I've been meaning to travel on the Waverley for some time but have never made it! Last week dad reminded me that the channel trip to Lundy was taking place with the annual service in St Helena's church on the island.I arrived at 8.30 and walked along the peir stopping where I saw Mark's placque. A crowd built up as I saw the paddle steamer circling the peir and then followed them down to this old ship. It was a replica of a 1899 vessel but actually built in 1947. Once inside I bought my ticket and then had a good look around - especially at the engine room where the beams were working full steam. Apparently the engines run on black oil these days. The whole ship was of an era and had a wonderful charm about it. I bought a hot chocolate and wandered onto the deck and had a good look around as the boat pulled towards Penarth and then along the Welsh Coast. We then trawled along the north Devon coast and then stopped at Ilfracombe - after seeing the great Hangman cliff. It was at Ilfracombe that we saw the town criers and a lot of people dressed in Victorian clothes singing sea shanties as part of the towns Victorian festival. The vicar also made himself known - Rev Auden and a request came up for people to join the church choir! Anyway as we neared Lundy the excitement grew - although it took half an hour to land the boat for some reason.
We then dashed up the hill to the lone church of St Helena. There had been a medieval church here but was replaced by this large building of 1896 - in a wonderful granite. However the east window didn't appear to be finished. We walked into the dusty unused church and I found my place. In the meantime the vicar got ready as did the makeshift choir. The organ was too damaged to use (salt air) so a keyboard was produced. The elderly couple next to me decided to walk out because of this - which was silly as the music was very traditional! Sadly the elderly gent giving out the hymn sheets said that this lonely island church might not remain open for much longer due to repairs required. The church was certainly dusty and some of the windows had replaced with makeshift glass.
The service was lovely - very anglo catholic! The candles were lit and then the inscense was lit and altar censed. There was a very young team leading the music (From thornbury) which included some psalms and the wonderful hymn 'Christ Triumphant ever reigning' which has a very strident tune! The readings were of the visions of Ezekiel and Revelation - and what I liked about the vicar was that he said he didn't know what they were about either but that they were beautiful writings. He was quite a jovial character who opened the service by saying 'welcome to everybody - especially those who pinched my place on the landrover! People have been heard to go overboard on the return journey!' He was very amusing and conversational - and I warmed to his theme as he said that he didn't have all the answers. He said that all he knew is that there is a wonderful creation outside the church - and that people shouldn't confine 'religion' to just the hour in the god box every Sunday. He also said that the creatures in the visions were a bit like those in Dr Who. He said that he didn't know what they represented - or even what the trinity meant. There was some chanting too. However I was watching my watch the whole time making sure I didn't miss the trip back.
Afterwards I shook hands with Rev Auden and walked out with huge views of the North Devon coast and the Island of Lundy. The church bells were ringing joyfully (all 8) and then I felt a little sad as the last lone bell tolled for a short while. It seemed sad that another year would pass before the church came back to use (if it survives!).
I ran down the hill and hopped on the boat and sat watching the coast as it passed me by. I popped down for a chili in the resteurant and then moved around the ship looking at the engine room and several rooms around it. It was nice to see the moon coming up above the mendip hills and to see the lights as we arrived near Cardiff.
We arrived back at 11pm an hour late after a lovely day out on this the last paddle steamer in the UK. It seems to me a far more sensible way to get about - nice and relaxed and also I felt lucky that the weather was good in the afternoon and unlike the mainland we didn't have any rain.
