New Years Message from Our Commodore
Published 10:36 on 4 Jan 2021
I hope you were able to enjoy a festive Christmas and celebrate New Year despite the Covid restrictions.
Most of the country is in Tier 4 including the Isle of Wight. This means that members cannot congregate in the club. The rules are quite clear and the club must remain shut. My Flag Officers and I have decided that the club will be closed for the whole of January and maybe for February too depending how the crisis develops. The social events for January will now not happen. To be frank, it is difficult to see the club opening until March.
My friends working in hospitals tell me the situation is getting worse, the ICU and wards are filling up with desperately ill patients. We are still required to wash our hands, keep a social distance, wear a mask and avoid gathering together. Professor Hugh Montgomery of UCLH gave a powerful message on the radio "Anyone who misbehaves, they have blood on their hands, they're spreading the virus and other people will die, they won't know they have killed people but they have". We must remain patient and behave ourselves.
The arrival of the vaccines is fantastically good news but it will take time to inoculate the whole population. The bureaucracy and red tape one must push through to become a volunteer vaccinator is astonishing. Twenty-one modules of e-learning are required including Equality and Diversity, Conflict Resolution, Fire Safety and Preventing Radicalisation. Vivien, my wife, has succeeded after 3 days of effort, I am still floundering.
Emily will be back working in January partly in the club and partly. remotely. She and Anna will cover the office from 15th January to man the phones and answer any queries. The British have always been good at "Keeping Calm and Carrying On", so let us keep doing so now.
Happy New Year,
Martin Thomas.
Commodore.
PS "We cannot help everyone but everyone can help someone". Ronald Reagan.
Last updated 10:42 on 6 February 2024