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DisasterMan
Members can stay there at night, in guest cabins, although
we stayed on board our boat. It turned out to be convenient
for bringing things back from the Isle of Wight. For example,
Ellen would come over on the ferry. When she found some
antique stain-glass windows (now hanging in our kitchen
in Pacifi c Grove decades later), she was able to bring the
windows to the Club, loaded them on our boat, sailed them
back to Hamble and then drove them home in our VW bus.
I sailed twice around the entire Isle of Wight, on our boat
and as a guest of other sailing friends who had done it a number
of times. One such family were Faith and Peter Futrell. The
Futrells lived on the Isle of Wight half the year and wintered
in New Zealand, where their son had settled after sailing
there. They were completely self suffi cient, raising their own
goats, lambs, and vegetables. Meals were always memorable
they might say, "Oh, this is Richard," referring to the roast
leg of lamb. One time we were getting ready for dinner and
they exclaimed "Oh, the salad!" So we piled into their car and
drove to a brook in the middle of the island to pick some wild
watercress.
Brigadier Templer was another friendly Atalanta owner,
living in an old vicarage. We stayed with them several times.
He had been a Japanese POW for six years in Singapore. He
was a cousin of Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer, British
High Commissioner in Malaya, best known for defeating the
guerrilla rebels. In the POW camp, the prisoners took turns
giving "lectures" about subjects they were familiar with. He
heard a lecture about beekeeping every six months during
the six years, so when he retired on disability, he took up
beekeeping. He found farmers who welcomed anyone who
wanted to set up a beehive and help pollinate the crops. His
wife put up 2,000 jars of "Mrs. Templer's Devon honey" every
year, a handy cash supplement to his retirement pension.
The English encourage eccentricities in people. By chance
we met Frieda Powers in Hamble, when Ellen admired her
garden. Frieda lived a house named "The Old House," built
in the 1600s. She had divided it so she rented out half and