Thanks go to the winners of the Eel Totem Trophy (youngest participants), Evie and Alfie for this article about their first visit to Swallows and Amazons, 27 – 29 June, 2025.
It was a hot and sunny Thursday afternoon, when we arrived at Walton and Frinton Yacht Club. When we got there, we met our Grandma and Grandpa, who had sailed round in their Dutch barge ‘Sietske’ the day before. Our Granny and Grandad had also just arrived, towing our nutshell dinghy ‘Chase’ for us, because dad had already got the Brightlingsea One Design ‘Janice’ on the back of his car. There were lots of different boats there already and everybody was getting rigged, while we explored. Evie liked the shiny varnish on the boat next to us and Alfie liked the special tripod that we used to get the mast up on ‘Janice’. We went and found the campsite, put up our tent and had a BBQ.
On Friday morning, it was very hot when we woke up in the tent. After breakfast we put ‘Chase’ and ‘Janice’ in the water using the electric winch. Alfie and Grandma set off in ‘Chase’ first, with Evie and Grandpa in the rubber flubber. Mum, Dad and the three dogs followed in ‘Janice’. We sailed around Swallow Island with a chart of Secret Water to help us, and stopped at Flint Island for a picnic. We saw lots of seals with their pups on our way.
On Saturday, Mum, Dad and Grandma went off to do the race on ‘Janice’ and we stayed with Grandpa and the dogs. We sailed and rowed and discovered a creek which we called ‘Maze Creek’ and we found a shipwreck. ‘Chase’ survived rowing and quanting up ‘Shipwreck River’ to ‘Shipwreck Island’ and didn’t get shipwrecked. After the race we all went for a swim and Alfie discovered he could make a big splash jumping off the quay and jumping off ‘Sietske’. In the evening we all went to the prizegiving and found that ‘Janice’ had won the race and we had won the Eel Totem trophy for being the youngest participants. We also got some sweets and water pistols which came in handy the next day!!
On Sunday we sailed ‘Janice’ and Grandma and Grandpa sailed ‘Chase’ to Beaumont Quay. We used our new water pistols to squirt people on the way. We had to stop before we got there because ‘Janice’ couldn’t fit under the power line and so we all squeezed into ‘Chase’ and sailed up to the Quay. We had a swim and found we could use our water pistols and swim at the same time. When it was time to leave, Dad towed us back to ‘Janice’ with us hanging on the back of ‘Chase’. We then tied ‘Chase’ to the back of ‘Janice’ and Mum, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa towed us back to the Yacht Club. It was time to pack up and ‘Janice’ got pulled out of the water with the electric winch. Our Auntie Rosie joined us and we had another swim while mum and dad packed up. We can’t wait to come back next year and are making plans to explore and name some more creeks!
Words: Evie (aged 8) and Alfie (aged 5)
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