Life On The Ocean Wave

Harwich will host the 14th Harwich Shanty Festival this month, so to understand the spirit of the festival, and find his sea legs, Owen Lewis went to sea with festival founders Jon and Pam Fitzgerald

- Jon And Pam Fitzgerald

Have you ever wondered what sailing, The Harwich Shanty Festival, and a Walton red seal all have in common? Actually, I would be hugely surprised if you had, but the answer is Jon and Pam Fitzgerald of Harwich.

Jon and Pam are the founders and co-directors of The Harwich Shanty Festival and the owners of a beautiful 40ft yacht, The Charlotte Rose. I recently received an invitation to spend a day or two at sea with them, with a chance to talk about the festival too. I wanted to learn how to sail and see if my legs are worthy of the nomenclature sea legs — the longest I had ever spent on a boat was the six and a half hour sail from Harwich to The Hook.

So Jon would be skipper, Pam the bosun and me the deckhand. I was there to learn.

The Harwich Shanty Festival is now in its 14th year and is still growing, as shanty singing seems to be the new rock and roll around Europe. By definition, shanties are work songs that sailors would sing to assist them in the heavy, onerous tasks of heaving, hauling or pumping. Because of the replacement of sail by steam, the art form started to die out, slipping from our consciousness and into the annals of time. But then came the British folk scene in the 1960s and with the potential for great participation singing and great chorus singing, shanties fitted well within the folk genre.

Before we could talk about that I found myself on a small powerboat heading out from Titchmarsh Marina up the Twizzle and down the Walton Channel.

The boats along the channel looked lonely as they bobbed on their moorings in a kind of deferential welcome to us. I nodded back and we boarded The Charlotte Rose. With the kettle on in the galley, Jon fired up her Perkins three-cylinder motor and we turned her around and headed out.