On August the 11th 1983 I was a witness in a Crown Court case in Brighton. The chairman of my company was a very keen aviator and had two light aircraft and he offered to fly me to the venue. En route we received a message to say the trial had been adjourned. “Never mind Mr Jones lets go and get some lunch, what do you fancy?” he asked. “Fresh Fish” was my reply. An hour later we were in the famous Perard restaurant in Le Touquet, still a great restaurant today. We tucked into a massive Assiette de Fruits de Mer washed down with a bottle or two of Montrachet, no passports, no francs and not a care in the world.
In the early eighties I was a building society manager and one of my clients successfully sold his business for several millions. As a thank you he invited me on a cruise. Not on some Ocean going liner but a 38 foot sailing yacht from Gosport on the south coast of England to Cherbourg on the Normandy coast. His boat was called “Slay Crab”, an anagram of Barclays which had originally funded his business.
This was my first ever cross channel crossing on a yacht though I had some experience of dinghy sailing. I hadn’t at all realised how different it would be and my big mistake was my meal in the yacht club, lasagna and red wine. I would see these again later as they were not the best company for diesel fumes and a mid Channel swell. Sea sickness is instantly cured the minute you put your
feet on dry Iand I discovered which meant we were able to enjoy a great night in the town of Cherbourg before a relatively easy sail home. I have to say, the sight of our skipper chomping on a whole camembert and swigging a bottle of red wine didn’t help a great deal.
My most exciting crossing to date was in one of Her Majesty’s Submarines, sadly that is all the Official Secrets Act will allow me to say…