Great Weekend

Valcour Island, N44 38 W73 26
(09/04/05) Well, it was a great weekend. Gerry and Phyllis Allen met us on Saturday and sailed with us the whole day. Not much
wind in the morning, but in the afternoon the wind blew hard enough for Gerry to get a taste. Gerry is like me. He likes heavy
weather sailing. I'm going to try a guys-only sail sometime in the next two weeks, and shoot for a 30-knot wind day. Any
volunteers besides Gerry? After sailing the Allens treated us to dinner at Anthony's, a restaurant in Plattsburg. Thank you so
much Gerry and Phyllis.

At the marina I met the proprietress. She said that she and her husband lived aboard a 32 foot O'day sailboat in Florida for
several years. They thought it would cost too much to send it north when they moved to NY, so they sold it. Now she says, they
kick themselves wishing that they hadn't sold their boat.

Today, we picked up our daughter Jennifer and her boyfriend Christian and sailed with them. We've been imposing on them for
several weeks, and this was the first day that both of them could sail with us. The morning was very brisk sailing. Gerry Allen
would have loved it. In the afternoon it quieted down a bit. Anyhow, we all had fun.

Christian regaled us with tales of his years in the US Coast Guard. He sailed on the ship that rescued the helicopter pilots in the
Perfect Storm. However, Christian had not been on a sailboat for many years so he had fun.

We sought an anchorage on Valcour Island. This is still Labor Day weekend so Valcour is very crowded. We tried a bay that is not
a recommended anchorage but seemed to have a lot of boats there. It was crazy, the water was too deep for secure anchorages,
nevertheless there were maybe 100 sailboats there. We tried anchoring but the anchor dragged when we tested it, so we decided that
the whole place was unsafe and left.

Need I mention that almost all the 100 boats were French Canadian? My son Dave commented on last week's blog with a lot of more
blunt comments about the "Bequers" than I care to write in the blog. I agree with him but I've conditioned myself over the years to
tone down my language in written communications, especially email. Things have a way of sounding stronger than you intend when
written in email. These blogs I view as a series of email letters to my friends.