Marina Village
May 26, 2007

(If you like, you can skip down through the prose and go straight to the pictures below!)

Snowflower arrived first and got the dockside position on Friday afternoon. By Friday night, right along side were Luna Sea, Woodbine, and Freedom Won. Twenty four hours later 16 islanders were represented by 34 people as the Rally participants, locals and drive-ins joined to form a great Marina Village Rendezvous.

The weather cooperated for most of the day with the fog burning off by 0930 as a modest west wind rippled the bay. Though seven islanders had indicated they were going to try the Rally route around Treasure Island, Brigid, Sandpiper & Vanishing Animal made it to the starting line, with Pegasus join in at the first mark. Light and shifty winds near the Bay Bridge made guessing boat speeds for the Rally route around Treasure Island and down the Estuary tricky.

With a start at 1200 sharp, it was a long & short beat to Blossom Rock with wind generally in the 12 -15 range with a couple of puffs up to 17 - 20. Here we were back under the fog which hid the Golden Gate. With a strong 1.5 to 2 knot ebb pushing, it didn't take long to get there. But with the second mark to the east of north, the current was now abeam and pushing everyone to the left of the course to R2. From there it was dead down wind to the north end of Treasure Island and most boats went left first, the gybed to starboard to lay the third mark and work on around Treasure. By now the sun was back out as we sailed in sparkling water south under the Bay Bridge on the east side of Treasure Island. Our next two marks, both green cans, had been removed for dredging, but we all "rounded" the waypoints and turned to the dead run down the estuary and the finish. It was the slowest going of the day, under bright sun, sliding past two big containerships unloading and finishing abeam of channel mark 8.

Our Rally system included secret numbers so competitors would not know what times others were predicting. Yet, both Brigid and Vanishing Animal turned in almost identical estimated course times of 108 and 108.7 minutes for the 8.3 mile course. Here are the Rally Rules, and you can read the results, and all who participated in the cruise, in the table below.

Marina Village 5-26-07 Attendance & Rally Results

					Start Time:		1200	720	Minutes

#	Boat	Owner	Secret	Reported	Predicted	Predicted	Actual	Actual	% Score		Pred.	Actual
			Number	Number	Minutes	Finish	Finish	Minutes		Dist.	Speed	Speed

1	Snowflower	Skipper & Nancy Wall	216							8.3
2	Vanishing Animal	Rick, Sandy & Robert Van Mell	342	450.7	108.7	1348.7	1350.30	110.3	98.5%	8.3	4.58	4.51
3	Luna Sea	Dan Knox, Melissa Geffert	289							8.3
4	Mischief	Charles & Kathryn Hodgkins	495							8.3
5	Brigid	Corky & Anna Stewart	411	519	108	1348	1353.74	113.7	94.7%	8.3	4.61	4.38
6	Freedom Won	John & Nanci Melton	267							8.3
7	Woden	Bob & Maureen Knickerbocker	364							8.3
8	Woodbine	Ron & Karen Damsen	267							8.3
9	Arete	Butch Nelson & Sandra Slate	498							8.3
10	Pegasus	Robert Aston & Mary Gleim	249							8.3
11	Sandpiper	John & Rosalyn Sutton	337	477	140	1420	1404.23	124.2	88.7%	8.3	3.56	4.01
12	Zenith	Art & Betsy Fowler	357							8.3
13	Rachel Rose	Don & Beverly Wilson	300							8.3
14	4 R Sanity	Roger & Linda McClellan	200							8.3
15	Kindred Spirits	Don & Barb Henderson	178							8.3
16	Pilot	Kevin & Sonia Kinney, & Steve	427							8.3

Since Rick designed the Rally, he obviously couldn't win it, so we declared Corky & Anna Stewart the winners.

In true Islander fashion, the Med Mooring on the Marina Village guest dock went smoothly. Before you could spell check Una Mass Margarita, Dan, John and Corky were mixing them by the pitcher. A card table was lashed to the dock and was quickly filled with goodies. With thirst and hunger being slaked at a great rate, the main attraction of the afternoon began.

It seemed Corky & Anna had been given great grief at the Encinal cruise for not performing a proper renaming ceremony for Brigid. Anxious to appease Neptue and the Four Winds, a most humble and sincere ceremony was conducted dockside. At least three bottles of champagne were readied; the assembled crowd listen attentively. Corky began at the bow, casting to the deep the last remnantes of the old name, thanking Neptue for her safe passage, complete with a bubbly offering. Then, coming aft the renaming began - with a fresh bottle, of course. First introducing Brigid to Neptune (with a liquid offering), Corky continued with each of the four winds, while Anna offered the liquid sacrafice to each quadrant. (Would you believe with 34 sailors and at least 8 compasses immediately present, there was more than a little discussion of where North, South, East & West were!) But at last the deed was propperly done and all hands helped finish off the bubbly.

With a little patience you can see part of the ceremony right here. The first file starts with the offering to the North wind, and the second has the end of the ceremony and shows the assembled crowd. First Movie (40 mb) and Second Movie. (9 MB)

Not a bit too soon was all this fun ended. Perhaps the Southwest Wind was angered at not being specifically mentioned, but it drove cold fog over all. The last of the goodies were consumed and stowed so wec ould - what else - walk up to the Oakland Yacht Club for dinner. We filled three tables and lingered til well past nine. Commodore Art Fowler thanked the Oakland YC staff for their hospitality, and welcomed some first-time cruisers and returning old friends. New comers included John & Rosalyn Sutton aboard Sandpiper and Butch Nelson & Sandra Slate from Arete. Don & Beverly Wilson (Rachel Rose have rejoined the Association - Don being one of the first Islander 36 salesmen. The new owners of Pilot, Kevin & Sophia Kiney, with crew Steve, stopped by long enough to say hello and enjoy the Brigid rechristening. After dinner, all fell quickly asleep.

Sunday was cloudy and cool all day - a good day for being lazy or doing projects. Several trips were made to the local great hardware store, both to get stuff and also just to look at their almost endless collection of stuff. As the sign said, "If we don't have it, you don't need it!" Charles & Kathryn changed Mischief's oil. Skipper gave Snowflower some varnish. Rick chased dwon three separate electrical gremlins on Vanishing Animal. Teak got several walks along the grass and the shoreside ponds, and made sure the geese kept out of her way.

But all were ready for dinner early. Snowflower played host, and by 1730 the crowd was squeezing aboard - the count got up to 13, plus Teak under the table. From pizza to burgers, and rice salad to Greek salad, it was all delicious, washed down with copius quantities of vino and some rum & coke, and finished off with Woodbine's ginger cookies. What a treat!

Early to bed made for an easy morning, with boats getting under way around 0930 just as the sun burned off the fog and provided a clear blue sky for everyone's ride home.

Pictures by Dan Knox, Robert Van Mell & Rick Van Mell. In what is probably a first, the only 3 pictures during the Rally were taken by Robert with a cell phone camera and emailed before we even finished. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Rally Route	Last leg, looking aft ...	Rick concentrates ...	Estuary scenery.
All tucked in ...	with flags flying ...	nicely lined up ...	Guests we were ...
Wrong-sider!	Symmetry	Here comes Teak ...	now where's the food?
Stern to ...	Ron relaxes	Corky pours margaritas	Great stuff!
We're here!	Karen's ready	John sutton's got a beverage	Nanci's cookin'
Ready yet?	John will take one	Dan's ready too	Cheers!
Varnish time	Nice afternoon	Welcoming view	Roger & Linda arrive ...
pass ....	and row!	Master Mariner parade ...	tall ketch ...
a yankee? ...	two classics ...	Lynx ...	pretty ...
here is the ...	finale ...	rounding up ...	dropping sail.
fun time ...	Shake, rattle & ...	grill!	Karen's got hot ...
so does John ...	Melissa wants some!	Table secured ...	here comes the load ...
Skipper helps ...	full table ...	dig in!	What else is there?
This is ....	GREAT!	More coming	Happy libation
Don's pouring	Crowd gathers for ...	Corky & Anna ...	to rechristen Brigid
Corky starts ...	and goes on ...	listening crowd ...	offerings to Neptune ...
and with winds ...	Butch & Sandra ...	with Kathryn & Robert	Bowsin does KP
Good times	anything left?	Conference	Last pour ...
getting cool.	Ready for dinner.	Cloudy Sunday sends ...	mixed messages ...
of work or ...	socialize.	Sunday night ...	aboard SNowflower
Teak is waiting ...	for something to fall	Hummm Good!	Can't wait
Ditto.

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