Memorial Day Cruise Moves to La Conner

For the last few years the club has gone to Bremerton for Memorial weekend but they no longer have any facility for us to use for gatherings. The weather has been horribly blustery at times and we knew we needed a place where we could all gather inside out of the weather but that a place that people could get excited about. Bob decided, as Fleet Captain, to give La Conner a try.  Wow, did people get excited!

Bob ended up with 50 boats and 130 people signed up! We rented both guest docks, the yacht club dock and the clubhouse. Bob squeezed all the boats in along the docks and it worked out great! We came a day early so we could relax and enjoy the town before everyone arrived. We even saw two eagles on our way up.

Everyone arrived throughout Thursday and Friday and then we met together for dinner. Since we were spread out on the "North Dock" and the "South Dock", the best place for everyone to visit was at the clubhouse. As usual, we had our wonderful men doing the cooking and they did not disappoint. Our first night was a rib dinner that was so good!

 On Saturday we did a Poker Run which I have never done before. We were given an orange list of participating stores. We would go into the store, make sure we did some shopping or at least some looking, then picked up one random card from a deck. As we went from store to store we collected playing cards and were to see how good of a poker hand we could get. The cards were turned in that evening and Denise and her team went through them to see who had the best hand. I only had two low pairs but it was a fun activity and the merchants were thrilled that we came into the stores - and actually purchased things. One store wasn't sure they wanted to participate because they said people come in for the card and leave. They decided to try it and later told Denise it was their best day ever!

We also had some time to relax and managed to get a couple of nice pictures of ourselves.

Many of our club members have gotten new boats plus we have some new members so we ended up with a lot of christenings this time. We started out with the McGinnises' boat, Obsession. It is a beautiful 72' boat that everyone has enjoyed getting tours of. We couldn't miss getting a picture of their dog, Sadie.  EYC dogs are special members and get plenty of attention when they are out. Barkley loves to go on the cruises because he gets so much attention and lots of walks.

The next boat belonged to Patsy and Hal Cooks' boat. They were new members this past year so they had Pandamania christened while we were in La Conner.

Our third boat, B Knotty, owned by Tony and Vicki Hewlett. They have been members for a couple of years and just got their new boat so were happy to be added to the list of christenings.

The last christening of the day was our dear friends, Jack and Moon Canon, with their new 47' Nordic Tug. I was honored to be asked by them to say a prayer of blessing over their boat. I love the last picture! What a fun time we had!

That evening we had another wonderful dinner. This time they fixed ribeye steak that could not be beat. Following dinner we had a DJ and plenty of great music for dancing. I don't really dance much but Lynn Cheeney made sure I was up there for the Macarena.  And, of course, Bob just had to take pictures of me!

A tradition of the club is to have a Memorial Day service to honor those who have died defending our nation. We also use this time to recognize those present who have also served our country. Gary Bruner and Alicia McCullough always do a beautiful job and the past two years Steve Goedde has sung a heart-tugging song that made many of us tear up.

 

The first boat to be christened today was Dave and Lynn Cheeney's boat, Carpe Diem. They are fairly new to the club but are already stepping up to replace Bob and Fleet Captain next years. They are a lot of fun and becoming good friends.

Gary and Ingrid Bruner got a new boat this past year and they also asked me to pray over their boat Ke'Aloha.

Our next boat was Pete and Diane Almgren's new boat Glauben. They waited a long time for their new boat and are thoroughly enjoying the added space. The name Glauben is German for "believe". 

It was a fantastic weekend a fantastic cruise for everyone! We ended our last evening with a great dinner and then everyone chipped in to help clean up the clubhouse. We told everyone we wanted to leave it cleaner than when we got there so that we would be invited back. People took that literally and the clubhouse was cleaned in places that probably have not been cleaned in years - the top of the windowsills, inside the ovens, you name it - we cleaned it. We did ask the question, though, "How many ECE'ers does it take to fix a vacuum?"  Working together always makes everything more fun!

Land of Aaahs Opening Day

We left Thursday to head off to Queen City Yacht Club for Opening Day of Boating Season. We planned to leave at 7:00am but when we got to the marina we were completely fogged in. We talked to Al and Sue who were planning to cruise with us and we agreed we should wait awhile and let the fog clear.  Eventually we thought it had lifted enough and would then burn off so we headed out. Unfortunately, the fog got thicker and we were cruising in weather we try to avoid. Al and Sue were right behind us and it was still hard to see them - if I could at all.

The one thing I don't like about going to Opening Day is going through the locks in Ballard. If you are sitting on the lawn and watching the boats go through it is a lot of fun. When you are on a boat and have to tie to the sides then adjust your lines as you are lifted up to lake level, it is not so much fun. We have been tied to the side and also rafted to other boats (which is much easier since you are just along for the ride) but since this is the first time through with Synnova we assumed we would be tied to the side because of her length. As it turned out, when we arrived we realized that our kayak racks probably stuck out further than our fenders. The lock attendant let us raft to another boat since we were not sure. The following pictures show us waiting to enter the locks, our entry and then as we exited into Lake Washington.

When we arrived at Queen City, rafted to the other boats and then took our dinghies to head on over to the log boom to see the other EYC members. The third picture shows our fleet boats at QCYC when we returned.

Saturday was officially Opening Day so we dressed for the parade and headed out on Brian and Kira McLauchlan's boat, Nelliott.  We had plenty of time to relax on their boat, eat lunch and then practice our saluting.

As we went by the log boom we were able to grab a couple of pictures before we staged for the return trip back. We watched as the decorated boats turned around at the end and then enjoyed seeing the Seattle Fire Boat bring up the end of the parade.

While we were staged waiting to return to QCYC we conducted a small memorial service to commemorate the one year anniversary of Dick Potter passing away. He had been a long term member of EYC and his son, Jeff, and Daughter, Susan Romei, are still members. They were on the boat so we all moved to the stern where Susan said some words to remember her dad and then Jeff through a bouquet of red roses out on the water. I concluded with a prayer.  It was a very moving service and it meant a lot to Jeff and Susan. I'm so glad we were there for it.

It was a fun weekend and we are looking forward to next year when we can be out on the log boom.