This weekend Mariola attended the 24th Annual  Morgan Invasion at The St. Pete Yacht Club at Pass-A-Grille. It was a decent event with about 14 boats turning out. The Saturday race began about 11:00 and Mariola finished sometime around 3:00. Winds were from the south and very light in the a.m. This made the first, downwind leg slow going. Around noonish the wind picked up and came around to the Southwest. This made for a great close hauled second leg and beam/close reach on the final third leg. Mariola placed third in her class – which I think was made up of 5 boats. It was tight for the top 3 spots – with only 45 seconds between first and third place.

Special thanks to Antony of Bliss, Ross_in_Tampa and CannonBall for crewing on Saturday. Great job and I really appreciate it fellas – had a great time.

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The 24th Annual Morgan Invasion will begin May 8th and go until the 10th. It’s hosted this year by The St. Petersburg Yacht Club at Pass-A-Grille. A long time ago we owned a Morgan 24 and wanted to be a part of the invasion, but were never able to make it. Now, almost 10 years later, we’re Morgan owners again and we’re going! There’s a bit of weird Karma-irony that goes along with the Morgan Invasion.  Here’s the brief tale.

Two years ago we moved from Palm Harbor to Gulfport. One day I learned that the 2008 Morgan Invasion was going to be held 3 miles from us – over in Treasure Island. My wife and I hopped in the car and headed over to check it out. When we arrived, the race had just ended and most of the Invasioners were eating. We walked the docks and amazingly, spotted our old Morgan 24. A fellow from Port Charlotte area had bought, restored and raced her in the Invasion. He won second place. After talking to him and a few others, we got the bigger boat bug and were told of a “real deal” on a neglected 1970 ish Morgan 32.  The next day I called the owner and went to the see the boat. It was in very rough shape. I reluctantly offered him half of what he was asking – this boat almost needed to be given away, it was going to cost so much to bring it back. He turned me down, but the hunt was on.

After lots of time on www.yachtworld.com I found a prospect down in Sarasota – not a Morgan. The broker met us at the boat and we checked her out. It was o.k., had some suspicious chain plates and we said weren’t interested. Then he said “I have a nice 1980 Morgan 32 up in Madeira Beach”. We went to look at it, The Admiral loved it and now we’re going to the 2009 Morgan Invasion.

AND, of course the owner of the neglected, 1970 ish Morgan called me a few weeks later saying he would accept my offer. I hope that old boat found a good home.

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To celebrate the mind-numbing fact that I will achieve 40 this coming April 4th, we are planning a sail trip to Egmont Key. Here’s the link to the official Sailmonster event. Any and all are invited to watch me drink myself stupid during the day and through the night. Mariola should arrive sometime around noon and will spend the night at anchor. We’ll be monitoring VHF Channel 8. If weather is bad we may go up the Manatee river. The blue jug will be by my side.

This Saturday, December 7th, brought Strictly Sail to our own back yard here in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Strictly Sail boat show had partnered with the powerboat show this year and though this disturbed my inner sailor, I knew it made financial sense. The show turned out to be very enjoyable, well organized and there were a lot of great vendors showing their boating gear. The new Mahaffey Theather location was, I think, better than last year’s – more room and a nice dock layout.

Some Sailmonsters Having Fun

This was my third year at the show, so taking off my shoes to climb down into half million dollar boats has lost some allure. It’s nice to dream, but after awhile, it makes me feel like I should go home and grind some gears so I can afford one of these beauts. Our main objective of the show was to be in the gates for the much anticipated Latitudes and Attitudes (now Seafaring) Cruiser’s Party. Every year Bob Bitchin hosts the cruiser’s party on Saturday night – what a blowout. Get to the show before it closes at 7:00 p.m. and you’re instore for all the beer, pizza and fun you can injest.

Sailmonster had a strong turnout of members this year  – some of who sailed up from Sarasota and camped out in the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina. The overnighters reported the marina staff couldn’t have been more friendly or accomodating. My wife and I live about 5 miles away so we arrived via dry-land cart.

Let’s talk party entertainment – Eric Stone’s music expresses sailing and the caribbean lifestlye better than anyone. He always seems to strike a chord that puts me in the mood for drinkin’ and dancin’. If you ever have the opportunity to see them, or attend a Lats and Att’s party – just do it! A little rain squall threatened to shut everything down this night, but the band covered their equipment, the party-goers ducked inside and after about 10 minutes of rain, the party kicked off and never looked back.

Mr. Bob Bitchin, thank you again for a very memorable, outstanding get together with fellow sailors. I know you’ve been putting on these events for quite awhile, they must be a ton of work – I hope you never tire of it. They have created great memories and friends that will never be forgotten.

Below is a quick video of our group at the party.
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This Saturday the Sarasota Sailing Squadron hosted the Sailmonster 2008 Poker Run -  A Wind Only Deal. Eight sailboats sailed (no motors) a course of five stations to pick up one card at each station. Some boats had more than one “player” aboard, so they picked up more than one card. The event had perfect weather with a lot of wind – a great day for sailing. Weather Girl took top prizes with the winning hand, and everyone had a fantastic time. I worked one of the stations, handing out cards and had a blast just watching the sailors enjoying the competition.

My Three Sons

Most importantly all proceeds went to Toys For Tots. Along with the Poker Run there was a silent auction, pirate show with a real blackpowder cannon, rum bar and a really good band. Timing prevented me from sailing down Mariola, so I drove to the squadron to help out however I could (have fun too) and brought some rum for the bar. When I arrived, I was impressed at how much effort had been put into this event. Sailmonster and crew really knocked this one out of the park. They all deserve many cudos and hopefully had a restful Sunday.

Unfortunately, my new video/cam crapped out and I have hardly any pictures or video of the event worth posting. Early on in the day, I left the camera on record mode and even with the LCD screen in the closed position it kept recording. I have over an hour of audio from dropping off the card station boats. Bummer. As soon as Sailmonster gets their pics and vid up I’ll post a link.

This was a first class event and I looking forward to the next one. Again, many, many thanks to Sailmonster and everyone that helped for giving us all such a great day of fun on and off the water.

The fun begins December 4th – Strictly Sail! Sailboats, sailboats and not a powerboat around – wait just a damn minute…. crap. So now it’s Strictly Fail, but hopefully it will still be a great time because Latitudes and Attitudes (now Seafaring) will be holding their traditional cruisers party on Saturday night. Beer, pizza and live music. Last year was nothin’ but fun. Maybe a few powerboaters can be rounded up and gibbeted for added entertainment. We can only hope – see you there!

SCHEDULE
December 4-December 7, 2008
Thurs. Dec 4, 12 noon – 6pm
Fri. Dec 5, 10am – 7pm
Sat. Dec 6, 10am – 7pm
Sun. Dec 7, 10am – 5pm

ADMISSION
Adults               $10.00
Children (6-15)     $5.00
Under 6             FREE
SPECIAL OFFER: $2 Off  each ticket purchased online

With all the busy work lately, more than a week has gone by before I’ve had a chance to report on the big raft-up out in Boca Ciega Bay.  Here’s to getting caught up!

The Mariola crew (Cannonball, Hornblower and myself) hit the water around 1:00. Wind was blowing hard from the North, North-West at a good 15 knots. None of the other rafters were in Boca Ciega yet so we did a little headsail only sailing back and forth in the bay.  It was great. I think a few times we had the boat near hull-speed when the wind really kicked. It’s too bad words or pictures can’t capture the feeling of being pulled toward the wind with nothing but the sound of the water all around you. You would have loved it.

A little bit of planning and some fortunate timing put us close to Structure C right when Sailmonster and Rossintampa were coming through. We met up with them, came about, and then followed them back up to the bay near the Gulfport Casino where we dropped anchor. We were nomiated as the anchor boat an deployed every fender available as the other two rafted up to us. Rossintampa is much better looking in person than his picture suggests, it was nice to meet him, and everyone on the Noankor and BonaFide boats as well.

Evening settled in and we grilled out, ate, drank, ate, drank, drank – great time. We all saluted the beautiful Boca Ciega Bay sunset, drank and talked for quite awhile, finally hitting the bunks about midnight. Here’s a little Sailmonster video to explain the evening events:

Obviously the next morning was a little slow moving. I made a couple pots of coffee/mud to wake up all rafters so they could take off for home. Most of them had a 5 hour sail ahead of them and it was now blowing about 20+ knots. Everyone later reported they made it home o.k., throbbing head and all. Can’t wait for the next one.

The Poker Run is over but you can still get a cool shirt from the event and benefit Toys For Tots! Here’s the link to the auction. You can still help families in need.

Gecko Fest 2008, two words – humid & wet. It rained, sprinkled, the breeze stopped and all the street partiers were treated to a steam bath Pinellas County style. Considering the tsunami conditions, the turnout was decent and the attendees sucked it up and had fun. Our crew arrived by car (just too miserably rainy for boating), parked within two blocks of Beach Blvd. and began walking, looking at all the artsy stuff for sale under the vendor’s small white tents. There was a couple good bands playing, and my favorite showmasters – the ROTC. Baton twirling at it’s finest:

In case you missed it, ROTC is Righteously Outrageous Twirling Corps. You gotta love Gulfport.

One of the street vendors was RondaK from Sailmonster. She was having a ball – the rain didn’t bother her a bit.
Here she is doing her Gecko:

The crew didn’t spend much time in the street. We drifted into Pegs Cantina for blueberry, apricot and other flavors of headache-inducing beer that livened up the night and chased away a little of the dampness. Thanks Peg for putting up with the obnoxious Pyratsail bunch and we’ll see you again soon!

Located at 1421 Bay Street, S.E. St. Petersburg, Sailor’s Wharf has become the premier boat yard on the West coast. Founded in 1978 they are celebrating their 30th anniversary. The boating community is welcome to join in on the celebration Saturday, April 5, with The Sailor’s Wharf’s 30th anniversary event. There will be a flea market, seminars, food and drinks. Visit the Sailor’s Wharf website for more information.