Stonington Yacht Club - 23rd July 2022
By Louise Brown
The tours of Maiden started at 10am. It was wonderful to watch as visitors streamed down the dock to queue alongside before coming onboard to meet the crew. We have had such a wonderful time in Stonington, our time here has been significantly enhanced by one woman, Amy Van Der Velde. She has single-handedly raised more money for our foundation than anyone else so far. To top that she also lent the crew a tender and a very cool jeep.
On this journey we are meeting extraordinary people, kind, generous and humble, this town seems to be full of them. I'm definitely going to find my way back here.
This evening, after a very full Open Boat session, we gathered at the Stonington Yacht Club for a cocktail party and to draw the raffle that the ladies from the Ideal Ladies 18's Racing team had been selling tickets for. The prizes were Maiden sail bags that the whole crew wanted to take home! Two lucky winners had a bag full of fabulous goodies and we all looked on enviously as they walked off with the Maiden bags. The raffle raised a significant amount to add to Amy's pot and the merchandise sales - this had made Stonington our best week raising funds for the Foundation so far. Thank you everyone who helped make this possible, your support is greatly appreciated and will literally change girls’ lives around the world.
Tomorrow, we will set off to our next stop, Mystic Seaport, with guests onboard. They include generous house owners who have invited the crew into their homes for the week, fundraising ladies and volunteers on our Open boat day and Amy, who asked all these amazing ladies to donate a lump sum each to our charity to join us for the afternoon sail. These women are heroes.
