Operation Sandcastle
Top secret, eyes only
Over the 2015 August bank holiday a crack team of best men and associated families were covertly deployed to north Cornwall and operation sandcastle was carried out….
The Brief
- The mission should you choose to accept it; is to assist me in proposing to becci in a fun and unusual way.
- I hope to get the words “Becci will you marry me” written in the sand on Padstow sandbank at low water on the 29th August 2015.
Deployment
The task-force was smuggled down to Penrose Burden holiday cottages in broad daylight, some of whom were in plain sight of Becci. We got my parents down under the cover of needing a break from decorating their house. The next to arrive were Phil and Georgie who were in disguise as a newlywed couple having a last break before the birth of their first child in few months’ time.
The rest of them were not so easy to smuggle in as any more friends arriving would have aroused Becci’s suspicion that something was about to happen. This did not go without incident at one stage Mr Gray and family were due to arrive at exactly the same time as Becci and I were due to return from a day trip with Phil and Georgie. A traffic jam was quickly arranged to delay the Gray’s arrival.
Having got everyone into Cornwall our next challenge was to keep Becci away from the cottage containing the hidden troops. There were the odd near miss, on one occasion Becci unilaterally decides to go and swap the broken toaster from P&G’s cottage with another in an un-occupied cottage. Georgie springs into action, in her disguise as a pregnant woman, and chances after Becci to direct her away from the cottage containing the others.
Operation Sandcastle
08:00 Weather: Heavy rain forecast to stop at 10:30
I wake up to discover Becci has really bad stomach cramps from eating too much good food the night before.
09:00
Under the cover of having “a bad night, due to being pregnant” Phil informs Becci that Georgie and him can’t come with us to Padstow as planned, instead they will meet us at the Café on the top of the hill overlooking the harbour once Georgie has recovered.
10:00 Weather: Continuous light rain – slowly clearing up as per the forecast
Becci and I arrive at Padstow. Becci instantly sees a shoe shop and decides she has to go and look for some shoes to wear to her sister’s wedding. This would have been OK if it were not for the fact that the shop was on the exit to the only car park with spaces and the troops had to rendezvous with the harbourmaster at 10:15; any later and the tide would have gone out too far get the harbour launch out to the sandbank. Fortunately William Green, a shadowy person who no one has met in person, had lent his phone to me for the purposes of covert communications and I was able to send a text message to the troops to warn them to keep their heads down. As we left the shoe shop Phil drove past, but Becci did not recognise the car.
The next pinch point was walking past the harbour masters office where I spotted a bunch of the troops scuttling behind a row of parked cars carrying garden rakes on their shoulders. I quickly diverted Becci’s attention in the other direction by waffling on about architecture and pointing to the buildings in the other direction. [Becci: This is not abnormal behaviour for Dan]
10:30 Weather: Intermittent heavy rain
The troops get out to the sandbank just in time before it is too shallow for the boat manoeuvre.
Becci and I decide that we should head to the café to wait for Phil and Georgie as shopping in the rain was not much fun. As we arrive figures can be seen on the sandbank.
Approx. 10:45 – 11:00 Weather: Overcast, rain stopped
William Green sends the message to the troops that Becci and I are in position and to go ahead and write the message.
Having paced out the message, the troops on the beach start writing the letters on the sand. Fortunately Becci is not wearing her glasses so does not notice what is happening on the sandbank.
The people at the table behind Becci read the message start making a commotion, this was quickly supressed by the local recruits who were working as café staff, but the message was becoming clearer and became obvious that now was the time.
Pointing to the people on the sandbank I said to Becci “There is something going on down there, they are writing something” and gave her my glasses so that she could read what was written. Whilst she was reading the message in the sand I reached into my pocket and placed a small box containing a ring in front of her. [Becci: and I burst into tears. It is only after sometime I realise I am supposed to give an answer.]
Mission accomplished
We headed down to the harbourmasters office where we met up with the others who were looking after the children where they directed us back to the beach were the main taskforce were waiting for the tide to go out sufficiently to enable them to wade ashore.
Exfiltration
Unfortunately we sustained a casualty recovering the taskforce from the sandbank, my mother, who was nearly swept out to sea bravely wading back to the mainland. She made a full recovery once she was evacuated to a local outdoor clothing shop where retail therapy was administered.
When the main taskforce had been recovered to the mainland Becci and I waded out the sandbank where she proceeded to write her answer in the sand.
Once the taskforce had fully regrouped, we withdrew to Penrose Burden for champagne and cake.
"Becci Marry Me
"I Said Yes"
A big thanks
A big thanks goes to all those how took part, without you I would not have been able to make it such uniquely special day for Becci.
Dan
