Newsletter 2018-03 (38) August 2018
Greetings fellow Penguins,
Just short letter to whet your appetites and hope that you have had a good season sailing (with that fabulous sunshine in July!)
Pugwash was invited to a sister club's Man Overboard practice day - for real! A good day out in Cowes (isle of Wight!) and off Osborne Bay to pick up an RNLI "dummy" with weighed at least 90Kgs - this showed just how difficult it is to recover an unresponsive casualty and bring them safely on deck.
An Opportunity - the sister club (Oxted Offshore Cruising Club) are running another session (with the RNLI and Yachting Monthy press in attendance) on Sunday 21st October - so any Penguin who fancies coming along to try out the various recovery methods - you are welcome! Please contact Simon Morton at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for details. (The Oxted Cruisers have several boat owners so costs are minimal - although a donation towards costs would be appreciated!)
(Pugwash update - we have two brave Penguins who have stepped forward, Mike Install and David Grant - currently swanning around the Croatian coast!)
2018 Cruises - Pugwash has a network of spies who report on the goings-on at our cruises- the illustrious Pugwash was on the Easter Cruise - hence a full report .
Denmark was strangely quiet - suffice to say that the flight to Denmark (Copenhagen) was the easy bit - a 4 hour train journey to the furthest part of Denmark to embark on the two yachts tested the best of the crews! Did I hear that someone lost an item of clothing that should remain unmentionable?
The Azores was also a trial in getting to this far-flung post in the Atlantic- two well-found yachts were chartered and the Atlantic Ocean sailing was quite benign! On Sao Jorge, Jose, the marina manager claimed that a space between a large Dutch yacht and a pontoon was fine - much squealing of fenders and ominous grinding noises followed and the Dutch skipper, in perfect English, said "this is not good" - suffice to say Jose was called and funnily enough - found us a proper berth!
On Gaciosa, there is no marina, it is a fishing port, there was 20 odd sailing boats doing an inter-island race who were due to spend the night there. A little motorboat came out with some lads to tell us there was space in the harbour, we could tie up there! They were right but is was only one space, a small space crammed beside a large rock. All good except when a working diving boat came in they robustly told us we were taking up their spot 'we are working!'. It was only when we explained that we had been told to moor up there that we found out the guys who had told us to come in were actually a film crew who were going to record the racing boats when they came in! Helen Bass did excellent work pacifying all though at the expense of our remaining home-cooked (by Andy Christelow's wife, Erica) flapjacks and the lovely tin they came in! We all agreed to the piece offering especially as in a fishing port there are no fees!
2019 Cruises - Our customary Easter cruise, with Easter being so late, is proposed to be moved back a week from 19th April (Good Friday) - still from Isle of Skye Yachts in Armadale - just for a week (13th to 20th April) Sponsored places available (pleading letters to the Commodore please!)
A new cruise - often hinted at but never actually achieved - Ireland! We've chartered two big Westerly yacht from Dunstaffnage (near Oban - Scotland!!!) and a 2 week cruise from there (8th to 22nd June) will take us down towards Rathin Island - off the Mull of Kintyre and over to Northern Ireland and on towards the Giant's Causeway, maybe even Fingal's Cave on the way back - a fantastic cruise and Charles (cruise organiser and all-round good bloke!) estimates £350 a week for this beauty! (contact Charles on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more details).
Another dash across the "pond" to Lake Huron is our third adventure for next year - no firm dates yet but watch out for news on our website and mailings after our next committee meeting in mid-October.
Tight Halyards
Pugwash