ARG Meeting
02 April 2011 | Back in Georgetown, Monument Beach
Jill
First, let me apologize for the blank entry. This time when I wasn't able to send my posting I did not make the mistake of retyping it and having a double posting sent. When I finally got a
clear channel I saw that it wasn't sending the blog entry. So I just clicked on the sailblogs window and clicked send again. And it sent a blog with just the location and author because
that's pre-filled in the format. I still don't know where what I type in this window gets stored or why the last time it was still there and this time it is not.
Anyway, there wasn't too much wind today, so we did make it to Georgetown and I did add in the photos for the blog. We also took all the laundry to town. Bud made a trip back with the
laundry and the computer and brought back the water jugs. He'd again made an early morning trip with them, so had already brought aboard 15 gallons today. This was now his thrid trip
back because he bought some groceries and took those back while I was doing the laundry and going on-line. On the fourth and final trip back for the day there was Bud, Fuzzy, me and
17 gallons of water. It proved to be too much for the 9.8 HP Tohutsu. Bud couldn't get the dinghy up on plane. He slowed down once and we did the whole water over the bow thing
again. This time he bailed us out as we went along. It wasn't that wavy, but it was enough that without planing we were splashed continually. We were all soaked by the time we got back
to the boat. Happily it's hot enough these days that it felt good. Fuzzy and I rinsed off using the cockpit shower and Bud went down and used the shower in the the aft cabin. I tried to
keep my clothes on until they dried, but gave up and changed and hung all our rinsed clothes on the lifelines for the rest of the day. They still didn't quite dry, I'll have to hang them out
again tomorrow.
Towards the end of the day I saw another boat coming towards the anchorage that looked a lot like a Norseman. I got out the binoculars to see if I could tell, but they ended up coming
right by us, so I called out to them as they passed and they confirmed it was a Norseman. This is only the second one we've seen, the first was Miclos III with Tisch and Ellen at Stuart.
We'd wanted to see them again out here, but never had.
Meanwhile, Bud and I were getting ready to go ashore for an ARG meeting. This was announced on the local cruisers VHF net. ARG is "Alcohol Research Group" and the meeting is a
BYOB and munchie to share get together held at irregular intervals on beaches around the harbor. So we prepared our stuff and headed ashore. On the way we went down to check out
the Norseman. It's Barefootin' from Charleston, SC and Bob, Francie and boat dog Kippin were in the cockpit so we got to talk. They had sailed with Tisch and Ellen and another
Norseman. At the time Miclos had emailed us hoping we could make it to where they were, we figured 4 Norseman together on the east coast would be a record. Alas, we didn't make it,
but at least we're meeting Barefootin' now. They were not going to the ARG meeting, having just gotten in from Long Island. We chatted with them and made plans to meet again before
we left the harbor, then Bud and I went ashore.
By now we were late, but of course you can't really be late for something like this so we just joined the group. Since everyone comes by dinghy, there is much less alcohol research than
the name implies. It is a nice time where cruisers get together and talk boats and weather and cruising and anything else that comes up. We met some folks we'd seen here and there
before and set some tentative plans to leave together this week to go down to Long Island. If that happens it will be the first time since leaving Wilson that we have traveled from one port
to another with other boats. It would be nice, I hope it happens. I took a photo of the ARG folks at sunset that I'll post on the blog the next time I get real internet access.