It all began on a sunny Friday afternoon, April 28th, with the arrival of Snowflower. Westerly winds from around 10 to over 15 knots helped boats make their way down the Oakland Estuary to the docks at Encinal Yacht Club. By late afternoon, Evanescence, Woodbine, True North, Freedom Won and Vanishing Animal had arrived. Nibbles and beverages quickly passed the time until Ophira arrived in the last hour of sunlight. That brought our first toddler to the party - Skyler Salvo, Gary & Pat's granddaughter. Don & Barb Henderson arrived by car, representing Kindred Spirit and Art and Betsy Fowler just walked over from Zenith's berth at next-door Marina Village.

Encinal provided a pair of card tables to set up on the dock to hold our evening's potluck spread. Never has the Islander fleet gone hungry, and this was no exception. Smokey's seafood pasta shells set the tone and salads, chili, and rice rounded out the offerings.

Saturday morning saw the addition of Natural High with toddler number two - the Bush's grand neice Sarah Dorsey. Two more sailed in on Miss Kryptonite - Paige & Rees Kent. Skipper & Nancy Wall's granddaughter Kimberly arrived by car with parents Scott & Tracy Wall, and Smokey's granddaughter Sarah arrived with mom Amanda Stover. While they were arriving, the Pulau gang of Jonathon Muhiudeen & Linda Horne with two of their kids stopped by the docks to say hello. They were scheduled for kids parties elsewhere, but stopped by to bring the toddler count briefly up to eight. Future Islander sailors all!

Laurie Stover again rolled out the kids games, with golf, paddle ball, and any number of little creatures. Our toddlers had a great time - as did mommies and grandparents to boot. Encinal's bright green grass was the perfect place for the before-lunch exercise that had everyone calm and mellow by the appointed 1230 lunch hour.

By lunch time, Michael Jefferies had tucked Nantucket into the raft, and Brian & Fran Jacobs neatly backed their trawler Endeavor into the dock.

Encinal did a supurb job with the big-plate lunches. If shrimp salad wasn't your thing, you could go with the grilled chicken, bacon and cheese whopper, or a club sandwich that required a doggie box to carry parts of it off. The service was bright and crisp and no one went hungry! Peter Szasz and the Midnight Sun crew made a grand entrance just as we were seated, treating everyone to a nice show of seamanship as he backed in and laid alongside the dock before coming upstairs to join the group. Blockbuster, with Bill & Jim Higdon aboard, arrived shortly after lunch, but Laurie made sure their lunches had been saved for them.

After lunch was a good time to work on some boat projects. Teamwork among fleet members was evident throughout the weekend. Charles Hodgkins helped Art Fowler with some computer set-up. Rick Van Mell helped Smokey Stover set a baud rate for his new radio receiver that picks up real-time transponder signals from commercial vessels and displays their name, location, direction and relative speed directly on a chart of the bay. Smokey Stover helped John Melton remove a pin from a spinnaker pole fitting, then helped Neil Lefmann set a new jib and adjust the furler line. Michael Jefferies is taking a navigation class, and asked Rick & Peter Szasz for some help on a relative bearing problem. Peter taught Michael "the rule of 2" for getting a reciprocal course: either add 2 or subtract two from the first digit, then do the reverse for the second digit (the third digit stays the same! Darn near everyone helped Honorary Member Bill Higdon (86 years young) and his son Jim clean up Blockbuster which had accumulated some on-deck greenery in all of our spring rains. Art Fowler was the leader with a pressure washer, but Michael Jefferies joined in the scrubbing, while Smokey & Rick revived a frozen fitting on the end of their spinnaker pole. What a great group!

When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. So at 1700 we piled into cars and headed for Svendsen's Boatworks for some serious hors de oeuvres and lots of goodies shopping. Must have been the wine, chees and stuffed mushrooms they served, but there were lots of happy faces roaming up and down the asiles picking up everything from Awlwash to Zincs! We sure appreciate the hospitality and good prices from Svendsen's and the friendly, helpful, knowledgeable service from their staff.

It was a mellow Saturday evening with a few people going out to eat, some eating aboard their boats, and the rest assembling for an impromptu potluck aboard Endeavor. The main cabin counter overflowed with goodies again, and a few even braved the after-dusk cool on the afterdeck.

Sunday morning Encinal did a great buffet breakfast for all the folks headed out for Opening Day On The Bay - and we Islanders were happy to partake of the eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, fruit and juice too. Then one by one we headed back to our harbors with great memories of another fine Islander cruise.

Pictures are compliments of Bill Higdon, Lou Zevanov, Ron Damsen, Barb Henderson & Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.