THE BOATAHOLIC
Nick Burnham: “Then Marianne discovered that Eighties band Wet Wet Wet were playing and suddenly we were going to see them that evening”
The irony is that I wasn’t planning to go that night. It was a new event, Tunes On The Sands, a three-day concert on Blackpool Beach just west of Dartmouth with a plethora of great bands. A few friends and I had planned to take our boats down on Saturday, anchor off the beach, enjoy a bit of music and a long lunch and potter back later. Then Marianne discovered that Eighties band Wet Wet Wet were playing Friday at 7:45pm, a band that features strongly from her teenage years, and suddenly we were going to see them that evening!
I went down to the boat early afternoon to get it ready and Marianne came straight from work (she’s a teacher). By 4:45pm we were slipping out of Torquay, meeting friends Greg and Sally in their Rinker Captiva 242 Seagull 3 off Brixham before heading west. The weather was glorious – breezy, but mostly sheltered as the wind was offshore. We romped down the coast with Wet Wet Wet’s Greatest Hits blasting out of Smuggler’s JL Audio system.
Forty-five minutes later we were among a small flotilla of anchored craft 250 metres off the steeply shelving beach, nose toward the land in flat calm, crystal clear water, the Rinker rafted alongside. In truth, the music wasn’t that loud but we didn’t care. We were too busy hurling ourselves off the boats, swimming, laughing and splashing about. Then, after showering (transom shower – brilliant!) Marianne conjured up a simple but delicious dinner for us all, wine appeared from the bowels of Seagull 3 and we all ate our fill, chatting and laughing as we bobbed gently at anchor, the warm sun sinking lazily toward the horizon.
Then, at 7:45pm, the volume suddenly ramped up as the distinctive opening guitar chords of Wet Wet Wet’s seminal Sweet Little Mystery echoed out across the bay and a huge cheer went up from the cockpit of Smuggler’s Blues 2. “Suddenly everything makes sense again,” shouted Marianne, heading for the foredeck and a better view.
As the sun gently set over Blackpool Sands we were all on the foredeck dancing, singing along and generally having a fantastic time! The concert was brilliant, the weather balmy, the company wonderful and the whole experience worth every penny of the ridiculous cost of running a boat just for that one amazing evening, as it so often is.
An hour later, with Wet Wet Wet spent and the sun a memory, we upped anchor and drifted out of the bay. It was still plenty light enough to see clearly, so with the nav lights ablaze and in company with some other friends who were already there when we arrived, we formed a small flotilla, swarming back up the coast at 25 knots, arriving back in Brixham 30 minutes later and mooring together on the events pontoon as darkness finally began to envelope us.
The following morning it was a late breakfast at the Breakwater Bistro and a mooch out to drop anchor in a secluded bay, secure in the knowledge that, actually, the weekend had only just begun.