Welcome to Stuart Line Cruises’ June Newsletter

For those of you who are new to this monthly sign-up, welcome! And for those who have been loyal readers for some time, welcome back to your favourite read of the month! 

We are thrilled to have been awarded with this quality mark from the official Destination Management Organisation (DMO), Visit England. This indicates that Stuart Line Cruises understand official guidance set out by UK Government and Public Health England in relation to COVID-19.

In addition, it is intended to reassure prospective visitors that we have carried out comprehensive risk assessments regarding COVID-19 across all areas of our business and that we have implemented appropriate measures and operational adjustments to ensure the health and safety of our visitors and staff.

I want to thank those of you who kindly responded to the extra email which was sent out this month (very naughty of me I know), by taking part in the survey which I invited you to complete. We were overwhelmed by the number of responses and your feedback has been invaluable in constructing our new COVID-19 web page and FAQs.

Right, now that’s the formal bit out of the way and what I really want to say is that we are incredibly proud that all of our hard work over the lock-down period has paid off, we are officially ready for business again and we are just really very excited indeed to welcome you aboard again! We are going to have a hoot!

If you’d like to ogle our new web page then please feel free, via the button below and do let us know if you have any other questions or concerns at all – our friendly team are on hand to help!

I am sure that most of you are aware of much of the work which we have been doing throughout lock-down, in terms of maintenance and making sure that our boats are looking tip-top and raring to go. There is so much more to what we do than what is most visible day-to-day; we know that many of you love to see the ‘behind the scenes’ stuff and we love sharing this aspect of our business with you.

This week has seen further government announcements and in particular, the PM has addressed ‘The Visitor Economy’, offering more specific guidance for visitor attractions such as ourselves. This has been hugely reassuring for us and has allowed us to finalise our plans and adjustments for safe operation and with a more concrete time line, we have been able to complete lots of finishing touches aboard our vessels.

This week we set Pride of Exmouth and Tudor Rose high and dry on Shelly Beach. Aside from being an impressive spectacle as they sat side-by-side, drawing lots of attention and keen interest from passers-by, this gave us the opportunity to pressure wash the hulls of both boats, check the propellers and anodes and some other general checks. Having not been in operation for so many weeks this was an important thing for us to be able to do, to reassure us that they are both in mint condition – which they are, by the way!

In addition to this, we have had new sign writing done on both boats, making them look lovely and smart. The signs are now more in-keeping with our current branding and stand out from afar – we hope you agree!

Office-based operations have also been very busy (aka yours truly – can’t be giving Jake all the praise!!), with a particular focus on making sure that our marketing materials are looking beautiful – all-new posters are out and we have made some new a-boards, as seen above! We have also had brand new boards made for the windows in our Marina Office which we are delighted with!

Back to Jake, he has been working hard to get our trusty tender back on the water. We have had to buy a brand new outboard engine due to the previous one giving up the ghost and there have been some structural alterations to ensure that we don’t get the same problem occurring again! Jake is actually out painting the decks as we speak and we are hoping that this will be completed this week.

Two of our most highly-anticipated Special Events have some unexpected space, as a result of some cancellations from coach groups due to COVID-19.

For anyone who has been lucky enough to join us for an Exeter Canal Cruise or Countess Wear Evening Cruise in the past, I am sure you will agree that these are both a real treat and are not to be missed.

Most of the spare spaces have been snapped up already but if you’d like to join us then hit the links below before it’s too late!

We are very fortunate to have been members of Devon’s Association of Top Attractions (DATA) for some years now. The organisation is (as the name suggests) comprised of all of the top attractions in Devon and we have all kept in touch with each other throughout this incredibly strange chapter in our lives, sharing insight and ideas and offering moral support to each other. We all face similar challenges as we prepare for 4th July and it has been hugely reassuring to feel that we are not alone!

Now, as we are getting ready to welcome visitors again, we would like to invite you to take part in DATA’s survey – the feedback from which, will assist ourselves and many other attractions in their plans for re-opening.

As a big thank you, every completed survey form will be entered into a prize draw to win one of three 2021 family tickets to visit one of Devon’s Top Attractions and the lucky winners get to choose which attraction they want to visit. Just fill in your email at the end of this survey to be entered.

That just leaves me to say that I sincerely hope that yourself and your loved ones are well and we very much look forward to seeing you again soon. I could absolutely burst with excitement!