What wonderful weather for an official last weekend of cruising! We had beautiful, sunny and warm weather by day and the typical crisp air in the evenings that told us summer is coming to an end. We arrived in Port Ludlow about 1:00pm on Friday and were greeted by those who were coordinating the weekend. As it turns out, they were not only assisting us - they were judging us - as we radioed in, docked and tied our lines. We learned on Sunday night that Bob earned an award for "Best Docking" which entitled us to $25 in the EYC store! I almost won an award for keeping the lines neat on the dock. I even coiled each one into a nice, neat coil. What I didn't know was that they are supposed coil clockwise and I had one going the other direction! I guess there is always more to learn.
As soon as we were settled, we went back out with the dinghy and dropped the crab trap. Unfortunately, we did not get any that were big enough to keep. We then left it out overnight and the next morning we did get one great big one that we later shared with friends as an appetizer before dinner. They had never eaten crab direct from the sea before so we had a lot of fun and introduced them to the joy of a fresh catch.
One of the highlights of the weekend was Bob's class for the kids on building sailboats. He made up 12 kits and they were invited to come a build a boat. Nine kids came and since we had some extras, three adults decided to join us. They all worked diligently for a couple of hours assembling, painting, and decorating their boats. It was so much fun and they spent the rest of their weekend showing off their boats and pulling them through the water. I can guarantee that these boats will be proudly displayed back at home. It was wonderful to see the kids learning about building, using sandpaper, hammers and expressing their creativity. They all did a GREAT job!
This year the cruise coordinators decided to offer a dinghy tour to the back part of the bay. John Keyes brought a long rope with 14 short ties branching off from the main line and tied it to his dinghy. We gathered together 14 other dinghies that tied up to it and then we filled our boats with guests that wanted to come along. The "tour" lasted about an hour-and-a-half and was a huge hit! We all floated together at about .8 knots (that is VERY slow!) but we visited with people we hadn't gotten to know and saw some beautiful scenery in an area that we hadn't been to before. Everyone was raving about it and encouraged the committee to do it again next year. A frequent comment we heard was "I felt like I was 10 again!"
Several christenings took place this weekend. Anytime a boat is renamed or a new member joins the club, they have an opportunity to have their boat christened at one of the EYC cruises. Our good friends, Al and Susan Smith, celebrated the christening of their Nordic Tug Sunshine. We met Al and Susan at the Nordic Tug Rendezvous in 2011 and they joined the club shortly thereafter. The christening of a boat has become a real ceremony since our fleet captain, Rob Meldrum, researched the historical aspects of a christening and implemented them for the club. In the following pictures Al is describing how the boat got its name, Susan is laying some flowers and greenery on the bow, and then the champagne bottle is broken over the bow.
We had a wonderful weekend and are looking forward to more cruising in 2013 with the EYC crew.
