Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and trust you have had a enjoyable sailing year which has certainly had its share of fine weather, lets hope we get the same next year.
The first club sailing event was the East Coast Cruise at the end of May which culminated in a dinner at Fox’s Marina Ipswich. Honfleur crewed by four SOCA members managed to make it followed by Stewart, Tanya, Paul Redd and Denise all of whom arrived by car.
25th – 28th May 2001 Cherbourg Rally
Paul had recently retired from work and had just bought a Cornish Crabber which he was looking forward to using in his retirement. This as we know was the last SOCA event Paul attended as he sadly passed away in September shortly after being diagnosed with cancer.
He was SOCA Commodore for the year 1999-2000, I think that’s Paul at the helm of what I believe is a Colvic 28.
Tom. Sarah and Baby
Paul was a past neighbour of mine for many years at Becket Hall, Welwyn and joined the club soon after me. He had two young children Tom and Sarah who I was very pleased to meet again at Paul’s funeral.
Tom was showing off his latest 3 month old addition which he is holding in the picture above with Sarah standing alongside .
The reception was fittingly arranged at Pin Mill and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Our heart felt condolences go out to Denise for this tragic curtailing of their retirement years together.
The last yachting event was the South coast cruise arranged by Martyn Reed at Hythe Marina. This was a very successful event with 5 yachts all helped along by Martyn and Sean’s hospitality and the particularly fine weather.
Just to remind everyone the next meeting is on the 12 January 2023.
Tanya will be giving a talk on her experiences diving on the scuttled German warships in the freezing cold waters of Scapa Flow.
Commodore Alex Nicholas
Hythe marina was a new destination for all of the crew, Primarily a residential marina, it is quite pricey for visitors but a lovely place to overnight. 
Jetstream’s crew’s thanks go to the organisers and all our SOCA friends for a thoroughly enjoyable weekend’s sailing.
Saluki Skip
Day 4 Eastbourne to Northney
This year for a change, SOCA organized a sailing event in the Solent as well as the 
Having covered another 5Nm in Cloudy sun but still a headwind, 13:38 found us beside Netley Great Dome and 14:30 saw us safely moored up in 
Hythe Marina berth 26C courtesy of a berth owner who lent us his as he wasn’t using it. We had traveled 14Nm
Unbeknown to us our leader had sent a WhatsApp message that they were going to Osborne Bay, but not having any Wi-Fi we didn’t get this message and pressed on to Cowes, and Sheppard’s Marina. 14:15 found us in a berth awaiting the rest of the fleet. Come 17:00 they turned up having had a hard sail against the tide getting to Osborne Bay before anchoring for an afternoon tea stop.
Following a late-night arrival aboard Konitsa, a Beneteau 323, which was to be our home for the next two weeks, our bunks found us soon sound asleep. A morning walk around the village of Astros found the lighthouse, WW2 gun emplacement and amphitheatre (we were later to discover that several villages have their own modern amphitheatre, used for communal events, starlight film shows etc. Our flotilla skipper used them occasionally as the location for morning briefings). Of course, the location of the bakery was the most important find. Greek bakeries are renowned not only for their bread, sadly subject to inflation, no longer 1 Euro, but now 1.20 or 1.30, but also for spinachi (spinach and feta pies), an amazing array of biscuits and pastries providing a real waistline challenge.
A f4-5 easterly breeze had built up quite a chop going across the Thames but it was on our hindquarters so we flew across, surfing down the waves. An exhilarating sail but I really should have put a reef in!
SKYLARK was towed over 500 miles on July 19th to Largs in Scotland to join another 30+ Shrimpers for the rally,.some had already been in the vicinity sailing for a few weeks before. We arrived late Sunday night where we stayed at a local B&B and arranged for SKYLARK to be hoisted into the Marina the following morning
SKYLARK was then taken out for a shakedown trip for the rest of the day to Little Cumbrae to check all the re-masting and rigging etc had been performed correctly. In the evening there was a group meal at 
The paddle steamer struggled to Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, where some of the passengers disembarked to visit the town, we continued to the Kyles of Bute but had to turn back before we reached the end due the weather. The return trip then returned to Rothesay to pick up passengers and then onto to Greenock where she berthed with difficulty due to the offshore wind.
The May SOCA meeting was a retro style presentation given by Stewart Warren, using 20th Century slides (taken at the time) and a borrowed slide projector, about his 1994 ocean passage from Cape St Vincent, the south-western-most point of Portugal and of mainland Europe to Porto Santo, Madeira and Tenerife. 
The Marina had 140 berths on floating pontoons. 11km long and 6km wide, Porto Santo has a wonderful 9km long natural sandy beach. Promoted as the Golden Island to the many tourists from Portugal and europe. We took a walk to town to hop at the market and also visited a “pension house“. We enjoyed a few glasses of wine in the elderly woman’s front room, dark and dingy but cheaper than a bar.