Destination: Brightlingsea
Sculptures visited: 3
Possible new love connections: 1
Number of limbs carefully counted by children: 8
Vouchers handed out: A bunch!
Ahoy there, mates! On our mission to spread the word, and joy, of the Octopus Ahoy! project, on a bright and sunny afternoon, myself and the crew set our bearings for bonny Brightlingsea! Have you been? It’s a lovely little town where some of our beautiful sculptures have settled ashore for the summer. I couldn’t wait to go and explore… but I couldn’t get too carried away. After all, we were on a special mission…
As our first port of call on our way into town, the crew pulled over so I could meet the lovely team at Esign. Longstanding supporters of the project, Esign Media Limited are our signage sponsors and are responsible for creating each prized plaque on the sculpture plinths, and for wrapping our valiant Octo-van and the bodacious open-top Clacton Breeze bus. What’s more, as you can see here, they’re also total pros at posing for snaps!
We could hear how buzzing Brightlingsea was before we even reached the harbour. Our timing could not have been better, as the Colne Yacht Club Cadets were out in full force, with huge smiles on their faces. What a welcome! We were pleased to see how prepared they were for their time out on the water, in their wetsuits and life jackets – when it comes to the ocean, it’s ALWAYS safety first, even for an octopus. As you know, when there’s a crowd, I can’t help but bask in the attention so I was more than happy to dish out some hugs and high-fives, as well as giving a couple of full 360-degree turns so they could count my limbs and check all eight were present and correct! Brightlingsea Harbour – a brilliant spot. Tick!
A skip and a hop away from my adoring young public, here we are at the Brightlingsea Museum and… be still my beating hearts. I think I’m in love! ‘Betty the Bathing Octo-Belle’ got me hook, line and sinker at first sight – we have so much in common and I swear she even winked at me. The First Mate Crew may have had to drag me away… but with that classic retro glamour (plus I’m told she’s a fabulous swimmer), Betty, I’ll be back soon, my love!
Betty is keeping a close, mascara-ed eye over the museum, where we encountered some knowledge hunters browsing the exhibitions. I love fact finding and the staff are full of useful info, so when you’re visiting Betty, you must make sure to pop in and look around! I was drawn the children’s area where the little ones go to colour in their octopus pictures and decorate their octopus masks – I’m sure lots of them will decorate them to look like me. If not, as luck would have it, small and smiling octopus ‘Octavian’ is sitting pretty at the entrance to give them some design inspiration.
I could have spent hours in the museum, but the crew reminded me we had a special giveaway to get to! Down the road was the location of our mission – the iconic Brightlingsea Lido. People come from all around to visit for a swim and today was no exception, there were loads of new shipmates to meet and splash around with in this blue paradise! No time to drift though; I had some vouchers to hand out – here’s me making some dreams come true, but you can find out more about the vouchers from Pink Parrot Pottery we were giving out to app users throughout the afternoon, here. It was a true delight to reward the hard work of our dedicated Octopus Ahoy! sculpture hunters – can’t wait to see your painted pottery masterpieces.
All in all, the day ‘shore’ went swimmingly! I was sad to leave (especially knowing how much Betty would miss me) but it’s safe to say we’ve made some firm new friends in Brightlingsea and the future of Octopus Ahoy! looks as bright as ever! We hope to be back to visit soon but now it’s full steam ahead to our next location. Where will we pop up next?
Thank you so much again to our loyal supporters and all our new pals – please tag us in your Brightlingsea photos, we love to see them! Follow @octopusahoy and #octopusahoy on social media to keep an eye on the voyage and our future plans. CJ x