Header image: Henri Lloyd in St Katharine Docks before the race start

The Scones and Shanties concert

Well, you’ve seen about the preparation for the concert in Mum’s post, but what about the event itself?

Raffle prizes

Raffle prizes

The concert raised £701 via ticket sales and a bric-a-brac stall for the Foundation for Conductive Education. So well worth doing. We also ran a raffle and a book stall which together also raised £122 towards my berth fee.

Several members of the audience and the choir approached me afterwards to say how much they had enjoyed it.

If I was worried before the event,  it was that it might end up finishing at quarter past two and we would all be twiddling our thumbs until three when the afternoon tea would be ready. This fear was groundless. I just talked more. By the second half I’d even got the hang of using the microphone so the audience didn’t have to guess what I might be saying from the images they were being shown!

Mel, as asked, introduced me and talked a bit about the therapy she had devised to help me be more stable on boats. She even said she had been learning to sail! Is there a round the world sailor in you yet, Mel?

Strangely, I did not feel nervous before or during the presentation I gave about the race, my preparations and the route I will be taking. Rather than one big presentation it was interleaved with the shanties.

The choir

The choir

The audience was in fine voice, and so was the choir! Catherine conducted and accompanied both from her keyboard in a selection of sea shanties, many of which she had arranged herself. There was a solo performance of Captain Mac. Some shanties were performed just by the choir and for others the audience joined in for the chorus. Drunken Sailor had very strange words – something about Anita blowing her clarinet to make the boat go faster!

The tea afterwards went down well – every sandwich and every scone was eaten and the raffle was drawn.


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