Our July meeting was once again an busy one!

Liz hosted the meeting and welcomed the members and our speaker Ken Fowler. Liz emphasised that Brockenhurst WI is for the members and Liz and the committee very much welcome ideas and feedback from the members.

Liz went through the committee roles and committee members explained what they do.

Elaine arranged the beautiful table flowers.

Karen told us about her suggestion for a trip to Highclere Castle in 2025 and we voted on this suggestion. As it’s a very popular venue, booking is needed a long way in advance.

Christine told us about a theatre trip she is arranging for the autumn.

Evelyn informed us that entries for the New Forest Show Entries either need to be taken to Evelyn’s by Sunday 28th July or delivered to the WI Tent at New Forest Showground between 9.30am and 10.30am on Monday 29th July. If you are unable to deliver your entires to either Evelyn or the Showground, please contact us Evelyn may be able to collect them from you.

Janette was invited to talk about the Darts team and welcomed members to join the practice sessions at The Foresters Arms at 11am on Thursdays. Janette is hoping to arrange more friendly matches. Contact us for more details.

Rita was invited to talk about bandage making for Ukraine, which is sadly still much needed. They now have a good supply of sheets and Rita is looking for more volunteers to help at the bandage making sessions on Wednesday mornings from 10-12. Volunteers are also welcome who cant make the sessions, but can help with any of the processes from their own home. Those with sewing machines are especially welcome as the strips of sheeting need to be sewn together. Contact us for more details.

There was the usual raffle run by Maureen and April. Suggestions slips were given out to see what sort of raffle prizes would be popular for future raffles.

The competition of the month was a single flower in a vase. Despite stiff competition this month it was won by Maureen with her stunning hydrangea. Donations from this competition go to ACWW.

Esther told us about a Christmas Tree Festival that the Church are looking to put on and asked for opinions as to whether we would be willing to take part.

Our speaker this month was Ken Fowler who talked to us about his “Race to Scotland -an adventure”! And boy what an adventure he had! Despite only getting in to sailing around 7 years ago, Ken had what he described as a midlife crisis and decided to sail solo around the Isle of Wight in a competition, where he came second.

Ken had sadly lost family members to cancer and wanted to raise money for Cancer Research and Oakhaven Hospice. So he set himself the challenge of sailing from Land’s End to John O Groats in a dingy that was twice the size of a bath and weighs the same as a Labrador dog!

Ken told us of the beautiful scenery and wildlife he saw. He also told us of the low points which included sailing through a nuclear submarine exercise area, avoiding a military shooting range, midges, whirlpools, fog, nearly getting hit by a ferry, not being able to see land for 20 miles in any direction, no winds and the worst storms for 40 years that lasted 5 days! All this whilst using up a year of annual leave!

We heard about the kindness of strangers when a badger ate the supply of eggs, how the RNLI came to his aid twice and then donated to his causes and the pod of dolphins that accompanied Ken when he was at his lowest ebb.

The, statistics for his challenge were:

• 865 miles sailed
• 180 hours of sailing
• 4 Countries
• 2 rescues
• 6 dolphin sightings
• 4 capsizes
• Millions of jellyfish

As Ken didn’t reach his fundraising target of £50,000, his latest challenge is to become the first ever single handed dinghy to sail around all the islands of England and Wales. That’s a grand total of over 250 islands and over 1200 miles of sailing! We wish Ken luck with this adventure – perhaps he will come back and tell us about it! You can donate here to his chosen charities.

It was a fascinating and inspirational talk and we were in awe of Ken’s efforts, achievements and determination.

We ended the evening by singing ‘Happy Birthday ‘to our 2 Birthday girls celebrating their 90th Birthdays and we enjoyed a piece of Birthday cake with our refreshments (thank you Janye and Lindy for making the drinks).

Thanks go to Jayne and Christine for the photos.