Krogen Rendezvous in Solomon’s Island

 October 4 – 18, 2010

 

The Krogen Rendezvous is the most well-organized and FUN event of the year.  Day by day, Krogen boats of all sizes and vintages arrived at Calvert Marina, in Solomon’s Island.  Just before the rendezvous, Roger had to take a 3-day business trip and, as usual, left me on the boat with a list of projects to coordinate with “Scotty the Great” (that’s what I call our #1 boat guru / miracle worker, Scotty Wiley, from Bristol Marine, but I can’t tell him that).  By Thursday, October 7^th, all the Krogens were bow-to-bow and rafted up alongside each other on 3 docks.  (You had to be on your best behavior because you were one fender–width away from your neighbor on each side!)  

 

Nancy and Jeff Taylor, from “Akira”, organized an art project that several of us women participated in.  We painted a compass rose on a canvas floor cloth.  For someone who has done a lot of varnish work, I felt right at home taping off the canvas for each paint color.  The women got to know each other as we worked and helped each other through the project for 2 days.  The weather was spectacular and we were able to do the whole project outside.

 

Another event during the Krogen Rendezvous was the Pet Parade.  Boy dogs were supposed to dress like Elvis and girl dogs like Priscilla Presley.  Louie cooperated as I had to alter the costume we bought him in 8 different places.  It was worth it because Louie won 1^stPlace!  

 

There were presentations and seminars for 2 days of the Rendezvous.  I learned how to set off a flare and also how to use a fire extinguisher to put out a diesel fuel fire.  Both of those were hands-on instruction, and all I can say is that I hope I never have to do either in real life.

 

On Saturday night, there was a dinner and a dance and the theme was Woodstock.  A few days before, Roger and I scoured the area looking for “rolling papers” for a prop for Roger’s Woodstock get-up.  We felt like criminals going into gas stations and convenience stores, asking if they carried rolling papers.  We were in hysterics as Roger rolled a joint out of my oregano!!

 

Everyone’s costumes were fabulous!  One was better than the next!  And it was a riot to see how people could (comfortably!) revert back to the hippy days of the late 60’s and 70’s.  The music was great for dancing and even Karen & Jeff Siegel (“Active Captain”, who did 2 seminars that day) knew the words to all the songs and danced until the band quit.  It seemed like everyone had such a great time – I know Roger and I did – with old friends and new ones.  It was kind of sad to see everyone leave the next morning.  Randy Pickelmann (also owns a Manatee like ours) was our dockmaster and did an incredible job of organizing the mass departure of Krogens on Sunday morning.  He peeled us off each other one-by-one and there was not a scratch on any boat!

 

We stayed at Calvert’s for another week, getting the boat ready for the winter.  We had one final get-together on our boat for Jeanne Bateman’s (Sea Dweller) birthday.  We also went to the Sailboat Show one weekend and the PowerBoat Show the next weekend in Annapolis.

 

On Monday, October 18^th, we left Calvert’s and brought the boat to Spring Cove Marina, also in Solomon’s Island, to have her hauled out of the water and stored for the winter.  It was a sad day for sure to see our boat lifted out of the water and then moved across the parking lot and put on blocks and jack stands.  (Btw, I don’t hyperventilate any more when that happens and I’m not afraid to be on the boat when it’s “on the hard” --  aka “on land”).  

 

As we drove away, we were both quiet, but then we started to plan how we were going to get settled into our Florida home and how we could enjoy being “near the water”, across the street from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.  And of course, we have our 21’ Boston Whaler in Florida, so we are not completely “boat-less”, don’t ya know!  

 

But there’s work to be done on “Karen Anne” this winter to get her ready to go to New York City, up the Hudson River (hopefully without seeing any quick maneuvers like Captain Sully’s!), into Canada and then across the Great Lakes.  Roger and I are pretty sure we won’t complete the Great Loop (get to Michigan City, Indiana) this next summer, but who knows….

 

--To Be Continued in May 2011--

Indy to Florida, and End of Summer in the Chesapeake

 July 30 – October 3, 2010

 

In Indianapolis, we packed up our rented townhouse and organized our goods in storage, and on August 13^th, the moving van pulled away with all of our “land-based” goods.  (I now think in terms of Land vs. Water… Home vs. Boat.)  Our sons, Heath and Travis drove our truck and jet ski down to Florida and Roger and I followed in my car after the movers left.  We moved into our new home in Clearwater and spent a maddening 4 weeks attempting to merge what household goods I hadn’t given away into a house that couldn’t possibly hold all of them.  I was certain that I had gotten rid of all but the bare essentials.  After living on a boat for an entire year, and living with SO LITTLE by comparison, how hard could it be to downsize into 3150 square feet and a 2-car garage!!  I know this downsizing concept is necessary, but I underestimated how difficult it is.  It definitely has to happen in stages.

 

In mid-September, we breathed a sigh of relief when we got back to the boat at the Maryland Yacht Club.  Everything was just as we’d left it, with the exception of my beautiful basil and mint plants that had died.  Oh well.

 

We had about 2-1/2 weeks before we would go to Solomon’s Island for the Krogen Rendezvous (Krogen is the manufacturer of our boat, and other Krogenites get together in Solomons once a year for a rendezvous).  It was almost Fall, and the weather had finally cooled down.  We took a couple of days and went across the Bay to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to Rock Hall.  It was so laid-back, partly because it was after Labor Day, but mostly because that’s the way it is there on the eastern shore.

 

A few days after we returned to our dock at the Maryland Yacht Club, we were under a hurricane watch – Hurricane Nicole.  Of course I asked the question, “Roger, do you think we should go to a hotel?”.  And of course he answered, “No.”  It was a little tenuous because we were on a fixed dock, not a floating dock, which would move up and down with the varying water levels.  At about 6 p.m., the dockmaster paid us a visit and said he might need to turn off the power on the docks because the tide was going to be high around midnight and they were expecting the storm surge to be significant.  I asked him if he could just wait until Grey’s Anatomy was over.  Hey, if I had to ride out another near-hurricane, I didn’t want to miss my show. 

 

It was a bad storm (downgraded to Tropical Storm Nicole) and the water rose so high that most of the docks in the marina were completely submerged.  There would be no way to get off your boat, but luckily our dock was a couple of inches away from the water level at high tide.  Roger checked our dock lines every ½ hour, raising them on the pilings as the water level rose.  He helped our neighbor adjust his lines around 11:30 p.m.  I was scared that he was going to slip off the dock and fall in so I kept my eyes on him every second until he got back on our boat.  The wind and sheets of rain were fierce.  Fortunately, we dodged that bullet once again!  

 

In early October, we left the Maryland Yacht Club behind and went once again to the Eastern Shore – Kent Narrows, in Tilghman Island, MD.  The Chesapeake Bay was beautiful – early Fall is the best time to cruise there.  There was quite a bit of freighter traffic, so Roger kept us out of the main shipping channel, but on a course parallel to it.  We walked around Kent Narrows – there were only a couple of restaurants, but it was very peaceful.  We walked a couple of miles to explore and found a nice place for an afternoon coffee – oops, I guess I mean cocktail – break. 

 

Roger got us up before daybreak the next morning because he knew more weather was coming down the Chesapeake Bay and we had a long run to make it to Solomon’s Island that day.  About halfway across the bay, the weather and the waves kicked up, but fortunately the wind was on our aft so it wasn’t as bad as the day we came out of Tangier Island.  We arrived at Calvert Marina in Solomons and were greeted by an exodus of turbocharged racing boats.  We had seen these boats at a boat race in Michigan City, Indiana just before we started the Great Loop in 2009 – they were loud and it was fun to see them again.  There were some big bucks floating by us!