The boarders went mackerel fishing on the high seas near Lyme Regis

This was one of the classic boarder weekends, mackerel fishing in Lyme Regis, organised by the indomitable Mr O’Neill.

The children look forward to this with great anticipation and new children look quizzically, wondering what a Mackerel is and how we are going to fit 50 fishing rods into the minibus. This is no Sunday lounge on the beach with rod in hand, this is proper sea fishing with Mackerel lines and weights being hauled from the stern of the boat. Super cool fun.

We awoke to a very muggy, warm day and quickly set about our morning tasks after a slap up Full English Breakfast; sandwiches were made, teeth were brushed, sun cream applied, and then we were off down the winding lanes through Somerset, Dorset and Devon. At Lyme Regis, we quickly established an HQ on the sandy beach whilst the first crew of fishermen headed off on the trek round the world famous “Cobb” to meet up with Harry, our skipper for the day and his assistant, with another smaller open topped boat. The children enjoyed hauling out all sizes of mackerel, with varying degrees of success. Soon, a healthy competition arose between the two boats, 24 becoming the target catch to beat. The remaining children, played games on the beach, explored the rock pools, went for a dip or had a read of their book on a very pleasant Sunday afternoon.

Throughout the afternoon, different groups went out to sea for an hour at a time, each coming back with tales, of tangled lines, lost hooks and dive bombing seagulls! Speaking of which, lunch took a rather surreal look as children hid under coats and umbrellas to prevent their sandwiches from being snatched. We soon found ourselves sleepy and sun kissed as we winded our way back up the steep lanes to Hazlegrove where we had a wonderful evening service delivered by Mr Beverly, the Chaplain at King’s. At supper the stupendous Mr O’Neill BBQ’d and filleted lots of the Mackerel so that the children could taste the fruits of their labour. He was mightily impressed with how many wanted to fillet their own fish and how many they managed to wolf down!

All in all a very busy and fruitful weekend.

Mr Robertson.

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