Down at the Regatta - Healthy Life Essex

Sunday 20 September retained one of those milk of magnesia skies for the 36th annual Old Leigh Regatta. Victoria Wharf hosted the obligatory bouncy castles, jewellery stalls and a stand of local photos by Ryan Lupton.

Tannoy announcements for raffle tickets unsuccessfully competed with the band Street Life as children threw darts at envelopes on a pavement board. Much to the surprise of the locals, the tide had filled the inlet between the public toilets and the Pier and Foreshore Divisional office, where the James Gary was moored.

Youngsters enjoyed a late afternoon dip in the mottled grey water as prams jostled with dogs edging through clusters of people claiming cobbled areas of the High Street outside the Smack.

Salvo the Clown offered his ‘balloon menu’ amid crockery shattering on cobbles at another charity stall next to the Lynn Tait Gallery. Just past the Peter Boat, a lone male paddling a surf board followed a Jet Ski wake, as the Lower Thames Rowing Club settled their oars into the water within sight of Simply Seafood.
 
Sadly the community spirit didn’t shine for me at this event. I’ve never been to Old Leigh Regatta before and we missed most of the activities; even so, there weren’t the happy smiling faces that had been so evident at the Folk and Fishing Festivals earlier in the summer.

Perhaps it was the thought that the warm weather, coming at the end of the predicted Indian summer, would be the last till the following spring; it’s always hard to accept the coming of winter when the weather tiptoes between summer and autumn. Still, at least the hanging baskets outside The Peter Boat had retained their colour and looked glorious beneath the magnesia sky.