Janet's Blog – Summer 2024

Janet's Blog

What a grand time I've been having lately! Some time ago I had a phone call from Christine Cottrell – she and her late husband Rodney, a very dear friend of ours, set up the Audlem Lass Boat Service and also the Overwater Wheelyboat. This year is the 200th anniversary of the RNLI and she'd received a right royal invite to a special garden party at Buckingham Palace and even better still she invited me to be her plus one! A new suit and hat was purchased and on a sunny day in May (yes there was at least one) we set off for the Palace. 

The highlights have to be literally pulling up outside the gates to ask the nice armed police officer where the disabled parking was, the gorgeous little cakes with the royal crest on, getting within 10 yards of the lovely Princess Anne and having a great chat with one of the King's guards about how sharp his sword was. Getting back out of London at 6pm, straight through the middle of Knightsbridge, was interesting and needless to say I think my normal daily commute down the farm track is somewhat less stressful.

Following almost immediately on from our royal day out was Crick Boat Show. I love Crick – it's fab to see so many previous, current and new customers in one weekend and there were some fabulous boats on show. David and Carol and Angus and I split the weekend between us which makes it a lot less arduous. Back at the marina it's been really busy despite the rubbish weather (which I actually can't complain about at the moment as while I write this it's lovely).It's great to see so many boats going out cruising and we've also been busy welcoming caravan and glamping guests.

Not wanting to wish our lives away but we're also really excited to look forward to the August bank holiday weekend when we'll be having a quiz night to raise funds for the Wheelyboat/RNLI on the Friday night, a night with Elvis on the Saturday and a Comedy night on the Sunday – what a fab weekend to look forward to!