Fleet Captain's Report

Halloween cruise to Winslow

For my first official Fleet Captain’s Cruise I learned a good lesson. I became aware that after my passionate plea at the general meeting on October 13th for sign-ups for those who would be attending and for those who would enter the mac & cheese contest I would have to wait until October 27th for the flood gates to open. On the 13th I only had one confirmed entrant for the bake-off and a few maybes. By the 27th after the week-end weather report was in, the entries soared to 14 confirmed and the party was on! Also confirmed were many boats and kids that would be attending. Lesson learned. Be patient and good things will happen.

Friday’s hosted Fleet Captain cocktail party was very well attended and some very good Puu Puu’s were shared. As a side note, Carol Voegeli mentioned to me that it was a nice tie in using Puu Puu because of George and Nancy’s Hawaiian theme for their Commodore year. I had to admit to Carol I used this term because I couldn’t spell the other word referring to shared snacks. But in retrospect I plan on using Puu Puu for the rest of the year!

While Friday’s weather was perfect and when waking up to bright sunshine on Saturday morning I thought the Halloween gods were looking down on us. Alas, the clouds moved in and by 10:00 AM the rain started and never stopped. However, the show went on and Jim and Karen VanWagenen did a super job with all the kids and the activities they had planned. The only downfall was that we had to cancel trick or treating on the docks. I don’t think the kids hardly noticed. To Jim and Karen I want to thank you for all your hard work.

Around 4:00 PM the cooks were getting ready. Ovens were fired. Baking dishes were heating up and it looked like this was actually going to happen! It came off almost like it was planned! By 5:30 the fantastic 14 (grand 14?) dishes were on display and tasting and voting began. Dan and Marilyn Wilshin were counting votes, people were stuffing themselves with carbs and all had plenty to eat. After all the votes were counted the winners were announced. 1st place Elin Storey, 2nd place (after heavy lobbying of the voters) Jim Hess, 3rd place Vice Commodore Don Wilson. Special thanks to Dan and Marilyn for all their help.

Two other thank you’s. Barbara and Eric Wood for the help with decorations and to Carol Hess and Carolyn Barton for a really terrific job with the raffle sales.

Thanks to the following sponsors for their donations: Dave Kutz, Doc’s Marina Grill, Blanchard Auto Electric, Ballard Oil, Carolyn Barton, Yacht Performance Center, Commodore George Austin, Morrison’s, Russell Fastening, Tim DeCook.

Steve Weiss
Fleet Captain

P.S. I’ll Close this first chapter of my year as Fleet Captain with these observations: Eric Wood’s one year undefeated streak ended and Jess Hill (self professed as one of Americas top chefs) has not won in the last two competitions. I will also try to remember to turn off the ovens before locking up for the night.