[Rhodes22-list] Rhendezvous Rain-out (nearly) Report

[Mary Lou Troy]

Well as most of you may have guessed, the 2nd annual Rhodes Chesapeake 
Rhendezvous was mostly rained out. Many thanks go to Gil and Tina (and 
Babe) and Tom and Linda who kept it from being a total washout.

Fred and I decided to hold off going to Rock Hall until Saturday morning. 
It had stopped raining when we left home Saturday but it started raining 
more heavily as we approached Rock Hall. The forecast for the weekend was 
not too encouraging but the suicide prevention folks slipped something in 
there about clearing on Sunday. So we pressed on. The rain mostly stopped 
by noon. Gil & Tina showed up mid-afternoon after having taken in some of 
the Chestertown Tea Party. We had a long cocktail hour in Fretless's 
cockpit. Good wine, excellent cheese, crackers, bread and olive oil and 
lots of good talk. Babe stayed in the car but made friends with all the 
locals when Tina took him for a walk. We made plans to sail in the morning. 
If I remember correctly, it rained overnight.

Sunday morning was foggy but the fog lifted early on the Eastern Shore. We 
got a call from Tom saying he had decided not to sail across as Baltimore 
was still fogged in and the forecast was now for more rain. He said that if 
we were still interested in dinner at Waterman's, he and Linda would drive 
over. We made plans to meet later in the afternoon.

Gil called on the radio and we decided to go sailing. I've attached 
pictures of Closing Time so you can see that we really did get out on the 
water. If it wasn't for Babe's life vest and Tina's foulies you might think 
it was black and white photography. It was that gray. Then it got 
grayer..and wetter. We sailed for a couple of hours and even had some nice 
wind but it started to drizzle, then the drizzle got heavier so we headed 
in. Got too busy with the wind and the rain to take more pics but we had a 
rousing sail back to Swan Creek. Only sailed for a total of four and a half 
miles but it was good sailing. Got to use the UPS again on the way out. We 
were really close hauled on the way in and opted for the genoa and ended up 
with it reefed somewhat. Gil followed us in and then went on to Spring 
Cove. He and Tina and Babe decided enough was enough and headed home.

We put the pop-top cover back up and had lunch after hanging our foulies 
from the bimini. The rain eased up and for a few brief minutes you could 
see a bit of blue sky and even the shape of the sun through the clouds. By 
the time out foulies had dried Tom and Linda arrived from Baltimore. We 
chatted a while in Fretless's cockpit and then walked the docks admiring 
the variety of sailboats. Tom was familiar with Swan Creek but hadn't been 
there for a while. He's also very good at identifying boats. We then 
adjourned to Waterman's for a good dinner and more talk. We ate inside. 
Midway through our dinner all the diners outside had to move under the tent 
as it began to rain again.

After dinner Tom & Linda headed back to Baltimore. We headed back to the 
boat. It continued to rain off and on and by 2 a.m Monday morning it was 
pouring. No thunder though and we were warm and dry under the pop-top 
cover. We had originally planned to stay over Monday night but after the 
heavy rain Sunday night into Monday with more rain predicted for Monday, we 
decided to head home. The rains let up around 9 a.m. and we managed to pack 
up the car without getting any wetter.

Those of you who made the decision to stay home can't be faulted for your 
judgement but I was truly amazed at how comfortable we could be under such 
adverse conditions. Between the pop-top cover, the bimini and good foulies 
we shed a lot of water. So now the UPS has finished drying in the basement, 
the cockpit cushions are mostly dry in the garage and the pop-top cover is 
dry and ready to go again. And so are we. Once again we are hoping for sun 
- a dry weekend would be a welcome novelty!
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