45 Memorable Years.
In 1969 / 70( I cannot remember the exact year) we visited the DMBC Rally in our fibreglass cruiser called‘ Samara.’
The lady in charge of the tombola had very few articles for the stall, so I took a box and visited every boat begging for items with surprising results, which furnished a very successful tombola.
We enjoyed the rally and on Sunday afternoon we joined everyone in the marquee for the prize giving ceremony and much to our surprise we were invited to join the club in view of the work I had done at the rally, with no joining fee to pay and £ 25 per year mooring fees.
We then returned to Dobson’ s and handed in our notice, moved to DMBC where we have stayed for 45 years until failing health has forced us to give up our passion for boating.
Geoff was on the Council for a number of years as shipping officer, in the days when they wore waders and got in the water to do the job and shipped the boats on to an old bomb trailer, then mooring officer, not an easy job, because some people were hard to please. One winter when we were between boats, we had a tiny caravan on site, as we lived in Mansfield and it was a trek to come back and forth to sort the moorings out, but it was a real bad winter and we opened the door to thick snow on quite a few occasions.
We joined in the work parties digging trenches for the electrics, cleaning the dyke out and countless other jobs over the years.
When Ted Wharmby was lock keeper we were good friends with Ted and Audrey and went to some great parties in the lock cottage.
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