October Cruising

The Fall Cruise has come and gone, and is written up elsewhere in this issue. We have managed to do a good amount of sailing in September and October, and the boat looks as if she is ready for her winter rest. To top it all off we know the end of the sailing season is nigh when we start having conversations about the February seminars. My boat comes out early in November, and I plan on taking the mast down this year for the first time. We shall see how that goes.

Other than the Fall Cruise, I cannot let the Queenstown Race go unmentioned as it is one of the best weekend cruises of the year. We had a great showing, with plenty of kids all having a good time. The only unusual excitement on the raft up was Austin Williams (4yrs) going backwards off the foredeck immediately after his mother had told him to be careful - do they do that on purpose? He was hauling on a line, and went over backwards much to his surprise. His lifejacket did what it was meant to do, and popped him face up still wondering what had happened! Mike Niklich without any hesitation jumped right in after him. Half way through the process he decided that jumping in and swamping the little guy was probably going to create too much consternation. He ended up hang on with one hand and grabbing with the other while all available people tried to haul them back aboard. It is much easier to haul a four year old aboard than a 40 year old! If you have not had a look at the pictures on the blog, they are pretty good. My favorite is the one showing three of the mothers in the fleet AFTER we had taken all the kids to the raft up party - they ended up having their own party all alone on an eight boat raft up. (http://racing.alberg30.org/). Next year for those that can make the Chester River for a weekend, consider attending as a cruiser.

We have the Die Hard Cruise coming up on November 7th hosted by Mike and Trish Lehman on Broad Creek off the Magothy River. Please let them know if you are going to make it so they can plan accordingly.

As we put the boats away, remember one of the benefits of the Association is there are many people to call on with questions, or to get a hand getting things squared away for winter. If you have questions or need a hand, let people know through the Alberg 30 mailing list - you are sure to get plenty of responses.

See you at picture night on December 6th at PSA.

NOTE - The Racing Blog site has a number of good pictures related to this event - just follow the link at the top of this page.