Cruisin’ to Clipper

The Bayview Boat Club was out in force the weekend before last for our first cruise-in of 2009. We have a cruise every month (check out our 2009 schedule, and while we usually cruise to another club on the Bay, this event was a raft-up at Clipper Cove. This was my first cruise as Fleet Captain and I was worried that only a few boats would show up. By late Saturday, every time a new boat came our way, I thought, "Oh no, not another boat!" But the old adage ‘The more the merrier’ really held true!

Many of the participants were from our core of monthly cruisers but several had never been on a cruise before. Some had only planned to stay an hour but ended up spending the night. Cold ones were abundant, as was a variety of wines. And though the food wasn’t officially organized, no one went hungry. There was chicken, steak, sushi, salads, cakes, appetizers — plenty of grub.

It was pretty tough to track all the boats that came and went over the weekend, but I can say that 18 boats spent Saturday night on the hook. The smallest boat was 25 feet and the two largest were 43 feet. Averaging the beam of the boats to 10 feet, that made our raft-up about half the length of a football field! I can tell you that it isn’t easy to climb from boat to boat over that distance — I felt it the next day! But visiting and celebrating the start of the new cruising year with old and new friends alike was worth every aching muscle.