The Rendezvous

Saturday, May 10, 2025

A shivery breeze greeted us and our fellow boaters on Saturday morning, and we enjoyed being aboard Ocean Romance, the large power boat belonging to Kristin and Mike, the owners of Anacortes Yacht Charters, sharing coffee and mimosas, fresh fruit, and various muffins. Soon it was time for the model boat regatta, in which little wooden boats, assembled from kits and often quite creatively decorated, were placed into the water off one of the marina docks and left at the mercy of wind and current as they drifted about. The first boat to enter a designated finish zone (if any of the craft actually arrived there!) would be declared the winner, and the owner’s name would be inscribed on an impressive permanent trophy. I entered a boat I had assembled in 2018 and had kept aboard Braesail, and, on Walt’s behalf, also entered one that Martin had put together and decorated in 2019. He’d named it BallPoint, since he had nothing with which to decorate it but a ballpoint pen, and so he drew a “ball” in the “point” of the boat (the bow), the shaft of a pen through the cockpit area, with mountains and waves surrounding it, and the tips of pens, arranged next to one another like a fence, along the sides of the hull. My little sailboat wandered around aimlessly (there was almost no wind in the area) and was eventually retrieved by the AYC staff paddling about in our dinghy, Coracle, which they had borrowed for the morning’s activities. Poor BallPoint drifted away from the dock and meandered back four times, and my repeated launchings did nothing to assist its journey toward the finishing area! Needless to say, no KNOWLES name was added to AYC’s trophy!

The next event was the “Blindfolded Dinghy Race” (no, our dinghy was not blindfolded!), in which the rower is blindfolded and the “navigator” is seated in the bow or stern of the dinghy and gives the rower directions, usually both verbally and by touching one of the rower’s arms or shoulders. The length of time it takes the pair to cross an invisible finish line is tracked, with the pair with the fastest time winning the event. Last year, the dinghy furnished by AYC lost one of its oarlocks because of overly-enthusiastic rowing by race participants, and this was joked about by Walt and me and the AYC staff because we had allowed AYC to use Coracle to finish the races. “If Coracle loses an oarlock, AYC will owe you one,” they said, and sure enough, during the last race of the morning, with Mike and Kristin (the company owners) competing for the best time, one of Coracle’s oarlocks cracked in two as the dinghy was nearing the finish line and their good race time was spoiled! A somewhat chagrined Owner Mike promised to procure a new one, as his staff had promised!

With the races concluded, Walt stood in Coracle and paddled back toward Braesail using one oar, first on one side and then on the other, in canoeing fashion, and I collected our little wooden boats and began to walk back to our boat. As I approached Braesail’s stern, I noticed a flurry of activity! Walt had slipped onto his back while trying to land the dinghy on Braesail’s bathing platform, had gotten his back and legs wet, and was being helped out of the dinghy by two AYC staffers! Neither he nor Coracle was hurt, and so he put on dry clothes, I laid the wet ones out in the sun to dry, and he glued the fractured oarlock back together as a temporary fix.

The next activity was a very helpful marine electronics seminar presented by two AYC staff members in the main dining room of the Friday Harbor Yacht Club’s dockside building. I went with Walt, and he was able to be of great help to the five other men who attended. Walt then found time for a nap before the “fancy dinner” provided by AYC in the clubhouse. We shared a table with Robin and Peter, the owners of the only other sailboat at the rendezvous, and enjoyed wonderful conversation over a fine meal featuring salmon and roast beef. Bill, one of the power boat owners and an excellent jazz pianist, and Robin, a real estate agent and a fine jazz vocalist, provided the diners with wonderful music that made the evening especially festive!

Back on Braesail, I found myself VERY sleepy (I’d probably eaten too much!), and we went to bed earlier than usual. The next day would be “Boat Open-House” day, and we still had a few neatening-up tasks to finish before visitors were due to begin arriving at 10 am, but we decided that those chores would have to wait!