The Refugees of Clipper Cove

Taking our own advice, some of the Latitude editorial staff could be found in Clipper Cove on Thanksgiving in the middle of a raft-up of revelers. At its peak, the raft-up played host to six boats, 14 people and one cat. It was definitely a Thanksgiving for the record books, with everything from the ubiquitous turkey and stuffing to fresh tuna and quinoa!

Ours wasn’t the only raft-up in Clipper Cove. The Ranger 33 E-Z ‘n Heaven and the Vilm 38 Storyteller formed the platform from which a gaggle of whacky partygoers consumed ‘mass quantities of turkey’ . . . and if we’re not mistaken, beer.

Anchored nearby were two slightly more reserved raft-ups from Bay View Boat Club. We were a little jealous of their menu, which included lobster.

The one thing you don’t want to do when rafting up for a weekend is ignore the weather forecast. No matter how benign Clipper Cove usually is, wind storms out of the north — such as we had on Saturday — have a tendency to whip rollers into the cove, making for a very bad night’s sleep.

Once a decision was made to break up our raft-up, the boats peeled off from one another, and the ‘Refugees of Clipper Cove’ ran with tails between their legs to Alameda’s Marina Village. Known for his hospitality — and for having one helluva singing voice — harbormaster Alan Weaver found room for the bedraggled remains of our Thanksgiving raft-up.

Comfortably tucked into spacious slips and basking in the warmth of Alameda’s sunny climate, we debriefed each other on what went right and, more importantly, what we did wrong. Though several valuable — but, thankfully, not costly — lessons were learned, everyone agreed that it was a fantastic and exciting weekend.

Maybe next year we’ll aim for slightly more boring.