They say thirteen is unlucky for some, but for the Petersham & Ham Sea Scouts, a lucky thirteen GoodGymmers came along on a Monday night to do good and get fit.

We made our way along the riverside path (thankful for headtorches in the dark) and were met by Russell and Julian who gave us the briefing of tonight’s mission, starting off with a slightly more unusual task…

… Which was to quite literally rock the boat. Contrary to the words of Hues Corporation, we did have to rock the boat and then tip the boat over. The sea scouts rowing boat needed a good clean and some fresh paint after the harsh winter and a boat as big as theirs needed all hands on deck. Luckily this all went plain sailing, and it wasn’t long before the ship was supported on its plinth ready for a good scrub down.

The big job over, we split off into smaller subgroups to tackle some of the tasks for the Sea Scouts around their base.

One group were helping clear overgrown Holly and dig around a clearing in preparation for making a new waiting area by the entrance, so that the children wouldn’t need to loiter on the side of the road. The gang did a wheely good job moving the ground and hacking away the prickly bushes, manoeuvring wheelbarrows of garden goods along the dark and potholey path. Although it wasn’t potholey for long! The second group were going around filling the holes in the dirt track road to perfection. It didn’t seem like much but it made a huge difference, and Liz couldn’t help but notice how smooth sailing her walk back out was. Great work team.

The final foursome had a job to complete which I’m pretty sure was everyone’s bucket list, and were provided with mops and pails to help clean the boat we’d just capsized! A good scrubbing to clear algae, dirt and the limpets stuck to the bottom was followed by a rinse with buckets of cold water. We couldn’t only be grateful that it was getting milder when we got splashback. Finally we were provided with towels to give her a dry, and then taught the art of rope throwing underneath a boat to secure the tarpaulin and make sure she was protected from the elements before her sand down and repaint.

Time flew by, or should I say sailed? And it was time to finish up and head back home.

We will be back at the Sea Scouts on Saturday March the 4th, to help them carry on with the tasks we started yesterday. Have a look and sign up below, and remember, at GoodGym you can rock the boat.

Supporting the local Sea Scouts with various projects at their new HQ! - After a ten year dream to build a new HQ the local Sea Scouts need some support keeping everything running well. https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/supporting-the-local-sea-scouts-with-various-projects-at-their-new-hq-f43b00ad-b3d2-4cae-9283-d00c4237254b

For the last task of the month, both a running and walking group set off from Tap Tavern in the centre of Richmond to cross the bridge and run along the north bank river path to Lynde House Care Home. A very special welcome to both Beth and Sunny who joined the walking group for their first ever task.

We haven't been there for some time but Jp and Salwa were so excited to see that a raised bed they had helped to make on a previous visit was in good order and full of bulbs just starting to grow!

For this evening's task we set about sanding three bird feeders and two benches, an aerobic workout that should never be underestimated!

It was dark, but headtorch inspections suggested we had done a thorough job before we ran/walked back off into the night!