Frostbite/Scavenger Hunt Cruise

Frostbite / Scavenger Hunt Cruise
Sunday 27 February 2012

Sunday the 26 February dawned bright and sunny but with very little of that stuff that we need to push our boats along. But despite that, after lunch Frank G. and Bryan C. found enough of it to overcome the slight current and tack their way upstream, to then turn round and run back down to the Clubhouse in those fickle wind streaks.

At the earlier lunch, 21 adults and 2 younger club members had enjoyed the excellent lunch prepared and served by Galley Girls Joan Bray, Linda Wheeler and Diana Carpenter, and an extra 'thank-you' is due to Joan and George who procured and pre-cooked the meal - a big job. Linda baked all the cakes, Peter repaired the dishwasher in the nick of time, and Diana helped on the day, with several others (notably Gordon C)) mucking in.

Once the lunch, dessert and drinks were safely put where they belonged, as were the used dishes in the now repaired dishwasher, Rodger invited members to form their teams to conduct the hunt for answers to the clues that he'd set. He said the answers were all between the downstream end of Sunbury Court Island, and the upstream end of Platts Eyot. He claimed that the answers to the clues were visible from the water, but that claim did not accord with the puzzled looks on the 14 people that were embarked in three boats, the Club Dory, the diesel Patrol Boat, and Laurie Bridges Leisure 17 cruiser.

All three boats were seen meandering up and down the river, and some, no names, but they seemed to have 'leisure' time to use up, were aground! Rodger had set some relatively easy clues such as Q8. 'Nearly a perfume' A. CHANnEL and we got that one, but we didn't get Q4.'Antipodean cloth? A. Tasmanian flag on Pat Halling’s flagpole. So we were unlikely to get some of the more cryptic ones such as Q7. 'It floats like the constellation Aquarius'. A. De Waterman, – the Dutch translation of the word 'Aquarius'. 'De Waterman' being the name of Bob’s old boat moored on the Middlesex bank, upstream of Platts Eyot. In fairness, Rodger did admit that that one was probably the most difficult!

The scavenging hunt was great fun, conducted in bright sunshine and the combatants all thoroughly enjoyed it. There was Team Richard, Dennis & Mary, and Diana & Peter, Team Anna, Julia, Lydia and Rebbeca, and Team Laurie, Liz, Dave, and Frank & Ann. Once ashore the answers were checked, it was very close, scores being (out of 24) 15, 12 and 11 but I have to confess that I wasn't paying attention when the prize-giving ceremony was being held, so I'm unable to link those scores with the relevant Team. But you know who you are, and where you came! On all levels, a great day, we thank you all for the hard work that was put in to make it so!

Frank Rainsborough