The Rotary Fleet was truly blessed this year, with a warm and balmy evening. Friday 20th March represented our 14th Rotary Club of Perth Blessing of the Fleet since we first hosted the event in 2009 when Jeff was president and Larry was head of Fellowship and Reverend John was officially the Anglican Dean of Perth.
In that year we had 4 boats skippered by Jeff, Larry / Bryan Mickle, Ivan and Kerran Campbell - and the event was well documented in the Inside Front Cover of The West Australian as all sorts of reportable mishaps followed.
This year Maria, Never Say Never & Sovereign Eight rafted up by Elizabeth Quay and the 50+ Rotarians and friends on board enjoyed an evening of fellowship, city sunsets and live music from The Rotars. We were treated to the best of weather 30deg night and river of glass.
Captains Jeff, Larry and David (Melville Rotary), assisted by Doug and Graeme, and the boats and assembled throng received Blessings from the Reverend John with a liberal sprinkling of very wet Holy Water.
A lively evening ensued, with boat hopping, share plates galore and plenty of not so “holy spirit” to encourage those that felt so moved to join our heavenly Rotars on Maria’s top deck for a toe tapping singalong, and dancing to our favourite tunes, whilst our heavenly Rotars belted away some of our favourite tunes following Reverend John’s very wet Blessing to our skippers Jeff, David Barton and Larry ( assisted by Doug & Graeme).
The 60 or so attendees did not wish to leave but we finally broke up the raft up around 9pm and returned guests to their drop off points along the river including Lucky Shag, Jojo’s, South of Perth Yacht Club and Mosman Jetty.
Next year Nan has promised it will be our biggest Blessing yet ( record to date has been 6 boats) to recognise our 100 year Anniversary- definitely one of our favourite annual events on our Rotary Calendar.
One of the great Perth Rotary events on the calendar, it is a unique opportunity to enjoy the best of Perth Rotary in a fabulous setting.