Wow! A breathless e-mail from the painting volunteer teenage sisters, Bee and Hannah Pihama! Hannah writes,

“Hi Matt

We have just got back from London for the (National Historic Ships, Volunteer of the Year) Awards ceremony which we won!  We had a simply amazing day and really enjoyed meeting Princess Anne, thanks you so much for nominating us.  We got a framed certificate and a cheque for £250 each.  Beth said she will write something for the blog asap.  The National Historic Ships said the press release should be done by tomorrow.
Hannah
xx”
HMS Belfast

HMS Belfast; picture from the Belfast website.

We (the ‘grown-up’ Volunteers) had seen the advert for this and, after secret discussions, had sneakily applied on behalf of Bee and Hannah, filling out the form and describing in the most favourable way we could, their brilliant contribution to the Cambria from slapping on anti foul and paint to the underside and wales in the biting Nor’easters of that bitter winter, to hands-and-knees shovelling out old sawdust from the limbers through to the more pleasant tasks like cooking delicious chocolate cakes for the Volunteer session tea breaks. We told how they delighted us by joining in fully with our little community, swapping banter with the older Volunteers and getting fully involved in the conversations and jokery. They really were a joy to work with and we know they loved it too.

We sent off the forms to National Historic Ships and quickly heard back that the girls had been invited to attend the Awards Ceremony aboard HMS Belfast in the company of HRH Princess Anne but we did not know whether they’d actually won anything. We selected their Dad, Owen Pihama as the ‘Responsible Adult’ from the Trust to accompany them and the three of them had to submit their particulars for security checks and so on.
I will wait for Bee’s ‘Roving Report’ for the rest of this story.
Well done Girls (and Dad).
You earned it!