Saturday the 12th of August saw the Caroline support group convention held in the King Charles Hotel, Gillingham, Kent - just a few miles from the Ross. One of the best attended and star packed offshore radio conventions for many years.
Here is a small selection of photographs of the days proceedings.
Master of ceremonies is Bob Le Roi, seen here interviewing
Bob Buzby Lawrence about his days on the
latter years of the Mi Amigo.
Mike Barrington holds the record for 14 months
onboard a radio ship without shore leave.
As he said after the show, everything he needed
for life was onboard with him, so why should he go ashore.
Mike was second engineer, and spent a lot of
time on the trasnsmitters and generators.
Kevin Turner spent a lot of time onboard and on-air
on both the Caroline and Overdrive services.
Here he is telling us a rather hilarious story of
how to unblock the toilets on the Ross.
Johnny Lewis, pint glass in hand, needs no introduction
to generations of offshore-radio listeners. Nor does
Dave the Fish, skipper of many tender runs and brushes with the law.
Johnny and Dave again.
Nigel Harris, another veteran of life at sea (centre), with Dave Foster (right).
Graham Hall, a lifelong supporter of offshore radio, has worked on various
RSL's in the 90's, and now hosts Caroline Country on Saturday evenings.
More convention pictures on Martins pages.
Caroline is always on the lookout for materials to improve her home with. It is sad that engineering items which are either rusting away in a scrapyard, or just thrown away could be put to good use on the ship and save the organisation a fortune in buying new parts. Items particularly in demand include mechanical and electrical items such as the following:
[Electrical items first]
1500mm (5 foot) T8 flourescent tubes, fittings and complete assemblies, especially enclosed weatherproof types;
Compact low-energy flourescent lamps, both ES and BC fitting;
Conventional light bulbs, of either 40 or 60 watts, both ES and BC fitting;
Metal clad fixtures such as sockets and switches of quality make;
Wire-armoured power cable, of any length or type, but especially 2 core 2.5mm. Also glands, fittings and accessories;
Single and 3 phase mains panels, metal cased of quality make;
Minature Circuit Breakers, RCD's and similar;
[And mechanical items]
3 inch internal diameter steel (weldable) pipework;
Bends, 90, 60 and 45 degrees for above;
Gate valves, flanges and other fittings for above.
All kinds of various diameter hose, especially fuel/oil resistant types;
Welding rod's for arc welder;
Paint of all colours!
Protective undercoat - red oxide or zinc phosphate.
Steel stock materials - bars, rods, brackets;
If you can help with any of the above, Caroline may be able to arrange collection from around the country, or smaller items can be posted to Caroline Support Group, 426 Archway Road, Highgate, London, N6 4JH.
Please E-Mail here in the first instance.
[Caroline in 2000]
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