MARY Bowkett welcomed everyone to the meeting on Wednesday, March 1.

Members were reminded that the AGM is to held on Tuesday, June 6 at the Community Centre. There will be a buffet lunch served.

It is the Ladies Probus turn to host the Inter-Club evening on Wednesday, June 14.

Help from members will be needed on that evening. The planned visit to the Royal Mint is on Tuesday, April 18.

Thanks were given to Joan Lumley for organising the teas in the past.

In future volunteers will be needed and tea will be served after the meeting.

The afternoon’s speaker was Doina Cornell who told us of her trip to the Artic in 2014 to try to sail the North West Passage.

There were 8 crew on the Aventura, a vessel designed for cold water sailing.

They stocked up on supplies in Greenland and then sailed to Devon Island, the start of the North West Passage.

They had to wait there along with other boats waiting for the ice to melt and the passage to open up.

Sadly in 2014 the passage did not open up completely and they were not able to sail completely from east to west.

However they did see plenty of wild life including polar bears, seals, musk ox.

The short Artic summer means that lots of plants are in flower at the same time.

However their time was well spent as they investigated plastic pollution at sea and also took part in a project to take photos of birds at sea.

They were privileged to photograph a gyrfalcon - the first one seen since 1999.

On August 14 the decision was made to return to Greenland and most of the crew flew home.

However two sailed to Newfoundland and then on through the Panama Canal and up the west coast of America and in 2015 they were able to complete the north west passage but from west to east.

The next meeting is on Tuesday, April 4 when there will be a talk and demonstration on Reflexology.