THE local weather prediction for Sunday, August 12 was pretty atrocious, so a difficult decision faced the organisers of Port Isaac Lifeboat Larks Day whether to cancel.

Bravely they didn’t, because the day turned out to be much better than expected — but the poor forecast, however, may have kept a few visitors away as numbers were a little down from previous years.

There was fun, entertainment and food and drink for all the family, with cream teas and a barbecue, the Sharps and a Pimms bar for the more grown-ups, RNLI cards, prints and clothes for sale, and a raffle for a well filled beverages wheelbarrow.

There was duck fishing, Nigel’s egg throwing — always such a great hit — and Dave’s golf chipping into a bucket, which even the best golfers found taxing, (must have been the wrong kind of seaweed to play off). The duck race down the Leat provided a noisy outlet for the more competitive amongst them!

Sadly, a rain shower forced the St Minver silver band to finish playing earlier than hoped, but the Penny Royal Jazz band provided great music from under the gazebo, and all the entertainment was hugely appreciated by everyone.

The face painting tent proved to a massive draw for the children as usual, with a big team of experts working hard all day, and the children’s art competition was a great success with some children returning year after year to take part!

The joint helicopter and Lifeboat exercise was missed as the helicopter was called away to a rescue mission, but everyone enjoyed the Lifeboat in the harbour and meeting the crew — as after all, it’s all about the Lifeboat! Also, the Port Isaac gigs gave adventurous visitors the chance to handle an oar.

So despite the anxious start, it turned out to be another great ‘Larks’ Day, with Jon Cleave and his entertaining banter on the PA, and a huge team of hard working volunteers doing their best to raise as much money as possible for such a worthy cause. Updates soon on the amount of money raised, but chairman Bob Bulgin is predicting more than £3,000 for RNLI funds.