Just 5 Club boats but lots of members/guests travelled straight to the hotel, some stopping there overnight. – 66 attendees, 54 sitting down for dinner.      

Another great weekend as usual, good weather, even warmish, with the usual slightly windy conditions. Just five of us decided to come by boat, braving the Rail bridge problems, and to take advantage of the free taxi service provided by the club to get to the new venue. Mind you, the Yacht station was full of life as many boats from Brundall had arrived to attend a music evening at the old Boulevard. We started the fun early around lunchtime with drinks and snacks on “Lady Grace” to welcome those hardy members who came by boat, including two new faces. Lots of wine, G&T’s, and beers saw the afternoon out and soon time to get togged up ready for the Dinner dance. Everything went well – taxi’s arrived on-time – hotel bar was open early as promised – tables were laid out just perfect – the band had set-up - and the Wine ordering table was soon busy, as was the well-stocked bar.

After pre-dinner chats, we were all seated quickly and proceeded to enjoy a lovely meal, well-served by eager young waiters and waitresses, before the band started playing just after nine. The dance-floor soon was heaving as we enjoyed dancing to a mixture of rock n’ roll, blues and ballads from our new band – the Breeze. The presentations took place during the interval, the lucky ticket winner was Audrey – winning a bottle of bubbly (well, Spanish variety at least). The Pot of Gold raffle had raised over £120 – and split as usual for prizes and for Staff tips. First prize of £50 was won by our own treasurer, Sandra, to the usual cries of “fiddle”. The Paul Hodgson Trophy was presented to Sandra and John, team “Winkle”, for the Fun-day win. The Commodore’s Cup for the Quiz Nite went to the Freemasters; and the Broken Oar trophy was presented to Dave of “Sea Moon”, in recognition of his many, many electrical problems – culminating in him hosing down the engines AND their electronic boxes. Doh!!

The band soon got going again, just as we were joined by 12 or so members of our Commodore’s family – the “latecomers” (they had a good excuse though – having been to a Show with Bob’s granddaughter playing a lead-role). Dancing continued until just after midnight, and then it was the sad goodbyes – see you next year time!

A brilliant night-out – so we’ve provisionally booked the Parkhill Hotel again for next year. See you all there!  (note new date of 27th.October 2012)  - Ken