Stuart Gathering May 2006

Saturday, May 13th 7:00 am - The gang from Eustis headed south towards Stuart, Florida for a fun in the sun weekend playing with our boats.  Dick & Linda Daly, Phil & Jean Jordan, Bill & Betty Russell and Marty and Claire Ferry started the southbound caravan at 7:00 am sharp!  Upon arriving at ramp in Stuart, we quickly said our hellos and launched the boats - let's not waste time - it's a beautiful day and we were all itching to get on the water. 

Paul and Donna Nowack were the hosts for the weekend, they planned everything from our cruise schedule, hotel accommodations to lunch and dinner.  Paul's skiff was in the shop, so he was planning on being the cruise director on board his Sea Craft, taking Pop Darby for a nice easy ride.

We left the ramp and we all started to pound the water!  Dodging waves and other boats - our first regrouping point was the bridge.  Along the way we picked up a flat bottom boat with Gordie and Pattie on board.  They want a skiff so bad they can taste it, but at this time the only boat they have is the flat bottom and we welcomed them to join us.  Actually they did quite a nice job keeping up with us!

Once at the first regrouping checkpoint, we lost Paul, Donna and Pop.  Paul had some transmission problems and had to get towed back... we all know how that feels.  We headed further north with Paulie on a center console boat and Gary Gifford's son on another 'chase' boat lead us all the way up the St. Lucie River to the North Fork. Not much scenery along the way but a nice winding, turning river that the skiffs just loved!  After a while, the scene from Deliverance came to my head, I mentioned to Marty that we had been riding for quite some time and I thought we might wind up in the back woods of West Virginia... time to turn around.

Heading back, Dick Daly's impeller quit impelling and Gary on his now 'tow' boat made sure Dick & Linda arrived safely at a marina.  Meanwhile the rest of us screamed along the waterway waving to everyone in other boats and along the shoreline.  At the end of the river, we had to make a decision - turn right and go to lunch or turn left and play in the ocean.  Roger's vote was the ocean - but Marty's boat with me aboard went to lunch instead.  Marty was upset, but would have a chance to wave jump all day Sunday.

We went to lunch at Shrimper's in Salerno and the docks were lined with people as we arrived.  This is a popular dining place along the water and we had to raft our skiffs together in order to tie up at the docks. The cameras came out and we talked skiffs to the guests having lunch. After a great lunch, good food, great conversation and full bellies we decided to head back to the ramp and get all sorts of prettied up for the party and Paul and Donna Nowack's.   We probably traveled about 40 miles throughout the day.

On a side note here... our original intention was to head north to Vero Beach and have lunch at the Pelican Yacht club with Bill & Nancy Bryant.  They had a wonderful lunch and poolside party planned for us.  Paul called them earlier in the day to confirm our arrival time and The Bryant's informed him they were in Tennessee!  They thought we were getting together the following weekend.  We all told Paul, that's OK - just give them the lunch bill - we'll forgive them!

After loading all the boats up and heading over to Paul's garage to wash and flush the salt off the boats, everyone headed back to their various resting places to get pretty for the evening.  I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to Donna (and Paul) for the wonderful meal, hospitality and fun they provided to our skiff family that evening.  It was the perfect opportunity to tell stories, watch videos, get lei'd, and have a great time.  (Hey John - you still owe me $50!).  Marty and Paul had an opportunity to explain the new organization framework.  Roger is #1!  On another note, Bill Darby Jr. couldn't play with us during the day cause he has a small tank!  He did join us for the evening party brining along Kyle, his son, and his sister-in-law Nicole.

Sunday morning we all agreed to meet at Paul's garage at 9:30 sharp and get an early start to the day.  We were heading out to a state park along the Okeechobee waterway/canal to run the skiffs on flat fresh water.  Since there's not much along this waterway we decided to have a BBQ lunch at the park after running.

After waiting a while for Gary Gifford and his team to arrive, we decided we could possibly be waiting all day.  Let's head out and get wet!  We headed east along the waterway until we reached one set of locks, then headed west towards the lake.  Marty and I wanted to continue through the lock, but Doug was convinced we would fall off the face of the earth and begged us to turn around!

We headed back to the park and low and behold who was there?  Gary and his team looking to go skiffin!  As we all loaded up the boats Gary and Mark and a few others went for a few quick hot runs up and down the waterway.  The rest of us packed up and headed for shade!  We set up the grill and all the fixin's and had yet another good meal with good friends!  A special thanks to John for being the master chef during lunch! John used to cook rivets for his bridge building company, so what a better person to show us how to cook!

We had 2 full days of skiffing and I have to say it was once again a great event. Till Mike and Terry's in-laws Pig roast in two weeks, BEE SAFE...

Claire

The End