May 2025 Newsletter

Welcome to your May Newsletter. Summer’s definitely arrived, and our programme’s as busy as ever. We’re back on the water where Sea Scouts should be (next boating session Sunday afternoon for Scouts/Explorers, and save the date on 28th June for our Group Open Day), plans are well underway for this years Summer Camp, with more camps and trips planned for individual sections. Amongst all of this, our volunteer leaders are delivering fun activities at The Den every night of the week.

Thanks to everyone who came to our Band Night on Saturday and danced the night away. This was part of our fundraising efforts to buy a new safety boat to support sailing courses, replacing Rodney which is now over 20 years old. Thanks to a generous grant from Nationwide (thank you Kathleen!), alongside other fundraising activities & events, we’ve been able to place the order for the new boat, which is due to be delivered in June – more details coming soon!

In this month’s newsletter:

• Renewal of Promise Cancellation
• Summer Camp and Camp Hoodies
• Essex Cadet Week
• Katie’s Badge Sewing Fundraiser
• Activities Roundup
• Dates for your Diary

Renewal of Promise Parade Cancelled

Unfortunately we’ve had to cancel the Renewal of Promise service planned for Sunday 18th May. Strand Wharf, which we had booked to hold the event, has been double booked by Leigh Town Council with the Shanty Festival. Our apologies for the late notice, we only found out about the conflict on Wednesday evening.

We’ll reschedule our Renewal of Promise for later in the year.

Sunday Duty Patrol for Curlews and Stingrays is still on (now 1030-1200), as is the Open Boating for Scouts/Explorers from 13:45.

Summer Camp 2025

Invites for this year’s Summer Camp have been sent out through the Parent Portal. It’s a firm favourite in our Scouting calendar, with all ages camping together on the Elveden Estate in Suffolk from Sat 26 July – the first week of the school holidays.

The focus of the camp is back to basics, camping under canvas with friends and learning new skills. There’s a packed programme of training, activities, games and competitions throughout the week, as well as a day or two off site to the beach or local town, and the chance to relax around the camp fire in the evenings.

If you want more details, talk to your leaders, or take a look at the Summer Camp 24 album to see what we got up to last year.

Summer Camp Hoodies

We’re doing special Summer Camp Hoodies again for this year’s camp, a favourite from previous years and great way to keep warm in the evenings.

They cost £18, and are navy blue with the gold 3rdCB badge stitched on the front, and “Summer Camp” printed in white on the back.

Order yours at 3rdCB.org.uk/hoodie before 20 June. We’ll give them out as we arrive at camp.

EYC Cadet Week

6-10 August 2025

3rdCB Sea Scouts & Explorers have been invited to enter this years Cadet Week hosted by Essex Yacht Club – a week of racing, fun & games, and social activities based at EYC’s HQ “Wilton”, using the Den’s sailing dinghies (single or double handed). It’s a really fun week both on and off the water, and the sailing experience of Scouts who’ve entered previously has increased immeasurably.

Prior sailing experience is required for this, to the standard of RYA Stage 2 – the ability to rig, launch & sail around a course unsupervised is the minimum expectation, but please talk to Chris Daly or the sailing instructors about it beforehand if in doubt. This is not a Scouting activity, so one parent does need to be present at the Yacht Club during the day to be responsible for their child and help out with the event (it’s fun for the adults too). We’re not able to provide tuition during the week, but there will be plenty of 3rdCB leaders & instructors around if you need a hand on or off the water.

If you’re interested, please sign up at https://bookwhen.com/3rdcb/e/ev-s0k6-20250806000000, or talk to Chris for more information.

Katie’s Badge Sewing Service

Do you need a hand sewing on all those badges? One of our Sea Scout Patrol Leaders, Katie, has been lucky enough to get a place on a World Challenge Trip in 2026 to Sri Lanka, and is raising funds for the expedition by sewing on badges.

To date she’s sewn on nearly 300 badges to Scout uniforms, blazers, braiding and more.

If you need a hand with sewing, and want to support her, search Facebook for Katie’s World Challenge, or see her on a Monday/Friday evening.

Activities Roundup

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