The forecast for the weekend looks good: Highs in the upper 80’s, lows in the lower 70’s and wind about 8 mph. Well we could stand a little more wind. The weather has been great for the last week. I have been sailing 4 of the last 5 days and have had good wind and relatively low temps. The wind was so strong one day that the Beneteau had the tip of the mast in the water one time. I had 4 teenagers on board and they were having a blast. Weather site: http://tinyurl.com/6pkdnb {{CRUISE:}} We have a cruise scheduled for this weekend. Doesn’t look like enough wind to make it to the Hwy 16 bridge but enough to make it to Goat Island or where ever. Is anyone interested is anchoring out Saturday night? We can plan to meet at a specified destination or you can pick your own private cove. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE IN A CRUISE, PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL. We can decide out destination later. {{WORK DAY REPORT:}} We had a good turnout for the work day. Several people brought string trimmers and one person brought his lawn mower. The club mowers received some minor repairs and we able to give the grounds a good mowing. The rope for the swimming area was replaced and a broken gutter on the front of the clubhouse was repaired. About 20 people enjoyed the traditional lunch prepared by Charlotte Harrell. {{ FIREWORKS AT MILLEDGEVILLE MALL:}} An announcement in the Milledgeville Union Recorder said that there would be a display at the mall starting between 9:30 to 10 PM . {{HOUSE BOAT BAN:}} The Putnam County Commissioners will have a public hearing on the proposed ordinance on July 22 at 6:30 PM at the courthouse in Eatonton. We need to ask questions at the hearing. If you can attend, please let me know. The proposed ordinance can be found at http://tinyurl.com/6py8qw

{{Capt. Bob’s Michigan Summer }} With Big D’ cranking out the torque, we left Warner Robins on Thursday, 15th of May. Friday night I met up with an old friend, M/Sgt Kevin Harris. Then I cranked up the next morning and made the short trip to Sturgis, MI to visit my sister Dolores and her husband Ed. The following Monday, I arrived in Muskeegon, MI. I spent a day working on the boat adding a couple of cleats, a battery switch and some new tail-lights for the trailer. I launched at Grand Trunk Launch Ramp in Muskeegon with just enough water, and docks about 20 feet shorter than I wanted. With a slip at Torrensen Marina for the night, I was ready for sailing the next day. That evening I met Bob George, who 30 years ago sailed a Morgan 24 from the Muskeegon area to Venezuela. He had some interesting adventures. The following two days were filled with sailing on Muskeegon Lake and hiking in the North Muskeegon State Park while I had Linda Jean’ anchored near the shore. On Saturday, the 24th of May I pulled up the anchor and sailed out of the channel heading south toward Grand Haven. Starting out on the cautious side, I had up a reefed main and my heavy 110. The wind died out so I shook out the main and drifted. Sometimes in circles! An hour later the wind filled in and I was racing along at 5.5 knots. At noon I realized that I had mis-read the landmarks and was nearly at Grand Haven. It really was a short sail with a near perfect wind and only 1-ft. seas. I arrived at the waterfront at 1 p.m. but was soon offered a slip for free for the four days I expected to be there. Grand Haven has a very nice and very busy waterfront, especially on Memorial Weekend. The storm hit at 2 a.m. on Monday, May 26th. I was hammered by 40-50 mph winds, rain and lightening. I was glad I had found the slip instead of being tied to the seawall on the waterfront. Monday was filled with a Memorial Day Parade and visiting Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Nieces and Nephews. Tuesday had a forecast of 15 – 25 mph wind, so I rode my bike around town and visited with friends in the evening. Wednesday the 28th was Laundry and Grocery Store Morning’. After recruiting 2 guys (father and son) to help crew, I headed out at 5:45 p.m. to attend the Blessing of the Fleet’ and the first Wednesday Night Race of the season. The wind was blowing 15 – 18 and seas were about 2 ft. After only sailing away from the channel a little I decided the 120 jib and a reefed main would work good. The other Morgan 24 was running a full main and a 150 jib. Linda Jean’ was loaded for cruising and the other Morgan 24 (Peggy Dash II) was mostly empty inside and a crew of four. We were lining up for the start and had about 4 minutes to go when we heard “All Clear”. We winched in our sails and started’, although the line was still 2-3 minutes ahead of us. The Committee Boat had gotten confused in the sequence and we were now about 3 minutes behind Peggy Dash II’. It was a fun race with us trailing our main competitor by about 2-3 minutes for the whole race. I hope to join them again in their 8+8 (out and back) race on June 21st. Thursday the 29th looked like a great day to sail south but the wind did not come in as predicted. I averaged about 2 knots and was 3 miles away from Port Sheldon after sailing for almost 5 hours. I cranked up the motor when I noticed clouds forming about 30-40 miles to the west of me. I was anchored with my biggest anchors down by 4:30 p.m. as the predicted storm approached Port Sheldon. Pigeon Lake is about 3/8 of a mile wide and maybe mile long. A nice safe harbor in a storm. The rain started about 8 p.m. and lasted through the night. It was still raining through my late breakfast. High winds are predicted for today and tomorrow so it may be a few days before I sail south again. That’s all for now Bob

Medra has been involved in getting ready for a wedding next Memorial Day, and I was getting ready for the BEER cruise, (only a small conflict of interest). We were going to go down on Thursday to get a slip and enjoy the relaxation of getting set up early; to help others set up and have fun. Hurried is not the way to go. (Bad Omens) We were late and all I could do to get ready was pushed and hurried. We went down on Friday. The trip started with a near collision in Grey. An old man pulled out in front of us at a red light and thank God for trailer brakes, we did not hit him. Down through Albany and South West to Florida to I 10. At Marianna, a wreck happened right in front of us, young people, one pulled out in front of the other as we watched, luckily, the force of the wreck move both vehicles off the road and we went around the mess. The trailer hubs were hot. We arrived at the Shipyard at around six on Friday; put up the mast, Medra cranked it up and I watched!! In the water and at a slip right across from the ramp. Saturday: AM: Got the dingy out of the back of the truck and (it had wheels attached) rolled it to the ramp. My first step into the water was solid (with my well worn Crocks) but the next step was very slick (like Owl S—!). I fell on the dingy and must have injured or broken ribs. Jeff Morrow witnessed the scene and did not laugh! (Can’t imagine why not!) Ask if I was OK. I finally got my breath and said Yes, I got in the dingy and rowed out to the boat. Hurting. Around eight, I tried to put up the roller furler jib and found that I had inadvertently pulled the “stop” through the shive at the top of the furler. We found a young man (27) with a good weight (130) and coaxed him to go up the mast and fix the problem. Jeff and John Davis helped winch him up with a good improvised boatswain’s chair made by Sherry. Up went the jip and away we finally got underway. As we were going out of the channel, a large power boat came by with maximum wake and nearly swamped the dingy. As soon as we were out of the channel, we pulled it up and I got into it and bailed it out. Still motoring, we finally raised the sails and began to sail, for at least an hour. The boat slowed and looking back at the dingy, it was full of water. We pulled the jib in and pulled the dingy back to the side of the boat. As we did the dingy rolled over, the new battery for the trolling motor went to Neptunes Rex and the oars began to float away. The trolling motor was under water. Medra tied a line to me (because I was not in good shape) and I decided to drop off the boat and with my feet, attempt to right the dingy, I only landed on it with the same side I’d fallen on. It hurt. The trouper she is, Medra learned quickly how to start the motor and as I turned the dingy upright, she moved the boat forward thus removing much of the water from the dingy. She stopped the motor and I was able to bail much of the water out of the dingy. After righting the dingy, we searched for the alumimun oars and an old paddle, finding all, which Medra boat hooked and pulled aboard. ( I must say now that she received multiple bruises on her body (she’s so soft and fun). We retrived all of the lost equipment except the battery. We decided to motor to the first anchorage. After dropping the medium anchor and resetting. We could not get off the boat to paddle to shore and enjoy the festivities and socialization with other club members and other BEER sailors. We cooked on board and I crawled into the v-berth for evening. Next morning, I could barely remove myself from the v-berth. We had breakfast and Jeff and Ann rowed over and asked if they could help. And they did. We had decided to return to Shipyard and rest my ribs. Jeff and Warren Hughes was gracious to come aboard and pull the anchor for me and make sure we could get underway. We went back to the landing, parked the boat, got the trailer bearings fixed and chilled out in a motel on Pensacola Beach for the next two days. Drugs from the doctor in Milledgeville helped the pain. I would like everyone to know how much I appreciate the help from all concerned. Jeff and Warren for the anchor! Ken and Jennifer for second assistance. John and Sherry for assistance with the furler.Calvin and Grayson for checking on me later. And all the members of OSYC that attended the BEER cruise, because I felt, after Warren and Jeff, that friends on a cruise is a great thing and everyone should try this as a group and with the support of members. Thank you so very much! God Bless you all! Ronnie and Medra

The BEER Cruise is something Charlie and I have been wanting to do for some time now. Usually it comes so close after the Mug Race that we are too broke and I am too whipped to make it. They changed the date this year and after much contemplation and financial finagling, we figured we could just pull it off this year. Our original plan was to do the cruise with our daughter, Killian and her fianc?Gabe. Things changed when they informed us that they were going to spend that week on a trip up the east coast. They changed even more when a couple months later they decided to tell us that the trip would be they’re honeymoon and that they had decided to move the wedding up . . . about four years . . . to the weekend before the BEER Cruise, but that’s another story. Meanwhile, my brother Andy had expressed an interest in going. Some of you know Andy from crewing with us on the Mug Race the last four or five years. He’s the one that got hit by lightening the first time he ever got on a sailboat . . . the year we got dismasted under the Buckman Bridge. With Andy on board, his wife, Leisa, decided to come along since we would all be in the Pensacola area that weekend for my Uncle Dan and Aunt Dee’s 50th Wedding Anniversary, and if she was going, we could spend an extra couple days in Biloxi because she had two free nights of room and board courtesy of the Beau Rivage Casino and Hotel along with $150 of Free Play money for the casino. I know it’s complicated, but try to keep up. Now Leisa is a true one of a kind individual. She has a heart of gold but does not suffer indignities lightly and can be very vocal about it. Her idea of roughing it is an air conditioned RV parked close enough to the casino for valet parking and a waiter to bring the drinks. I was a little concerned when she asked if the boat was air conditioned and had a shower. She likes her creature comforts’. After a couple weeks of planning, provisioning, maintenance, a wedding, a little angst, some trepidation and complete neural burnout, we hooked up the Thera-P to the old Suburban and headed to my brothers’ house in Montezuma, GA Thursday afternoon. We transferred everything to Andy’s truck, because it would actually make it down there and back, had a great steak dinner, a good nights sleep and headed out Friday morning for the Gulf Coast. We were off on our grand adventure. We arrived at the Pensacola Shipyard Marina on Bayou Chico on Friday at around scorching hot-thirty, got out of that cool air conditioned truck into the air you can wear’, and proceeded to do what needs to be done. With everybody pitching in, we got the boat rigged in record time and into the slip. Leisa had informed us on the way down that Friday night she was getting a motel room because; “dammit I’m not going to the Anniversary party sweaty with no makeup!” A little air-conditioned sleep in a nice soft bed with headroom and a long cool shower was sounding pretty damn good to me, too. Great idea, Leisa. We headed into town to find a close motel, re-provision our depleted beer and ice supply and find a restaurant. Here’s where the learning curve’ got a little slick. We made the mistake of leaving our coolers in the back of the truck. One of our food coolers was stolen when we got up Saturday morning. (We managed to fit one beer cooler in the cab of the truck and the rest we took to the room.) We headed back to the marina to drop off the coolers and stow bags and provisions on the boat and generally get things ship shape. We told some of our fellow cruisers of our plans to catch up with the fleet later that afternoon, got some important navigational instructions and headed out for Cantonment (a few miles north of Pensacola) and the 50th Wedding Anniversary Party. The party for Uncle Dan and Aunt Dee was a wonderful event and we were proud to be a part of the festivities for two truly great people. I know I had a great time and got to see some aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. that I haven’t seen, in most cases, for over thirty years. We stayed a good bit longer than I had planned and got back to the marina late. With the sun speeding toward the western horizon, a handful of fuzzy paper charts printed off the BEER Cruise website, the little pocket compass Charlie picked up at the Dollar General and my Wal-Mart handheld GPS, no depth finder or knot meter and only a handheld VHS, we headed out of Bayou Chico into Pensacola Bay to hopefully find Sailboat Cove and catch up with the fleet. I was a little nervous with never having sailed these waters and only a days worth of fiddling with the new GPS (you know how I am with things of a technical nature) and a compass that would point north, sort of, if you kept it real still. On top of that, I spilled a beer on the chart that showed the real narrow cut north of Fort McRee. Realizing that discretion is the better part of valor, I made my first command decision. “Let’s just motor over to Sailboat Cove so we can find it before dark.” I decided as I stared into the setting sun trying to make out if that marker we just past was Green 3 or Green 5. The old Thera-P was handling like a slug and I was fairly concerned until I realized that we had probably upwards of 1800 lbs. or so of extra weight with all the stuff we obviously overpacked. I got a little confused once, but we finally made it with out running aground thanks to Andy and Charlie keeping me on course and out of the shallows and Leisa keeping me well lubricated with my favorite adult beverage. We threaded our way through the flotilla and rafted up to Kennifer’s Hunter 260, the “Jamie Sea”. Charlie ran everybody out of the cabin and began to set up the galley for supper. We retired to the cockpit for some serious beer drinking and tale telling. Charlie whipped the below decks into shape, got everything stowed (I still have no idea where all that crap went. She is so cute when she’s efficient) and turned out a great supper of steak and baked potato. She apologized for the lack of salad as that was in the cooler that got stolen. Like anyone cared. The food was great, the beer was cold and conversation and revelry abundant and sweet. We were having such a good time that before we knew it, we had emptied one of the beer coolers. This may have been the cause of The Asparagus Incident’. Now it seems that in the course of the evenings’ revelry, Ken Griffin had been bragging to Leisa of his prodigious culinary skills. Under cross-examination he freely admitted to his intention of making his famous grilled asparagus. Leisa, after some serious hard nosed negotiation had elicited from Ken the promise of providing her with a sample of this culinary creation for her to sample and pass judgement upon. Alas, as the evening wore on and the V.O. level descended, it seems that Ken lost track of this promise in the intoxication of the moment. Now, to be fair, it seems that Leisa, whom also was caught up in the intoxication of the moment, had retired to her slumber before this gastronomic delight was fully prepared and so, it seems, in the mutual intoxication of the moment, the deal was never consummated. The next morning, however, Leisa remembered! The berating began. Sunday morning dawned flat and still as Andy and I gathered up the flotsam and jetsam of the nights activities from the cockpit and tried to find somewhere to stow 50 lbs. of empty beer bottles along with the remains of the nights repast. The empty beer cooler proved convenient. Charlie made coffee and got breakfast started. Over coffee in the cockpit Ken informed me that Ronnie Hartley had taken a bad tumble and had very likely broken a rib or two and might need assistance getting underway. We were staring at the jellyfish in the water debating swimming over when Jeff Morrow and either John Davis or Warren Hughes dinghied over and gave him a hand. God bless em. We hung out for a while as most of the other boats headed out for Navarre hoping for the wind to fill in a little. We headed out behind Calvin & Grayson, the Kennifers and some folks in a Catalina 25 that we hadn’t met yet. We were the last group to leave Sailboat Cove. We motored through that 50 ft wide cut out into Pensacola Bay and Charlie and Andy put up sails and Leisa resumed her bartending duties. We got into an immediate tacking duel with the Kennifers while Calvin and Grayson took off like a bat out of appaloosa. After about a half-hour or so of serious competition, by mutual agreement Ken and I tacked away from each other. If we kept at it this hard we would have a mutiny among our respective crews and this was supposed to be a fun cruise. Besides, Ken was gaining ground on me. I gotta say that I was running the small jib in deference to Leisa. I didn’t figure she would be very comfortable with the rail in the water the whole way. As we headed out into Pensacola Bay, watching Kennifer and Calvin & Grayson pull away, I turned the helm over to Charlie and proceeded to do battle with the new GPS. After an hour, give or take, of careening around the learning curve with the GPS, I felt confident enough to at least keep us out of the palm trees and headed in the right general direction. As I looked up from my instructional interlude I noticed we had gained some ground on our competition, I mean fellow sailors. Maybe I got a little too excited. I proceeded to make the “Sailing with Your Wife Egregious Error # 1-C”. I commented semi-harshly, more than once, on her seeming inability to hold course, and it was all my fault . . . I got some splaining to do. We were on a close reach in about 10 or so knots of wind and the old girl (the boat, dammit. I’m in enough trouble!) was wandering about trying to round up in any little errant puff or shift when my continued comments created enough anger to induce my Darling Bride to sling the tiller extension at my head (didn’t miss by much) and storm below to leave me with it. This happened after she had informed me that the boat was handling like s**t. I grabbed the tiller and sure enough, I didn’t do any better. A little investigation revealed that the rudder tie down had loosened up because someone (who, me?) didn’t tie it down very well and the rudder was bouncing up just enough to make the boat handle like a monkey shooting the rapids on an empty oil drum. She was pissed for a while. She did come up to watch us race a large barge to the Pensacola Beach Bridge. I think she was rooting for the barge. After we passed under the bridge and headed up Santa Rosa Sound, Charlie finally forgave me and took back the helm. We had a great sail to Navarre. The wind stayed out of the S-SE at about 8 to 10 is my best guess with some runs a little higher. Kept us all cool and moving smartly. Leisa even took the helm a couple times. She did very well. She also took time to make us all a very delicious and colorful brunch. It involved hors d’ouvres served skewered on colorful flamingo and umbrella toothpicks served on tropical themed paper plates with matching napkins. A treat for the eyes and the palate. We made pretty good time for an overloaded boat with a crew of mainly drunks. Damn good thing we had a designated helmswoman! The GPS said we had a max speed of 8.3 knots somewhere on the run but I think that might have happened when Charlie threw it at me. Every time I checked we were hitting between 3.8 and 5.2 knots. I gotta get my knot meter fixed. We arrived at Navarre sometime around 3 p.m. or so and anchored up Bahamian style close to Juanas Pagodas, with the stern to the beach beside Kennifer. Getting in was tricky due to the jet skis and ski boats. With the board up in any kind of breeze the Thera-P handles like a styrofoam cup. With all the swimmers, jet skis and ski boats, we finally just tossed the anchor out and jumped in and took the stern line and walked her in. We helped some friends of Kennifer in a MacGregor 26X or M, (one of the motor sailer models, you know, the Winneblowboat) back in and raft up to us. I think his name was Dale and I can’t remember his lovely wife’s name. (God, I’m terrible with names) Then another 26X, old whats-his-name and his lovely wife rafted up to them. Then another MacGregor 26D came in and rafted up on the outside. We had to do some serious housekeeping before we could relax. I swear we carted off over a hundred pounds of empty beer bottles. A check of the coolers revealed that just maybe we had enough beer for the night. The decision was made to re-provision in the morning, besides we still had a bottle of Makers Mark bourbon, a fifth of rum and two or three bottles of wine. We could make do. With my chores done for a while, I sat back with a cold beer from the dwindling supply and smiled as Leisa berated Ken once again over the Asparagus Incident’. My irrepressible and inexhaustible Darling Bride whipped up some of her famous enchiladas for our supper, after a taste of which, Ken the gourmet pronounced “Damn good!” Ken then proceeded to inform us of his intentions for supper on the Jamie Sea’ which induced another hilarious round of berating from Leisa over the Asparagus Incident’. Somewhere in this altercation I heard something about marinated saut? Brussels sprouts and a promise of a sample for Leisa to make up for the Asparagus Incident’. I could be wrong, but I was pretty sure supper on the Jamie Sea’ would await the proper marinating of the chef. Alas, I was correct in my assumption as the Swilling of the Grog and the Telling of Tall Tales’ continued long into the night . . . accompanied by occasional admonishments over the Asparagus Incident’. Sometime late in the evening a greenish silvery missile came lobbing into the cockpit of the Thera-P from the direction of the Jamie Sea. The marinated chef made good on his promise. It was the promised Brussels sprouts in a sandwich baggie. Alas, poor Leisa had already retired for the night. As I was sitting in the cockpit the next morning sipping coffee and waiting on Leisa to awaken and claim her long awaited gift of a well cooked green vegetable I began to discern a discordant mumbling from below where Charlie was preparing pancakes and sausage. I poked my head through the companionway to see Charlie on her hands and knees sponging water from the bilge. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “I told you last year that the sink leaked. No telling what all its ruined.” she replied grumpily. “Want me to get the bilge pump?” I asked. “No, I got it. Just make me a cup of coffee and get out of my way!” she grumbled. “Yes dear.” I replied. Years of experience has taught me not to piss off the hardest working, most experienced crew member . . . especially if you sleep with her! The damage wasn’t too bad, Charlie had to repack a couple clothes bags and a couple of boxes of provisions got a little soggy but the contents were OK. While Andy and I went off to re-beer and re-ice, Charlie took the breakfast dishes with her to the showers. We got showered, provisioned and got the boat shipshape and ready to depart before Leisa discovered her Brussels sprouts. Now I don’t know how Brussels sprouts sit as a dessert to pancakes and sausage, but she ate ’em, pronounced them delicious and put a happy ending to the ‘Asparagus Incident’. As usual, we were one of the last boats to leave Navarre on Monday morning headed for a place marked Quiet Water on the north side of Pensacola Beach at the southern end of the Pensacola Beach Bridge. After looking at the charts and watching some of the other boats I decided we could cut across the southern side of Santa Rosa Sound instead taking the channel north beside the bridge to the ICW. The shallowest areas on the chart were marked at 3 ft. so I yanked the board up about 10 inches. The weather station called for winds out of the south at 10 to 15 so we set for a reach and let the old girl run. About thirty minutes later Andy pointed back towards the Navarre Bridge and asked, “What’s that?” I turned and saw what appeared to be the bottom of a boat with what appeared to be another sailboat close alongside. I replied “That is somebody having a bad day.” Found out a little later it was John and Sherrie in their O’day 272 and they were hard aground. But that’s John and Sherrie’s story and
‘ll let them tell it. We had another great day of sailing with consistent, steady winds that allowed us to catch several boats in the fleet. I had a hell of a crew. Andy is getting to be a damn good sailor. Charlie is as good as they come. If my male ego would let me admit it, I’d probably have to admit she’s better than I am at several aspects of seamanship. And Leisa, what a gal. I know this wasn’t exactly her cup of tea but she came through like a trooper. She never let us run dry as the official bartender and whipped up some damn fine lunches. At one point during a screaming reach, she couldn’t hold it anymore and went below to the head to pay the rent on the beer, so to speak. We were heeled over at about 12 or so degrees and she’d been down long enough for me to get a little worried. I heard her holler up “How fast are we going?” I looked down at the GPS and yelled back “6.2 knots!” There was a short silence and then we heard her holler “Hot damn, I’m gonna call my friends and tell ’em I peed on a sailboat at 6.2 knots!” Now there’s an experience that you just don’t get any old where! Not long after that, Andy looked behind us and said “Isn’t that Ken and Jennifer gaining on us?” Damn! They had beaten us on every leg of this cruise so far, I couldn’t let ’em take me this time. We had got the jump on them when they went north through the cut out of Navarre and stopped to help John and Sherrie. We got serious. The crew got into the spirit and we worked that boat like it was the America’s Cup. We began to pull away. We had a good hour’s worth of hard sailing before Kennifer eased up, I think to talk with Dale and his wife on the MacGregor 26X. Truth be told, I’m sure Kennifer could have taken us if they really tried. I’ve seen them make that 260 scream, and we were still flying the small jib so we probably weren’t serious competition for them. But it sure felt good to be anchored up at Quiet Water waiting on them for a change! After the hassle we had getting to the beach at Navarre, we decided to anchor out about 350 to 400 feet from the beach. We had a little trouble getting the anchor to set. It was probably a little light for the sandy conditions. We ended up wading in and setting it by hand. We got Kennifer to come in and anchor close by and rafted up, hoping 2 anchors would hold us both better than one. We eventually got them set with enough spread to hopefully hold us if the wind shifted. John and Sherrie came in and anchored close by. They dinghied over to join us in a little post sail celebration and also because it was Sherrie’s birthday and John had acquired a little celebratory present for Sherrie while we were at Navarre and stashed it with us so Sherrie wouldn’t find it. Sherrie brought her martini shaker and offered me one. Thus began my downward spiral. I remember the martinis, chased with beer. And I sorta remember the popping the cork on a magnum of Chardonnay, and chasing it with beer. I start getting fuzzy about the time everyone decided to dinghy in to the beach for supper at the restaurant. I vaguely remember sitting at the bar waiting for a table and someone saying something about “He’s gotta leave.” Not because I was rowdy or anything, I just couldn’t seem to keep my eyes open. I’ve been told bits and pieces of my debacle, but for the real lowdown, I’m no help at all. So you’ll just have to get the rest of the story from someone else. I hear Grayson has pictures and they came out great. Not sure I wanna see em. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my crew and my friends for not leaving me stretched out on the beach with pink flamingo swizzle sticks braided in my hair. Oh wait, my hair’s to short to braid anymore! Whew!!! I woke up the next morning not feeling too terribly bad, under the circumstances. Charlie tells me at some point during the late hours I roused myself enough to take the “Cure.” The “Cure” consists of two Goody Powders chased with half a beer followed by one of the pills I take for my back, chased with the other half of the beer. Usually works. At any rate, Andy and I were sitting in the cockpit finishing off our morning coffee when a rainsquall came roaring in out of the west with a vengeance. Actually felt pretty good. The rain and wind sure cooled things down. Didn’t do much for the anchor situation. As we swung smartly eastward, my anchor pulled out and we wrapped Kennifer’s anchor rode around the post with the No Wake’ sign. This proved to be a blessing as it kept Kennifer’s anchor pulling from the direction it was originally set and it stayed put. After the squall, the wind clocked around to the northwest causing us to swing uncomfortably close to a couple boats that had set their anchors in a much more proper manner and hadn’t moved at all. Wanting to be good neighbors, Ken and I bravely jumped in and reset our anchors to avoid any territorial disputes or damaged fiberglass. We returned to our respective boats, sat in our respective cockpits and drip dried as we sipped our respective adult beverages and told respectable lies until it became apparent that Leisa was beginning to get that Air Conditioned Casino Itch’. It was time to pull anchor on our last day on the boat and head back to the Pensacola Shipyard Marina, put the boat on the trailer and head to Biloxi for a little of Leisa’s R-n-R. The trip back was uneventful and a little boring. We fired up the motor and raised sail just because, but the waters in Santa Rosa Sound were like glass. We started to get just a little breeze as we got out to the passage under the Pensacola Beach Bridge. Once we got out into Pensacola Bay the breeze freshened just enough to occasionally fill the sails. We ended up motor sailing pretty much all the way back, which is kinda like having a platonic relationship with a supermodel. Looks good from a distance I suppose. I finally ran aground . . . twice. Once as we were coming up to the slips at the marina in that really narrow channel as you approach the marina. Of course the wind decided to pick up about that time and as soon as the board came up I lost all steerage, went careening out of the narrow channel and had to lean out over the transom and wrassle with the motor to regain any directional stability. I fought her back into the channel and dropped the board a couple feet just to regain steerage. As I carefully nosed her into the slip she grounded again. That’s when I realized that my stern line was hooked to the port side cleat instead of the starboard side. After an embarrassing amount of fumbling, we finally got her tied to the dock and commenced to prepare the old girl for the trailer. After another embarrassing board up approach to the dock at boat ramp, and a little help from some new friends in a beautifully restored old MacGregor 22, we managed to wrassle the old girl back onto the trailer. She fought us every inch of the way, guess she didn’t really want to leave. In the process of loading the boat we managed to bend the left side trailer fender down onto the tire and cut a groove in it as we hauled her out. We unloaded the boat and then Andy and I proceeded to grunt and sweat in the hot humid air to try and pry the fender off the tire. We did manage to break the rear mounting bracket but that worked out fine. I just took a length of line and a half a handful of zip ties and utilizing a trucker’s hitch managed to get the fender tied up and away from the tire. Worked out OK. We got the boat washed but we were just too damn tired to step the mast. We just left the old girl rigged and parked in the lot, and then I had the 2nd best shower of the trip. We loaded up in the truck and headed for Biloxi. After a semi-monotonous 2-hour ride we checked into the luxurious Beau Rivage Casino and Hotel where I had the best shower of the trip. Yes friends, we wallowed in opulent decadence for two nights and two and a half days of pure self indulgence on the 25th floor with a Gulf side view. We ate too much seafood, drank too much free liquor and I re-learned why I don’t gamble. All too soon it was time to pack it in, head back to Pensacola, retrieve the old Thera-P from her lonely solitude in the marina parking lot, step the mast tie everything down, hitch her to the truck and point it toward Georgia. I was bone tired and my butt was draggin’ . . . but my, my . . . we had us a time, didn’t we? Gimp

A half day work day is schedule for this Saturday, June 21, 2008, 9AM ’til Noon. The schedule calls for a cruise Saturday afternoon to somewhere up the lake, spend the night, and race back to the club on Sunday morning. If you will might be able to come for the work day, please reply to this email. Charlotte would like to have a count for lunch. We will start about 9 AM. Some may start a little earlier. The traditional hot dog lunch will be provided. Hope to see you there. A major project will be cutting the grass. The riding mower broke at the last work day and was just recently fixed so the grass is tall. The push mower is also acting up but hopefully we will have a second push mower before Saturday. Bill Lewis has donated one which may need a little work and Ronnie Young is going to check it out. {{Projects for Saturday}} – Cut Grass and Weed Eat. – Continue construction of outdoor shower. – Gutter on front of Clubhouse is falling and needs repair – The rope for the swimming area has broken and needs to be repaired. – Cut off and remove remaining old dock poles. – Check out the commode in the men’s room. – Blow off roof, deck and under deck. – Blow off pavilion – Blow off the barge – Clean Bath Rooms – Clean main room – Clean Kitchen – Clean refrigerator. Bring carpentry, maintenance, and yard tools which you think we may need for the following tasks. Masks and long pants may be needed for string trimmer and lawn mower operation. Pick out something on the list and have at it. {{LONG TERM PROJECTS 2008}} (Project manager/team is listed next to project. If you want to work on a project, contact the team or if you want to lead a project, contact Jimmy Harrell.) – Cover area under deck for future outside showers, Jimmy Harrell, Ken Griffin – Run Electricity to Lift, Ronnie Young – Repair tile floor around the front door. – Replace or repair inside shower stalls – Install exhaust fan in the upper windows of main hall – Shelf in corner of galley to hold microwave, Jimmy Harrell – Ladders at end or A and B docks. – Resurface Docks – Electrical and Water for B Dock, Ronnie Young Jimmy Harrell 404 234 8463

The Commodore has called a special board meeting for Sunday June 8 at 1pm. All members are encouraged to attend.

I Flew into Freeport on Saturday May 23rd, Jack and George were waiting in the airport. Been looking forward to some really good Bahamas seafood, so where do they take me for my first official Bahamas meal? Burger King, go figure. Sunday we sailed from Freeport to Westend. The wind were picking up and so we sailed under a reefed main. We were trolling and caught one jack. Since the winds were still kicking up on Monday, we stayed put at the marina in Westend. We also ran into the other boats from the Bahamas flotilla. George Thorpe and Jerry in a very small Southcaost 23 and Doug and Mo in a C25. Sunday night at the marina we had a mystery. They found a 35 plus sailboat drifting out in the ocean with no one aboard. We heard that the delivery skipper was missing. The boat had no sails on it and the anchor on the bow looked to be only about a 10 pound anchor. I am really not sure about the official report. Also a small boat capsized with four people on board, they recovered three bodies and were still looking for the forth. Jack was right in the middle of it all trying to figure out what had happen. He finally went to the police station on Monday to get an update. Since winds were scheduled to 10-15 mph latter in the day on Tuesday, Jack and I set out for Mangrove Cay. We said our good-byes to the others, as they were planning to cross the Gulf Stream that night. We had a good sail, with winds right on the nose all the way to Mangrove Cay and we finally reached our anchorage at about 5 PM. Winds were still 20 mph and gusting higher. We were hoping the others would wait an extra day to make their crossing, they didn’t. We checked the weather and the winds were expected to start dying down latter in the night. By morning the winds were still out of the east at about 15 mph. We weight anchor at about 7 AM on Wednesday and started our direct sail to Brunswick. We set the auto pilot and we fish, We manage to catch 13 barracudas ranging in size from 2 to 4 feet. We also caught two yellow tail snappers. We clean and ate the snappers for dinner on Wednesday. We set our course to a place called Deadmans Shoals on the northern end on the Little Bahamas Bank. When we were a couple of miles from it, you could see the color of the water was the most beautiful shade of turquoise, I have ever seen. It stretched for miles. We manage to make 146 miles for our first full day of sailing. In the Gulf Stream our top speed was 10 mph. The second day we manage to make 130 miles. We reached the docks at Brunswick on Friday May 30 at 12 noon. We sailed a little over 300 miles from Mangrove to Brunswick and never tacked one time. We sailed for 53 hours, of those 53 hours we motored sailed about 10 hours. When we were sailing we were constantly sailing at 5.5 to 6.5 mph. We never touched the wheel from the time we left Mangrove Cay until we were in sight of the docks a Brunswick. Take a ways from the trip. Autopilot………………………………Do not leave home without it. Bahamas……………………………..I love it, I want some more of it.

This weekend is the annual Sinclair Open Regatta at OSYC. Festivities will kick off Saturday morning with registration and check in, followed by the skippers meeting at high noon. Racing will begin at 1pm. Course details will be discussed at the skippers meeting. Races will be scored using the US Sailing Portsmouth handicap system, and the races are open to all sailing craft with a Portsmouth rating. After racing, Ken Griffin will be organizing a “Club Burn” dinner. The club will provide the grill and sides, and you bring your own meat to grill. Also, anyone who brings appetizers and deserts will receive considerable accolades. More racing is planned for Sunday – details at the skippers meeting. Camping and overnight docking are available for race participants.

Several of our members attended the Mug Race in Jacksonville and did quite well. Congratulations to the following. – Ken & Jennifer Griffin: 1st in RCHS Nonspin-B. – Michael Dortch: 2nd in RCHS Nonspin-A. – Ronnie Young: 3rd in RCHS Nonspin-C. – John Davis: 5th in RCHS Nonspin-C. – Carl Saylor: 1st in PHRF Nonspin-A. – Paul Keller: 2nd in Open Mono Spin. Full results are posted [here->http://www.rudderclub.com/results.html]. For more information on the Mug Race click here: [http://www.rudderclub.com/mug.html->http://www.rudderclub.com/mug.html] Jimmy

A half day work day is schedule for this Saturday, May 10, 2008, 9AM ’til Noon. There will be racing in the afternoon. If you can come, try to be there by 9 AM. Some may start a little earlier. Arlene will be preparing lunch for the worker. Hope to see you there. The grass and weeds have sprung up and cutting the grass will be one of the main tasks for the work day. The club has purchased a string trimmer but if you have one you could bring, it would make the job go faster. We are also planning to start work on the outdoor shower enclosure. Bring carpentry, maintenance, and yard tools which you think we may need for the following tasks. Masks and long pants may be needed for string trimmer and lawn mower operation. Pick out something on the list and have at it. Reminder: The basement is collecting more and more. We would like to remove abandoned and unused junk. Please help by tagging your personal items and discard damaged, broken or unused stuff that belongs to you. {{ROUTINE TASKS}} – Clean and Damp Mop Main Hall, don’t use a lot of water, it makes the floor swell. – Clean Rest Rooms – Clean and Mop Kitchen – Blow off the deck, walkways, underneath deck, etc. – Blow off the pavilion. – Blow pine straw and leaves off pontoon boat, remove trash.. – Wash Windows if needed – Minor dock repairs as needed. – Gather up discarded or abandoned junk lying around the grounds – Pick up trash especially on the point. – Clean refrigerator and discard old food – Cut grass if needed – Trim Weeds if needed – Prune bushes if needed – Sweep and straighten the basement – Clean Gutters if needed {{SPECIAL TASKS}} – Repair horn on pontoon boat. – Pull up old dock post near shore. – Cut off pole beyond dock D below water level and remove. Will require warm weather and SCUBA gear. – Organize basement, identify items which appear to be abandoned, combine like kind supplies, Building and Grounds Committee