Bih '08

[standers]

Made the long haul back from Inner Harbor East to Inner Harbor - took us a solid four minutes or so!

Had a great time as expected and enjoyed meeting new and seeing familiar faces.

Lots of talk about many getting together later in the year at Still Pond and we'll work on that as well. Next up is something about seven drinks at seven bars in Annapolis next weekend. I need to learn more about that.

 

[Ryan]

Next up is something about seven drinks at seven bars in Annapolis next weekend. I need to learn more about that.

Yes... please tell me more!:smt038

Oh and you win, you must be closer... it took me 6 mins!

 

[fc3]

The photographer should not go without special mention.

Gary on the chair being told to get down.

Still up on the chair

John and Kendra checking to see if their picture of Gary photographing the private party came out.

Frank, since you didn't show up with Impulse III, Gary talked me into a alternate. We'll see how that works out.

Best regards.
Frank

 

[gredmer]

That private party kind of resembles Billy Joel and his new wife.

 

[RiverGalsMan]

OK, here's the pre-departure drill from Sunday:

Crawl down into the engine room, check the oil in the engines and generator. I'm hot now. Come up for air. Gonna put a little water in the tanks. Go find the deck fill key. Open the deck fill. Oops, the hose is still connected to the city water inlet. Jump off to shut down the spigot. Climb back on and disconnect the hose. Stick the hose into the deck fill. Jump off and turn on the hose. Now have jet propulsion on the hose end. Turn off the spigot. Go find nephew to hold hose. Turn on spigot. Have other nephew read the water level. "Tell me when it reaches about one quarter." "Where do I read that?" "In the water level display." Where's that?" "Right next to the waste level display." "Where's that?" Give up; close enough. Put away the hose. Load the dinghy on the swim platform and tie it down. Crap! I forgot to undo the shore power. Can't get the cords into the storage without tilting the dinghy away. Go find a nephew to hold the dinghy. Hold on... gotta start the generator while I'm in there. "Can you please move so I can reach the electrical panel? Thank you." Shut down shore power breakers. "What happened to the Nintendo?" Switch power to the generator. Put away electrical cords. Re-tie the dinghy. Gotta start the engines. Need to turn on the ignition keys. "Can you please move so I can reach the electrical panel? Thank you." Climb up to the bridge. Ahhh, cool breeze, but not enough. Start the engines. Start the electronics. Climb down from the bridge. "Uncle Larry, are you hot?" Remove the fenders. Re-tie the boat so we can undo and retrieve the lines from on the boat. Here comes a wake, there goes some gelcoat. Say goodbye to folks. Get picture taken while wearing sweaty shirt.

 

[Four Suns]

and that's a perfect Kodak Moment.

 

[Nehalennia]

..no tongue shots this year?

 

[CJ Martin]

Looks like everyone had a GREAT TIME !!! We are soooooo sorry we had to miss the festivities. Thanks for posting the pictures Gary, they made me feel even worse than I did about missing BIH...What a guy!

Frank, the wife finally agreed it was time to move up so we brought the checkbook...however it seems Jim just got a really clean 450DA in on brokerage. We are going to check her out in person. We actually know the boat, we had rafted up to that 450DA way back when we had our 260DA.

Oil burners, here I come! :thumbsup:

























(just kidding Frank...Stephanie tried hard to sell us your boat, but we resisted)

 

[ImpulseIII]

And I was just loading my 9mm to track you down ~!!You are not a nice person, BUT, We really missed seeing you, Shell and all the rest of the Searay Ner-do-wells. The pictures are really great.

 

[CJ Martin]

We are safe and sound at St Michael's Marina...thanks for showing me the way to the narrows guys. :smt001

BiH '08 was a great time! Reconnected with folks from last year, met a bunch of new folks, and I feel bad I didn't spend more time getting to know some of those. The shirts are great, we ran off the blow boaters, and we had a bunch of great food. Special thanks to Michele for her mini crab-puff things! Also Stan went above and beyond with the nametags. Much better than last years!

I am still feeling all the beef I ate last night...seems now like it may have been an entire cow (minus the lips of course). It really was something. Also a foreshadowing of the first CSR engagement party! :smt043

BiH '09! Gas prices be damned!

-CJ

 

[jrirvine1]

What a great time we had with everyone and we are now looking forward to other get togethers.

A special thanks to the human fenders that assisted with our arrival docking.

Just had the pleasure of running back to the narrows with Full Circle and what a great day for a ride!

The dinner out with everyone with all the “man food” was excellent and I’m guessing will be a tradition at future gatherings.

Our dog no longer has the runs, now she is constipated – must have been all the chicken wings someone brought.

 

[Four Suns]

Geez... that was really well done CJ...

 

[Skip]

The best part of the departures was the older, rather infirm gentleman with the odd, rambling gait who kept untying lines and handing them to three year olds, Golden Retrievers, or ragboters, then snapping pictures. I do not recall his name, but he kept mumbling something about a bad alternator on his port engine. He arrived really late as well, via minivan. He had an Obama '08 campaign pin, as I recall.

All seriousness aside, we got back to Quantico today around 3:00 p.m. We left Spring Cove Marina at 9:45. The Chesapeake and the Potomac were very calm. The middle Potomac was like glass--you could have water skied on it today. An hour after we arrived at Spring Cove last night we got hammered by a thunderstorm--not a lot of wind, but a lot of lightning and thunder.

In the 10 days we were out we logged 446 miles, visited some great places, met some fantastic people, and we had a great and safe time. We have put about 65 hours on the 420DA this season.
We are in for BIH 09.
I just hope Four Suns is running by then.
Recomissioning bridge boats must be an extraordinarily complex and time consuming task.

regards
Skip

 

[RiverGalsMan]

Jim, it was Gary's wings that put her over the top.

 

[Ryan]

Recomissioning bridge boats must be an extraordinarily complex and time consuming task.

regards
Skip

Maybe for some...:smt043

Skip, Glad you got back!

 

[RiverGalsMan]

Or should I say "closed" the deal.

 

[Bridog]

I just hope Four Suns is running by then.
Recomissioning bridge boats must be an extraordinarily complex and time consuming task.

regards
Skip

Time to update the poll. "how much will you spend on fuel in 2008" Your not doing so bad Gary :thumbsup:

 

[fc3]

That private party kind of resembles Billy Joel and his new wife.

Looks like Gary has a new career as a paparazzi of washed-up celebrities. Maybe he'll run into Madonna in New England.

Best regards,
Frank C

 

[JeffM]

We had a great time, too. It was good to renew friendships and meet so many new friends.

Thanks very much to Tim for organizing it, Stan for the nametags, Amy for the T-shirts, and Jim for the drinks and coozies. The marina was an excellent choice…good location and the party dock was a nice place for Saturday’s get-together and to hang out the rest of the weekend.

The Sunday dinner was a lot of fun...I second the motion to do it again.

We're looking forward to BIH '09!

 

[Converse48]

First of all, it was great to meet everyone! And thanks to all for making the trip. The weather was great and the company even better.

OK, here is my account.

It started Friday night in Rock Hall, where we met CJ, Michele and Ryan on Full Circle who had stopped at our marina for the night. A red sky at night foreshadowed a great weekend:

CJ got a great slip where Full Circle was fully encircled by sailboats:

Saturday morning, we took the 1 hour cruise over to Baltimore, where some folks already had arrived. Shortly after we got there, Ryan showed up in Sea Drive:

And then Stan showed up in Glory Daze.... not really sure what good that dinghy is going to do him while he's backed into that slip, but it sure looks cool!

Skip had already been there a day before on Truly Blessed...

The drinking began almost immediately. Here is Ryan, who was joined by Todd Rebbel, enjoying a beer with CJ:

Then one lonely sailboat crashed the party...

The sailboat people thought they were going to steal our party tent...

But we scared them away with our loud rock and roll music.

Then I noticed that Larry's wife Stephanie has a bigger lens than me. I hate when that happens!

Speaking of Larry, here's what he looks like with a dry shirt, and Jeff is looking sporty with his Sea Ray Owners Club hat:

Then, I think I captured the precise moment when the River Gals where lying to Gary and Susie about how far of a walk it was to the chicken wing place:

So then we generally partied and hung out on the dock and under the tent...

And of course, later that evening the stogey crowd did their thing, led by their ring leader Stan. (I don't think the teenage girl was having a stogey):

The next morning, we found a hand floating just under the surface of the water. Hey, it's the big city, what do you expect:

Of course, it wasn't a hand, but a surgical glove, which I arranged (as seen in a picture on Gary's post) to let Ryan and Amy know that Sea Drive was number one in our book!

Thanks again to Jim and his crew for their hospitality... any takers on Impulse III?

Again, we really had a great time and look forward to continuing to see everybody out and about and on CSR.