The fifth event of the Chesapeake Bristol Club (CBC) 2015 season was the 17th annual 2015 Memorial Day Weekend Wye River Rendezvous at the Wye Island NRMA Facility on Granary Creek. The event was a fun collaborative effort for us and the Eastport Yacht Club (EYC) and the Magothy River Sailing Association (MRSA).
Approximately 80 people came to the gathering and 25 boats anchored in the creek and enjoyed the breezy weekend. Norm Bogarde reports that this is really the 23rd annual Memorial Day on the Wye River… since the first Wye Island party took place in 1992. The 17 years come from the first Wye O-LIMPICS which first took place in 1998. EYC played a significant role in setting up the first of many of those. That year the theme was “Pirate Weekend” and was hosted by Hak and Adele Kauffman,
charter members of CBC who now live in Florida. Everyone dressed up in pirate garb and there was a treasure hunt complete with maps that were supposed to lead us to the booty.
As Norm recalls, the clues were vague and most of the adults gave up early. One kid persevered and found the treasure buried at the forest edge under a weird looking tree (the clue). The Kauffmans had buried a large plastic bin filled with all sorts of trinkets and, yo ho ho... a very fancy bottle of Pirate’s rum!
Some of our old timers will remember with delight the several EYC productions of “Ham on Wye” which made satirical fun of everyone’s sailing misadventures and hardships. This year CBC had 19 participants, but only six boats sailed in. Sandra and Norm Bogarde arrived and soon their Savoir Faire was wearing her full dress flags, as did the festive Galatea of Marty and Joyce Suydam.
Bob and Prue Clopp were celebrating Our Time at anchor in Granary Creek. Mickey Doran came by water in his Scudder, all prepared with drawing boards and pens for the art contest and Shirley Kennard hitched a ride with Scott.
Joel Gross and Tom Finnan came prepared to monitor the ball toss in the shade of the huge trees, Will and Logan Hottle came in Acomes, John Ruthrauff and Kathleen O’Toole joined the party in Riff Raff. Val and Jane Taliaferro and Dave and Rebecca Burka came by land yacht. The CBC boats arrived early Saturday afternoon and most anchored in or near the first cove to port on Granary Creek. The water level throughout the creek was low because prevailing northwest wind had blown much of the water out the creek.
CBC Happy hour was on Scudder, with Mickey hosting. After an informal onshore picnic dinner folks watched the movie, “All is Lost”, starring Robert Redford and then it was off for a good nights’ sleep before the big day. Sunday dawned sunny and beautiful. Amazingly orderly event preparations were made in the morning and by afternoon the 4-person team events of knot tying, ski walking, geo-egg-hunt, and baseball toss took place amidst much cheering and laughter. There were many bottles of chilled water to cool folks down from their o-limp-ic exertions.
The events became even more festive when the EYC Rum Punch truck appeared.... peddling a very potent and tasty libation on a nice hot afternoon. When the games had run their course, members of CBC, EYC, and MRSA groups gathered in the Pavilion for a very enthusiastic and noisy Nautical Jeopardy contest.
With lots of folks pitching in, the long table was soon set up up with an amazing array of salads, hors d’oeuvres, and wonderful desserts that accompanied the marvelous barbeque chicken and beans by George’s Barbecue. A great feast to end a great day. After dinner the winners of the day’s activities received their awards and applause. Many thanks to Mickey Doran and Will Hottle who created the model boat race kits, Mickey Doran who developed and ran the Art Poster contest, and to Tom Finnan and Joel Gross who ran the ball toss event. The sailboat event was scrubbed because winds were too high at race time, but we’re ready for next year!
