The Sailing Club, Inc.

Memorial Day Weekend May 2006

A Salute to the Soldiers & Sailors of WWII If you left New Jersey at 1:00 or before, it was a ‘Milk Run’ to our fleet location at Haven Charters in Rock Hall, MD. Of course, most of us left after that and it was backed up like Omaha Beach on D-Day. Patty & I arrived at 7:15, in time to hear the Andrews Sisters singing country western on Wind Venture (Julio Menendez and his all girl crew). After Bob DuBois finished his boat inspection of Jenny Ann, the flagship of the fleet, it was off to Waterman’s Mess for chow. Once in our bunks, we heard rap music coming from someplace near – how come it was louder below than on deck? Good thing we didn’t call in an air strike on the boat next to us, turned out it was our stereo! Those that missed the 5:00 AM reveille found the showers packed at 7:30. ATL Barbara made sure that all boats had song sheets, Annapolis points of interest & history and a trivia quiz. After the fleet briefing at 9:00, our convoy left at 10:00. Jenny Ann had to make a stop at the pump-out since the new hands in the maintenance yard had filled the holding tank with fresh water. Our sail to the mouth of the Severn at Annapolis was not uneventful. Jenny Ann managed to get a wrap in the middle of the jib and no amount of pulling would free it. Sandra Cardo with Tom Davies & crew watched intently as the jib sheets were removed and everything straightened out. Finally, we were off to our rendezvous with the rest of the fleet in Clements Creek. Other than this little mishap with the jib, the day proved to be a perfect sailing day.  With winds at 10-15 knots, most of the sail was a broad reach We (Jenny Ann) arrived later than scheduled and found the fleet hanging out on various buoys or at anchor – waiting for us to drop a hook. After some discussion and our resistance to dropping anchor in a grassy bottom, Jenny Ann tied up alongside the moored Sandra Cardo. With intelligence from the local resistance, it was decided that the mooring could hold all units of our fleet and we were joined by Wind Venture (who had succeeded in anchoring - twice) and Minerva, with Steve Krakauer. Minerva had left a perfectly good mooring to anchor next to Wind Venture. We were joined by a member of the local resistance; Wings and its crew of Don Gilmore and Lois McKenzie rounded out our fleet of five. After a peace offering of beer to Steve and Julio, we all settled down for SPAM in its infinite variety of recipes. These consisted of pin wheels, dips (seven layers and less), grape leaf wraps. SPAM spread, caramelized shish kabob, etc. And, surprisingly, it was all GOOD! All recipes were judged to be winners, but alas, there were only four available prizes of homemade (Jersey) blueberry jam to be distributed. Prizes of Big Band CDs were later given to several crew members who epitomized the trip’s theme in their WWII attire. A 40’s sing-a-long followed at dusk and lasted until all the flash lights had failed. Barbara Humphries, the Assistant Trip Leader had made 24 song books, 45 pages each. We sang along with the likes of Kate Smith, Bing Crosby, Sammy Kaye, Ethel Merman, the Andrews Sisters & more on CD’s she had purchased. On Sunday morning, we broke up the raft around 10:30 and proceeded down the Severn. Jenny Ann, following a secret set of orders known only to the Trip Leader, Larry Sherwood, proceeded to take core samples and depth measurements to the starboard side of green “1S”. This was done using the strategically placed wing keel. Further samples were taken on the wrong side of “HP” off Horn Point and the entrance to Port Annapolis Marina. At that time, we noticed the proliferation of Sea Tow and Tow BoatUS vessels in the area. Vultures waiting for less experienced mariners! While Steve K and Tom D. forced their crews to continue maneuvers, the rest of the fleet, at the urging of their murderous crews, decided to go to their slips and allow shore leave. Don Gilmore practiced a private man overboard routine while at the dock. Mary Ann was a witness and tells the story as follows: “He fell off backwards, holding onto the life lines making it looks as though he was slowly lowering himself into the water, then, legs in the water up to his knees, he reached over and grabbed the spring line of the boat next to his with his left hand and, still holding onto the life line on his boat, slowly sank into to his waist………where (from my perspective) he then let go and completely went into the water and began running his hand along the hull of his boat (again from my perspective, a hull check)….not a vain attempt to find something to hold onto.  Then he did a few forward strokes and swam to the stern of his boat, where he disappeared from my view.” We caught the 3:30 water taxi and arrived in downtown Annapolis for some shopping and town painting. Some of us discovered Pussers located at city dock and their Pain Killers. Barbara Humphries, Cecilia Sweeney and Mary Ann Gordon took a land taxi directly to the Middleton Tavern, where they downed several oyster shooters followed by 18 of the tasty bivalves (sans the “shooters”).The crews gathered at Buddies for dinner at 6:30. The restaurant was noisy and rowdy – due to a bunch of sailors from the Sailing Club. Between the 9:00 water taxi and local land taxis, we all made it back to the USO Canteen at Port Annapolis’ Pavilion. There, amid banners and flags, we were entertained by Bob (Steve Krakauer) Hope and the Andrews Sisters – Patty (Barbara), Laverne (Mary Ann) and Maxine (Cecilia). Several celebratory announcements were made: Scott and Doreen Nelson celebrating their recent nuptials; Julio and Pam celebrating their 22nd wedding anniversary; and Joel Mack celebrating the Big Five-Oh! Despite his advanced years, Joel had no problem blowing out the numerous candles on the patriotically decorated cake as we all sang “Happy Birthday.” The Andrews Sisters sang “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” accompanied by a very talented bugler (Larry Sherwood). After Bob Hope’s hilarious monologue and interview, the show’s finale featured “I Want to Linger” and included a simulated strip tease by the Andrews Sisters. MaryAnn/Laverne further entertained the troops by providing an eye-witness report of Don Gilmore’s gymnastics earlier in the day, as he performed an unexpected backwards dive off the dock. There were no prizes given for the trivia quiz, but Steve was impressive with a list of more than 55 movies reflecting the WWII theme. The most obscure was “Sherlock Holmes Goes To Washington”. The evening ended with some dancing to the Big Band music. Monday morning dawned bright and clear – at Port Annapolis. Minerva left at 10:00 and returned shortly after reporting heavy fog in the bay. Wings had left earlier and had many close encounters with raiding power boats – operating as if they had radar. The crews waited out the delayed mission by swimming, biking, reading or doing maintenance on their boats. Noon was the zero hour and the intrepid fleet set out for their home port of Rock Hall. Jenny Ann continued her top secret survey of various sandy shoals – one just after pumping out in Rock Hall, another after passing Wind Venture to the shallow side of “G7” (all those moored boats must have had center boards). The boats were turned over to fleet maintenance and the crews were on their way home by 5:30 – facing an uncertain path. The NJ Turnpike was closed north bound at Exit 3.