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Cat TalesAugust 2003 |
Rich and Clair Miller, Exploring the Blue
The spring
weather again played the spoiler of our planned raftup in Worton Creek on the
weekend of June 7. Claire and Rich Miller awoke in their slip to torrential
rain and angry skies. Even the most hearty sailors were calling to say that the
boat would not be leaving the dock that day.
With the crowd unable to
gather by boat, we made our way by car to the Harbor House Restaurant at Worton
Creek Marina to have dinner at the appointed time. The Harbor House staff did
their usual job of making us welcome by greeting us with personalized CCYC
menus, and they surprised us by saying that some of our crew had already
arrived. We were led to our section of the enclosed porch, and we discovered
our new members, Frank and Linda Falcone, who had also made the trip by car
from their slip in Georgetown. The Falcones were just enjoying a drink and an
appetizer when we arrived, and we settled in to a table together to get
acquainted and talk sailing.
After a dismal start to the day, the
evening wound up with a pleasant dinner and dessert with our newest members. We
are certainly looking forward to having Frank and Linda join all of us, on a
boat, in the water, at a raftup in the near future - if it EVER stops
raining.
Diane Benyus/ Ray VanHorn, Scimitar
A wonderful weather
'window of opportunity' opened up on Saturday, June 21st and we made it to
Tilghman Island without the punishing rain storms that had been the norm for
the prior month. Unfortunately, it had poured the night before and that had
spoiled plans for some members who had planned on getting there a day early due
to long distances. Al & Vickie Lohman, Laid Back, had been out
cruising for the whole week and joined us as their final stop.
Arriving
at the marina at Harrison's Country Inn turned out to be much more difficult
than I was led to believe. They told me there was plenty of room for boats +40
ft with a deep draft. What they didn't tell me was that to get those boats into
the marina where it was deep was fairly impossible. Laid Back made it in
by ramming the sand bar and pushing themselves through. Scimitar made it
by miraculously threading the needle. But Dave & Lois Zonderman aboard
Walkabout (40 ft) were not so lucky. Fortunately, they were able to find
shelter at a nearby marina and we caught up with them at the Seafood Festival.
The festival was a short walk to the firehouse and park where we sampled the
food, checked out some crafts and listened to some live music.
Rich and
Claire Miller drove down and joined us later for Happy Hour aboard Laid
Back where we shared lots of great food and refreshments. The funniest part
of the evening was the many patrons of the restaurant who strolled by on the
dock and repeatedly asked with a shocked expression "How did you get in here"?
Turns out many other sailors over the years had tried with no success to make
it into the marina. Well we learned something on that trip!