South West
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Supper then A Hospital Ship at War; Nicci Pugh
date:
Wed, 22/02/2012 - 18:30 - 21:30
place:
The Royal Cornwall Yacht Club, Greenbank, Falmouth. Nicci Pugh; A British Hospital Ship at War. Nicci, a local sailor, who has lived and worked in Cornwall all her life is an ex-RCYC member now RNSA, who learnt to sail on the Helford before her time in the Navy as a Nursing Sister. Nicci will base the talk on her book ‘White Ship – Red Crosses’, which is a fascinating, comprehensive account of the work of the medical teams and crew aboard the British Hospital Ship SS Uganda during the Falklands War in 1982, Uganda was moored in the Fal near Smugglers after the hostilities. The story gives a sense of the camaraderie between those on board and the importance for the veterans of their links to the Falklands Islands. Nicci will include maps and many unseen photos and make comparisons to current conflicts ensuring this talk will be an interesting and enjoyable one.
Supper is at 19.00 and costs approximatly £10.00, the talk starts at 20.00 and finishes soon after 21.00. Both the RCYC and the CA SW Section welcome guests so please do come along to both the supper and talk or just to the talk.
Supper must be booked or there will not be enough food! Please book by emailing south_west@cruising.org.uk or ringing 07818 002624.
Supper then The Story of Navigation
date:
Wed, 14/03/2012 - 18:00 - 21:30
place:
The Royal Western Yacht Club; Queen Anne's Battery, Plymouth Wednesday March 14th 2012, Royal Western Yacht Club; Jeremy Batch; The Story of Navigation: 2000 BC to 2020 AD. Birds do it, bees do it, even educated salmon do it – and all with a precision that we have only just begun to match. The contributions to navigation made by Galileo and John Harrison are well-known, and the work of others – such as Michael Faraday and Elmer Sperry – can at least be guessed at. But what about Igor Sikorsky, Arthur C. Clarke and Albert Einstein? If the back-staff was such an improvement over the cross-staff, why did the Dutch East India Company ban it from their ships? How did Deptford Sailing Club (estab.1514) get put in charge of pilotage and buoyage, and why did their successors finally settle on red and green, which many of us can’t distinguish? How did the nuclear submarine USS Skate find Ice Station Alpha in 1959, when the “station” had no idea where it was? Which prehistoric navigational device played a vital part in the moon landings? Why did the astronauts come back younger than if they’d stayed at home, and how does this affect your satnav? And how did the Polynesians and the Vikings find their way around, centuries before GPS?
Jeremy is a boater and sailor, going narrow boating and motor boating on the inland waterways and sailing mainly in the Thames Estuary in his 24ft sailing cruiser. He is a lock keeper at Limehouse Lock where the Regent’s Canal and the Lee Navigation meet the Thames, the CA’s headquarters in Limehouse Basin. Jeremy’s interest in the history of London’s docks and waterways began when he was writing in the Greenwich YC magazine and has increased since he started to work in London as a lock keeper and joined the CA.
To book email southwest@cruising.org or phone 01579 382451
