Last night we were joined by a contingent of 2-6 heavers, who came to help with today’s receptions. It’s been a busy day, starting with bacon butties on deck at 0730, then all hands too. We scrubbed the deck, we built gazebos, and the galley team under Graham’s careful direction put together trays of wonderful canapés for the guests and lovely cakes and lunches for all the crew and volunteers.
From 10-12 we had a number of Rotarians having guided tours of the ship, then at 12, our principal guest of the day, Peter Harrison came on board, along with a number of our trustees and patrons. The Peter Harrison Foundation is making an extremely generous donation to the trust, which will help to put us in a much more comfortable financial position. Peter was obviously very interested in the ship and the work that we do and after making the formal presentation of the cheque to us, spent most of the afternoon on the ship talking to volunteers and trustees.
During the afternoon we were visited by more Rotarians, and then in the evening we had another reception, for the Little Britain Challenge Cup group, to thank them for their efforts in raising funds for us.
All in all, although it was a long and tiring day for most of us, the weather was very kind (I noticed a few slightly sunburnt bodies around) and everybody had a good day, which was finished off with a very civilized drink on deck for the volunteers, who had worked extremely hard.
Update By: Sue Medical Purser