AND THE BOAT WAS SOLD TO MONSIEUR GONTI — 1967-1968: Diary of a Posh Schoolgirl

Jul 2

Jul 2 AND THE BOAT WAS SOLD TO MONSIEUR GONTI

S U N D A Y, 2 J U L Y

At 9.30 Mummy, Chump and me left for Bosham - an awful rush for me as I got up quite late and I felt very cross.

Bad traffic so got to Bosham later than expected, anyway Monsieur Gonti had only just arrived and was tying up the dingy. It was the first time us two had ever met him; he’s terribly sweet he really is, and has a tattoo of a lion on his arm. We spoke French the whole time so it was terrific practice for me. We put the dingy on top of the car and drove round to Cobnor. Rather good to be on the old Trintel again - it's tiny! – and handing it over to him. We had lunch in the cock-pit and Chump and me sang French pop songs, which he was rather amused about.

“Monsieur Gonti handed over the rest of the payment - wads of francs in his shorts!”

We had a lovely walk to Birdham Pool and looked at all the boats. He thinks everywhere round here is gorgeous; it really is beautiful when the sun is shining, the colours are wonderful. We had tea at the club place, but Chump was sick, poor thing. Then we went to the Stores where he got painting equipment and masses of food. Before we went he gave us a bottle of Cognac and a box of Swiss chocolates. I hope he doesn’t get lonely staying for a fortnight on the boat all by himself.

We went back to the Marina and met up with Dad, Wally, Roly, John (who’s 31 but looks 25) and Guy Gravett. They’d had a pretty good race although they didn’t win, but the boat was in absolute chaos! Had tea in the cock-pit, then Daphne came - really, I do think she and Guy are nice. About 7.30 we left - that is, Mummy, Daddy and Chump left: they didn't know I was still in the boat! I'd been in there about 20 minutes and didn't even know they'd locked me in till they came back to find me!!

Stopped on the way home and all had a drink in a pub.