Dog Day Afternoon
It was a beautiful, sunny, but of course hot August afternoon on Saturday, August 19 as 9 boats rafted up alongside Blue Moon in Eagle Cove to spend the afternoon sampling gourmet hot dogs (40 of them to be exact), share side dishes and sailing stories, and down a LOT of beverages. Starlight Express with Diane and Joe Jackins and Tony Torres aboard were the first to tie up, followed quickly by Dave and Denise Pirone in their Scout powerboat, Dick and Dretta Peterson aboard April Fool, Wally and Jean Gribbin in their Boston Whaler, Clent Lowe in his unique little powerboat, prospective members Joe and Sally Morris aboard their perfectly kept Bristol 35.5 Sara, Dod Poe and his son Henry and friend Everett on his powerboat Blackbird, Peggy and Ed Poe aboard Ravenous, and finally Jim and Janet Ganeyhill, friends of the Jackins who sailed down from the Bush River aboard Snow Dance, their beautiful Cabo Rico 38.
In the late afternoon, several boats broke off to head home, leaving Starlight Express, April Fool, and Snow Dance still tied up to Blue Moon. After a nice sunset, and anticipating a quiet night, a look at the weather radar showed (what else?) a line of thunderstorms due to hit around 11:00 PM. Prudence, good seamanship, and common sense all told us to break up the raft, but Blue Moon has a new windlass, new chain, new chain snubber, and a new 85 lb. Mantus anchor that we wanted to test out. So we sat with some trepidation as approximately 100,000 pounds of boats hung on the single anchor, keys in ignitions, lines ready to be let loose, and room downwind of us with no boats to hit. Luckily, the storms split a bit, the worst going north and south of us, so we only received a little rain, and wind to 25 knots with some gusts over 30. Several powerboats dragged (no surprise there…) and at least one sailboat as well, but we did not move as we held our breath. The storms cooled the night down wonderfully, and we ended up sleeping under a blanket! A great ending to a fun day on the Magothy.