Krogen Cruisers Rendezvous: 5 days of talks, dinners, cocktails and dancing

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

The morning was free but somehow I never had time to get my hair cut.  Breakfast was late and before we knew it, it was time for the first seminar which, for us, was Active Captain 101.  About 15 minutes before it was to start a 44 came in and would need to dock off of our bow.  Bob showed up about 10 minutes later and volunteered to help with lines so I went to the seminar.  When it was over there were 3 more 42s tied up after us and Bob missed the first seminar.   

The second seminar for me was Grampsters Pride products.  We volunteered our boat for cleaning the fiberglass hull and our vinyl chair.  It made a difference so I bought two of the fiberglass and stainless cleaning products.  The chair was cleaned for free!  Bob attended the Advanced Active Captain.  Both seminars were about things you could do with it rather than how to do things so we have more studying to do.  Soon the seminars were over and it was time for dinner.  

 

First of many catered meals

We had both missed lunch so were famished.  The appetizers by North Dock were plentiful, varied, delicious and quickly disappeared.  Their disappearance were followed by a dinner of pizza and salad culminating in a Weather Seminar by Chris Parker.  I bought the book with the idea that if I read enough about weather I might begin to understand it a little.  We took showers on  the boat this time as our shower is better than the one ashore.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Went to talks all day; The Dry Tortugas, boat tax treatment in various states, especially Florida, gun on your boat issues including things you should know about entering and exiting countries in the Caribbean, How to fish from your trawler and Circumnavigating the North and Baltic Sea.  And in between we had breakfast, lunch, dinner and the Pet Parade which turned out to be all dogs except for one green dragon and her witch.

Friday and Saturday...more of the same.

Krogen Rendezvous!!!

The Krogen Rendezvous!!  The much anticipated Krogen Party of the year for anyone who has a Krogen and the occasional SOB (some other boat).  Solomon Maryland's Calvert Marina is the site for the Rendezvous, and the destination of all the Krogens we have seen the past several days.

 
 We picked up the anchor at 7am, just behind the two Krogen whalebacks, and headed to Solomon’s.  It was a 7 hour run straight down the bay, passing the nuclear power plant, liquid gas terminal and a light house.  We were passed by several large power boats and a loaded cargo ship but stayed well out of the channel, tying up at the south dock of the two Krogen docks at Calvert Marine around 2pm. It felt really great getting K2F to the dock as this was the first time we had done the Rendezvous on our own bottom.  Dock hands were standing by to help with lines, and it helped that we did not run into anyone while approaching the dock.   A mile stone!!!  We made it!!!

K2F awaiting its neighbor

 Several hours later a Krogen 44 filled in across from us and it was our turn to belly up.  With a lot of hands, fenders and lines, we were in position in about 30 minutes.   The dockage was arranged in such a way that the stern of each boat was tied to a dock, Mediterranean style, and the bow's pointed toward each other, much like sardines in a can.We ended up docked between Papillon and Jeremiah and across from Zingara and Journey.

K2F Snuggled in for the next 5 days

The rest of the day was spent meeting people and checking in with the Krogen Cruisers group set up on the picnic tables and then to the Marina Office to pay our dock bill and pick up forwarded mail from home.  The marina has a lending library so we replenished our books and at the Rendezvous sign up, gained four more Tervis insulated mugs, 2 from John Deere and 2 from Krogen Cruisers!  Yippy!  Soon it was time for dinner but Bob kept finding people to talk to, including spending an hour with Steve Zimmerman, in whose boatyard we plan on having work done while we are in California.  Finally we had dinner, showers and to bed at 10:30.  What happened to early to bed?

The pack gets bigger

Other Krogens headed to the Rendezvous

Monday, October 5, 2015

We fueled up at $2.11 a gallon, probably the cheapest place we will see in a long time, and pumped out just to be sure.  We were off at 9:06am.  Passed two sailboats on the way out to the bay.  They were motoring or they would have passed us!  I can’t get over how much space there is for anchoring along this river.  

Out in the Chesapeake we turned south, staying just out of the channel to make sure we never had an issue with the container ships and tugs pulling barges.  We only saw them going up the Chesapeake, not a single one going south.  The container ships we did see were all empty, coincidence?  The day was beautiful and blue with one foot waves and ten knot winds.  Smooth sailing!  Certainly not the hurricane we feared. As we neared Annapolis, sailing activity increased and the radio chatter was mostly about moving boats into and around boat show slips.  

Right after we made reservations at Bay Bridge Marine for a slip we were hailed by the Krogen, Renaissance Woman.  We had seen them ahead of us but for a long time thought they were a ship until we got close enough to think they were a ship that looked like a Krogen.  These boats are big!  Renaissance Woman was also headed for the Krogen Rendezvous in Solomons and for tonight, an anchorage in Rhode River with a buddy boat, Dream Weaver.  They had been with a group of seven Krogens from the north of which 5 had gone on in order to reach the Rendezvous by Tuesday.  We changed our plans, followed RW to the Rhode River, and were all settled into the mud by 4pm with Dream Weaver already there.  We met Dream Weaver in Maine during the No Excuses Cruise over the summer.

We made plans for 5:00 cocktails and snacks aboard Dream Weaver with Paul and Karen.  Of course,

 Ric and Marianne from Renaissance Woman joined in as well.  Seems that this cocktails at 5 is a pretty common occurrence aboard Krogens.  As the evening came, lights on shore lit up.  There were a great number of houses along the shore that I had not noticed during daylight hours.  There was also a 30 foot sailboat which was aground at the end of the cove.  Hmmm.  Salvage rights? 

This and that

Highlights: 

• Connie took me shopping for household items and groceries.
• I loaded the Windfinder app on my phone (for weather), info from Connie.
• Met John and Robin who brought their boat up from Rock Hall in preparation for the possible hurricane.
• Met Russ and Laurie, a dinner in the Kitty Knight House, who just finished a circumnavigation of the globe in their catamaran and are now preparing to show it at the Annapolis boat show (been there - done that - for sale).
• Bob filled the water tanks and we switched to the starboard tank for general use.

I am going to miss Georgetown and we didn’t even get to cross the bridge! There is a drawbridge dividing the east and west town parcels that is stuck in the UP position for repairs.  We have met so many interesting and friendly people here.   

Of the 4 nights we have been in this slip we have only had dinner by ourselves one night.  We have met Anna Mae and her family who live aboard, a fella with his 2 year old son whom we met on the dock and over laundry but never used our names, Jeremy who has the Mainship next door, Eleanor and Walt in the Hatteras at the end of the dock, John the GYC Commodore, Vickie and Ed, Ed the GYB Treasurer, and already mentioned John and Robin on their catamaran and Russ and Laurie at the Kitty Knight Inn. 

The Georgetown Yacht Basin, Kitty Knight Inn and the Grainery Marina across the water are all owned by the same person.  There is a marine store here that has a little bit of everything.  It is sure to be a hopping place in the summer with a pool, picnic tables, ice cream shop and people here talk well of the boat yard.