our boats to get ready for the evening, taxis arriving from 6.40pm onwards, providing a quick shuttle service. Nice to all meet and chat in the Staithe suite over pre-dinner drinks, but we were soon seated, ready for the meals to be served on time from 7.30pm onwards.

We drew the ticket prize first, a nice bottle of Cava going to Terry (Mar-Tel III) – a sign of things to come as Terry & Judy continued later to win most of those raffle prizes of an alcoholic nature!

The restaurant staff were excellent, fast and efficient, and the lovely meals were served piping hot.

MariaSax had set up earlier and was ready to play for us at 9pm on the dot, as we were finishing our coffees. Good music for dancing and we were all up on the dance floor until the break at 10.15pm. Jen and Dawn had meanwhile gone about, menacingly, selling raffle tickets at the usual £1 per strip, whilst Dave, Sandra and Judy busied themselves folding the counterfoils ready for the big draw. It was a great effort, raising £121 for club funds. Bob and I then cracked into the raffle draw, lots of prizes and so we had to be speedy. Terry was the big winner of the evening, he & Judy were on my table and it quickly filled with bottles of wine & whisky, whilst my side of the table just had soaps and smellies! Music and dancing began again a little after 10.30. The dance floor was busy, and Maria continued to entertain us with lots of good tunes until nearly midnight. The shuttle bus arrived on time, filling up quickly, with Dave also helping in driving a few back to their boats in Tim’s “bus”. The end of another great night, all back on our boats before 12.30 and quickly to our warm beds.

AGM

Sunday began sunny, with a few clouds, but still freezing cold in that bitter easterly wind. We made our way back to the Staithe Suite for the AGM, a total of 29 members and guests in attendance. I had been distributing Yearbooks all weekend, and Bob had now brought along the Green books, which were also given out to each member. Copies of the AGM agenda and previous minutes were also made available. The hot bacon rolls and coffee/tea were ready by 10.50am, enough for 40 – so many enjoyed two butties and multiple hot beverages! Thanks again to the staff at the hotel for preparing everything and sorting all the tables out from the night before.

Bob started the meeting at 11.05am with his opening address, praising the club officers and committee members and making special mention of Dave & Dawn’s contribution to the running of the club. He followed that with a funny anecdote regarding the beautiful china cake-stand that he had won in last night’s raffle – apparently he dropped and smashed it as he removed it from his car boot at home. Pity, we had earmarked that for the cakes at the Bramerton tea-party in June. Bob is now our first candidate for the 2019 Broken Oar?

I continued with the formal agenda, rushing a bit at the end in order to finish by 12.30. It was a good meeting and we quickly cleared up, said our goodbyes, and returned to our boats by 1pm.

Back on the quayside, a few made ready to leave but others decided to stay until the Monday morning, when weather and tides were expected to be better for the journeys back to base.

Luckily, turns out that the local chippie opens on a Sunday evening – so no problems with hot food!

End of a lovely OBMBC weekend.                                                            Ken  (May 2019)