Kent

Clifford Mickleburgh on DAWN OWL with Charlie on a whistle stop tour of Europe

Clifford Mickleburgh on DAWN OWL with Charlie on a whistle stop tour of Europe from the Netherlands north to Copenhagen and then south through the Kiel Canal, Frisian Islands and the European rivers and canals to Switzerland and back down the Rhine through Germany to Friesland in the Netherlands. Find out about the boat lifts and the inclined planes!

Nigel Rigby on Captain James Cook RN

Britain’s greatest mariner explorer, navigator, cartographer. Nigel works for the National Maritime Museum, which holds world-class collections of Cook-related material. The Museum has staged Cook exhibitions and galleries since it first opened in 1937, and it is currently developing a new gallery which is due to open in 2018, on the anniversary of Cook’s departure from Deptford. Nigel’s talk will look at how the Museum’s displays of Cook have changed over the years and how they are planning to use him in the new gallery.

Chatham Historical Dockyard with Scott Belcher the Curator

A fascinating talk with a “then and now approach” – a kind of guided tour around the site with a general historical overview, specific details of the buildings and vessels included and what they do now, both for visitors and in the wider sense. The ships Gannet, Ocelot and the Cavalier, the lifeboats, the steam locomotives and much, much more.

Date: 9^th February 2017

Time: 19:00, talks start 20:00

Thursday, 8th December 2016 - with mince pies and mulled wine - Mark Rogers from the Meteorological office will update us on modern weather forecasting. Weather is something that affects every mariner. Can you read the clouds, what is a synoptic chart and how will it help me ? Everyone knows that the Met Office forecasts the weather but how is this done and what are their roles and responsibilities within the UK and around the world ?

Thursday, 13th October 2016 – Tony Farnham has a wealth of knowledge of the days gone by and will talk about “Sailing Barges in their heyday”, a look back on barges on the Medway and Swale, but of course they also made their way up to London, the East Coast and along the South Coast.

This meeting will be held at:

The Dog & Bear Hotel
The Square
Lenham
ME17 2PG
01622 858219

Kent, Essex and Suffolk Rallies

Kent Winter Warmer, 10th of March 2016

Members’ evening with short presentations on what they did, what went well and what went wrong in 2015. This will give you food for thought as you contemplate the summer of 2016.

Kent Winter Warmer, 11^th of February 2016

Clifford Mickleburgh on a “Whistle Stop” tour of Europe in Dawn Owl. He spent 50% of his time on his own with Charlie (his dog), taking in Belgium, the Netherlands, Northern Germany, Poland, the Baltic and then home through the Kiel Canal and the Frisian Islands. Find out why Charlie was in the custody of the Berlin River Police!

This meeting will be held at:

The Dog & Bear Hotel
The Square
Lenham
ME17 2PG
01622 858219

Kent Winter Warmer, 14^th of January 2016

We will follow Nick Ardley who you might describe in the nicest way as a “ditch crawler”, and his mate, on a passage around the east coast’s rivers between N. Kent and mid Suffolk aboard their Finesse 24, Whimbrel.