Starting Out!
Pemandia
Peter Fabricius
Mon 21 May 2018 16:15
Emily and I had a wonderful trip to Glyndebourne yesterday. We try and ignore the cost and go twice each season. Yesterday was to see Der Rosenkavalier with our very longstanding friends Huon and Marion. Huon and I rowed together at St Thomas’s between 1772 and 74 and are now well signed up to the philosophy that the older we are, the better we were! They live quite close to us and we always have a super outing. The weather was wonderful and the production excellent (ok, for the opera buffs, we were very privileged to see Renee Fleming on her final performance at Covent Garden as the Marshellein and that was the gold standard). We ate in the restaurant as with all the other preparations, a traditional Glyndebourne picnic might have been a sandwich too far!
This morning Emily drove me down to Plymouth with the last minute fresh food etc, after checking and double checking passport, ships papers etc. Our friends Anthony and Julia Wells (RCC) were there and saw me off.
There is not much wind and I am motor sailing towards Falmouth. I’ve had an interesting radio exchange with HMS Monmouth. She gave out a VHF radio warning that she was conducting a live firing exercise quite close to my position, so I called her up to check on my safety - no problem. VHF is meant to be used for working calls, not social chat, but I was pleased to ask and have an affirmative reply about whether the Wardroom still had a 1908 rowing cup!!
Emily’s grandfather served as an engineering officer on Monmouth on the China Station and his stokers won a superb silver cup in the station gig rowing. Sadly he went down with his later ship HMS Opal in a terrible storm in January 1918 - it was one of the three worst disasters to the fleet at Scapa Flow. (I have written a full account of the accident in the RCC Journal of 2014). The family were left with the cup and when the present Monmouth was commissioned Emily’s mother and her surviving sister decided to return the cup to the new ship. The RN really laid on a wonderful reception for these two elderly ladies, both in their 90s and assembled the sips company for the ceremony. The Captain even arranged for his engineering officer to receive the cup! As an Army officer I really take my hat off to the RN for that Party! I’d never seen Monmouth before and it was lovely to confirm 25 year’s on that they still have the cup!!
Kettle is just boiling so more news in a day or so.
Peter
Sent from Yacht Pemandia