Having blown off the cobwebs and sworn never to drink again, Davy and I decided to go exploring and pay a visit to Penlee Lifeboat Station, the scene of a tragic disaster some 30 years ago. Two trains and a bus carried us to the old boathouse which has been left empty for this period as a memorial to the lost crews of the lifeboat and the ship they were trying to save. As retired life boatmen ourselves, we remember the loss vividly and have had a Watson like the Soloman Brown stationed at Moelfre and were very moved. Davy’s father Evan had friends on the crew who died on that service.
We walked down into Mousehole which is beautiful and again similar to our home station of Moelfre where we had lunch.
Our next stop was at Newlyn a few miles back along the coast where the current Penlee Lifeboat, a Severn class, is stationed together with an Atlantic 75 inshore boat. Patch Harvey, the present coxswain,gave us a guided tour of the boats and station and we had an interesting exchange of information on boats we have both been trying to trace with Davy having some long sort after photos which we will be forwarding to Patch.
So we succeeded in a pilgrimage that we had promised ourselves for years and even managed to stay out of the pubs allday !
Davy and John (Fwd Stb)