“It was the best of times and it was the worst of times”. This summer’s raft up had it all ! Right out of the gate Kathy Tapken injured a finger on her right hand getting their anchor set. Then Our anchor wouldn’t set, so when VC Herb and Ellen Schneider tied off to our side, the one deployed anchor started slipping and we started drifting back toward the mangroves. During this drifting, the stern anchor became fouled in Herb’s props, so we had to clear that to and use the shuttle boat to set his hook and drag ourselves out of harm’s way. The Barnharts were circling and wondering if this was a Keystone Cops rehearsal. All worked out and we were finally set. We swam, ate and had beverages on the boats, visited Marker 92 for cocktails and met with the Burgers and the Warnicks, headed back to the boats and settled down for the night(after a couple more cocktails). Naturally, Gary and Kathy’s genset quit so they had a rather uncomfortable night. Saturday morning started with Kathy’s Café opening with a wonderful full breakfast and the accompanying Bloodies, Mimosas and Screwdrivers. We visited the Farmer’s Market at Cape Harbour and returned to make lunch plans. The Tribulas (Dave and Susie) stopped by with their bowrider and the decision was made that the Roushes and the Barnharts would ride with them to Bert’s for lunch. Great ride and great lunch but the boat quit as we were leaving Bert’s, so we got to wait for Tow Boat U.S. to arrive and experienced the Real 3 hour tour!
We did make it back to the raft up in time for me to start cooking, however. Fleet Captain Phil dropped by with Pete Welles on Pete’s sailboat “ Ibis” and we had a great meal on the boats. And, by the way, my generator also quit. We ran power cords from the operational boats to the nonoperational boats (looked like an ICU ward) and settled down for the night. During the rather warm night it was discovered that Herb likes the comfort of air conditioning at night and decided to continue to run his generator after a brief shutdown. He has wandered to the Dark Side and is now known as Darth Schneider!
Sunday was a casual breakfast with Kathy’s fabulous homemade crumb cake (and nothing broke!). Farewells were exchanged and the 2010 Glover Bight Raft Up was history. Life is Good!
