Saturday evening was the OPYC dinner on “the platform” by courtesy of the Squadron to whom a few OP’s belong, including the OPYC Commodore Tony Morrow, the last driver of theRoyal Yacht before she was scrapped.

Having changed into our finery we had a few people to drinks on board Marita

and then went into the hallowed Castle for dinner——but not before Flags lowered the ensign!

An excellent dinner ensued (scallops, beef, meringue, and port), a fund raising auction in aid of the Bart Simpson Foundation (Andrew Simpson, 2008 olympic gold medallist, who died sailing a catamaran was an OP) and a brief talk by Saskia Clark who brought along her gold medal

We returned to Marita via Jeremy and Katie Owen’s boat, Soul Trader, for a nightcap.

Flags arranged a deputy for the morning ritual——he did not want a sleepless night worrying about waking up, although that was not a problem as everyone had set alarms including all the other boats as every one was on deck at 0800

Mike and Laurence left on the jet foil at 1015 and Nicholas Trefusis joined Marita at 1530 for the return passage.

The wind went round to the south east and south for the return passage—we went out past the Needles and round Portland Bill all on one tide. The wind veered into the west after Start Point and ended up anchoring off Portscatho at 2100