After a fabulous potluck supper on Friday evening with a narrated slide show of cruising Maine, the Rendezvous began in earnest Saturday morning with a continental breakfast and over 30 boats in attendance. IP dealer Norm Pierce led a terrific seminar on valuable boat management practices, laced with his dry Maine humor and pertinent sailing anecdotes. He and his wife, Mary, have traveled the ICW 29 times! One memorable quote, "If you can't tie knots, tie lots!" The founder of The Island Institute explained their work in preserving the way of the life on Maine's island.
In the afternoon, Norm and Mary held an Open House on the new Estero model and a new 370. Also on display were several other IPs with impressive modifications and upgrades. Everyone on the dock was interested when Norm demonstrated rig tuning.
Saturday evening everyone met upstairs at the The Lobster Wharf for a delicious traditional lobster meal including blueberry pie. The highlight of the evening was the poetry reading, when each vessel was asked by to recite an original poem. Some of those familiar with the tradition must have spent the two years since the previous rendezvous working on their creations. A few of us were more spontaneous, out of necessity. All of the poems were funny and many of them were hysterical!
The rendezvous ended too quickly with a buffet breakfast Sunday morning at Cap'n Fish's. We are so glad we attended this event and met so many enthusiastic and interesting IPers! Norm and Mary made everyone feel so welcome! Sunday evening we had a delicious dinner at The Tugboat Inn with one of Radeen's college roommates, Daphne from Chicago, and her two friends.
At 0501 on Monday, we sadly departed Maine with IP380 Drake's Passage and ran 15 hours to Rockport, MA, in some fog and flat seas. fortunately, our frequent engine checks revealed no leaks on our transmission repair. Lyon's Pride caught up with us along the way from Portland and joined us for an amazing lasagna dinner aboard Drake's Passage. Rockport is a great harbor and not out of the way when aiming for the Canal.
On Tuesday, the Drakes headed for Boston, while we left at 0501 and pressed on for Cuttyhunk under sunny skies and flat seas. We made the Cape Canal at 1400 as planned for the last two hours of favorable tide. Lyon's Pride had a surprise when they found the railroad bridge down for the "trash train." Buzzard's Bay, a notorious body of water, made for a really tough slog into southwest winds. Hats off to IP40 Top Cat and all others who sail here as their home waters! We arrived at 2000 in the welcome lee of Cuttyhunk's outer harbor and anchored next to Lyon's Pride in time for a beautiful simultaneous moonrise and sunset.
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