Four cars from the South Wales region attended the weekend event on Guernsey organised by Allan Legg and his compatriots. Three couples; Marilyn and Ray, Clive and Penny and Michelle and I stayed overnight in Weymouth the night before the 7am crossing to the island. Kevin and Alison made their way there separately with Cliff and Babs, former Guernsey residents.
We stayed at the hotel Jerbourg and two other hotels held the rest of the MX-5 members. The Jerbourg was probably the best of the three and we were much luckier than those others who had originally booked to stay at the Idelrocks hotel next door to Jerbourg which burnt down a few weeks before the event!!
You might think that a country only 10 miles in diameter with a maximum speed limit of 35mph was an odd choice for a sports car meeting but it was a great place to drive around in. The roads are well maintained and interesting, with many twisting sections to keep the driver awake (but not the passenger).
During our stay, many restaurants and pubs on the island took part in
"Tennerfest"; a period where they all provide high quality fixed menus
at, or around $10.00. We took advantage of this and struck very lucky with our
first choice of "The Absolute End" in St. Peter Port. It must be said
though that the main reason for us going there was Penny's decision based on the
availability of Créme Brulé, which sadly wasn't available on the night due to
excessive demand.
The Saturday night dinner organised by the club was in one of the other hotels being used by members and also provided a Tennerfest meal; again excellent. During the evening, we were mystified when we found we had great difficulty in ordering drinks from the bar until we were told that all the bar staff were Latvian and spoke very little English (or Welsh). A surrealist development later was that the same Latvians were staffing a coffee bar in St. Peter Port.
It seemed that most of the National Committee had travelled to the Island and it was great to meet up with them face to face. They are all very enthusiastic about the club and in particular with regard to future National events based in Wales; watch out for announcements in the future.
As well as the Saturday evening meal and get together, one or two loosely arranged events took place. On Sunday, when the sun shone brilliantly all day, we all met up Chouet tea rooms for a cream tea. Monday morning provided a chance for those who were interested to visit a Clematis nursery. We chose not to visit the nursery and instead did a last sweep of the duty free shops on the island.
About 20 MX-5's gathered on the dockside for the journey home. It was frightening to see the spit and polish effort that went on at the dockside with several people using some weird waterless cleaning agent they had found. One Guernsey couple who were nothing to do with our party were amazed to see twenty clones pull up around them.
It was great to look over all the different cars at close quarters and grill
their owners on mods etc. One chap in particular proceeded to give Clive
Marshall (STHT editor) an ear-full about "best car" competitions
at the national rally.
We were told that the incoming boat was delayed by a "medical emergency". To the dismay of several of our group, we later discovered that this was because sea conditions were so rough that a passenger had been violently ill enough to dehydrate and need medical attention.
In the event, the sea on our leg of the journey wasn't as bad as we'd feared and as far as I know, none of our party was ill.
I think I speak for everyone who attended when I say that it was a great weekend. It was well organised with plenty of "go as you please" time and patronised by a set of really nice people. It wasn't possible to do more than about a mile without seeing another MX-5 coming towards us.
I would like to thank the organisers of the event on behalf of our group and look forward to next year's proposed Jersey trip.
Hi Ho Silver