Twenty nine  members were able to attend this year and over tea, coffee and biscuits a buzz of much animated conversation filled the room: remembering past cruises , meeting up with folks not seen for a couple of seasons, buying raffle tickets, meeting new faces.

This was only halted by the timely arrival of the fish and chips (with mushy peas!) which kept everyone eerily quiet for a short period!  A plethora of delicious desserts followed. All suitably full, brief reports were given of this summer’s cruises and (just for fun) awards presented to various crews.

We watched a  short but poignant film of the work of the Cotswolds Boatmobility Project and the Commodore presented Jan Thomas with a cheque for £200 to pay for the cost of training a volunteer.  The raffle was held and hopefully folks took home something useful. tasty or beautiful! Cotswolds Boatmobility also received a cash donation of the receipts of the raffle of around £57.

Peter Powell gave an interesting and detailed presentation of the plans for the May 2020 club cruise on the Basingstoke Canal,  of which more details later. We thank him for all the work he has put in to make it happen.  Further information was given about the pre and post Basingstoke plans, including the festival at Little Venice, the Thames Barrier cruise led by Andrew Phasey  and the St Pancras Cruising Club, Severn Estuary cruise from Bristol and on to Sharpness and the Saul Festival .

Others plan to return  via the Thames and Oxford and Grand Union canals. Ideas were asked for the future and a suggested cruise on the Scottish Canals was mooted, again using hire boats. This would probably be a two-week cruise. Other suggestions included going up to York and maybe including the Huddersfield Narrows trip that had to be shelved due to lack of water in a previous year. Some support for another trip up the Lanky was shown and a possible Mersey Crossing; these may be options for 2021 or 22.