And what a celebration it was! It all started, as it should, on our birthday itself, Thursday the 25th May. And where else but at our favourite Thursday night hang out - ABC! Our treasurer had a moment of weakness and decided to shout drinks for not just our members but also any boat club member that were lucky enough to be in the vicinity. A small token to say thank you for putting up with us invading their bar once a week. The usual banter and laughter ensued and there were a few extra smiling faces around our table that night. It was great to see so many new and old members show up to celebrate, a good sign of things to come…
The following day we hit the town. First stop, a very civilised soiree at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club hosted by our Chairman Mr Chris Dillon. Our compere for the night did a stellar job in warming up the audience ahead of the celebratory speeches. And even technical trouble couldn’t phase our oldest member Tam when delivering a touching and memorable recount of the club’s history. But we can’t say it all with words and the premiere of our 40th anniversary video, perfectly edited by Stu Sharpless, was a huge highlight of the evening (well, besides the food and drinks that is!). The evening continued in a haze of laughter, canapés, red wine and the odd PSM and all too soon it was time to leave the FCC. But the night was young and the brave (or foolish) among us headed down into Hong Kong’s party central, Lang Kwai Fong, eventually regrouping at the far end of Insomnia - further revelling ensued and details become a little sketchy about the time everyone got home. We’ll leave that there!
With a day to recover, the celebrations continued on Sunday with the main event - a supersized 40th birthday dive trip from Sai Kung. With 56 people joining the trip - 34 of which were divers - the usual minivan from Central just didn’t cut it. A coach was organised and thus we set off from Pier 3 like a bunch of excited children
SCDC TURNS 40 IN STYLE 2 heading off on a school trip - very fitting for our science teacher DM! The weather gods were kind to us and it was a lovely sunny May morning as we took over the biggest dive boat in Hong Kong and headed out to sea. The schedule was tight - every diver had to do two 40 minute dives before we rushed ashore for a celebratory lunch. A herculean organisational effort from Mr Bayne (and some whip cracking) meant that everything ran like clockwork and we kept to schedule. Even the distinctly average dive site didn’t dampen any enthusiasm and 68 dives later there were some hungry tummies heading over to Rocky Harbour. As is traditional, the restaurant cooked up quite a feast and a hearty round of happy birthday SCDC rang out afterwards as we tucked into the delicious cake and cupcakes conjured up for the occasion. Some misguided chanting was quietened as we realised with horror that the time had slipped by so quickly and we rushed back to the boat so as not to miss the coach home.
And the party bag? Well, our members each got a souvenir T-shirt to commemorate the special occasion complete with our newly launched logo. They were a hit - despite the inevitable amusement that (yet again) that we’d left the ordering to our most petite member and Asian sizing is not exactly forgiving on the waistline! So… bigger sizes were arranged and no one has to go on a diet! Phew!
