Sweat 'n Spray 2005

Voted the Best Skiff Event Ever!

What do you get when 13 Sunnyland skiffs get together for a weekend of playing in, on, and around the water?  The best outing ever!  For those of you who did not attend…   I would suggest you make your reservations for next year...NOW!

This event was in the planning stages for a long time; we toyed around with having it on Lake Eustis again, but decided we all needed to get away to some 'fresh' water.  Additionally, it's been a couple of years since we've been to Cypress Gardens and thought it would be good to visit again.

Vacation!  Vacation!  Vacation!  Who cares if it's only 3 days!  Ask anyone and they'll agree - a bad day off sure beats a good day at work.  Better than that – there wasn't anything bad about this weekend, even during the rainstorm.  I'm sure Thursday evening everyone was doing the vacation dance as they were packing and getting the boats ready for the upcoming weekend at the Lake Roy Beach Inn in Winter Haven, Florida - I know I was!

The schedule of events for the weekend was quite simple.  Ride your boat, enjoy your friends, and watch the kids play, have a BBQ, and then a party poolside.  Simple as that.

Thirteen boats participated in the weekend fun and all but one came from Florida.  Jeb and Jan Bodsky came down from Georgia with their Georgia Peach planning on doing some speed testing and power relaxing over the weekend. 

Friday morning when we pulled into the hotel parking lot I was quite surprised to see Doug Apy sitting on the steps.  "Doug is that you?" I say.  My gosh - YOUR'RE THE FIRST ONE HERE - WHAT HAPPENED?  (the reason for my concern is that Doug is ALWAYS the last one to arrive at these events…)  His response… "Nothing, I'm here that's all that matters", and you know what - he's right.  Stranger than that is the fact that Cliff and Kathy Ennis were 3 HOURS LATE!  They had a few issues to deal with that morning, but like Doug said - they're here now and that's all that matters.

It quickly became busy with all sorts of activities; putting boats in the water, parking trailers, friendly greetings, unpacking and sorting stuff for the weekend. 

It didn't take long for 2 people to get inducted into the Cliff Ennis Official Check Off List Club.  Hhmm, let me remember how that goes...oh yeah! Check off list:

√    Boat

√    Cooler

√    Drinks

√    Snacks

√    Money

√    Plugs

√    Lifejackets

√    Kathy

√    Untie trailer strap

New item to add to the list...PROPELLER.  Yes folks, our very own Bill Oakley and Phil Jordan join the ranks of Cliff Ennis and Skip Gillam in the

Check off list club.  Here's the story...

Phil backed his boat to the ramp (it looks very nice too I might add), jumps in, starts it up, puts it in reverse and... and...  and nothing.  Boat doesn't move.  Strange.  Let me go forward a little.  Change gears.  Nothing.  He finally realized he needs a prop if he PLANS ON MOVING.  What could be better than that... Some people just don't learn from others mistakes.  Bill Oakley comes up quickly behind Phil and does the same thing.  So with that, I would like to officially welcome these 2 guys to the club.  Actually I think Cliff needs to do that since he was the 1st member and automatically appointed President.

One by one, boat by boat the rest of the gang arrives.  Want to make sure I have all the bases covered here.

Boats                                                               People

Puppy Love                             Marty and Claire

Glory Days                               Phil and Jean

Flyin' Pony                              Bill and Betty

Jersey Girl                               Tom and Fran

Sun Dog                                   Cliff and Kathy

Starship                                   Mark Van Winkle

What Was I Thinking                Paul and Timmy

Breakin Water                         Roger, Diane, Meghan, Taylor

WoJo                                        Bill Oakley and grandson Joshua

Bad Attitude                            Jon Hoaglin

Rerun                                       Mike and Terri

Jo Carol Too                            Doug and Ronnie

Georgia Peach                         Jeb and Jean

Skippy and Esther too!

The Harris' brought their friend Karen along with her 2 children Naz and Josh.  Finally, Broomjaw and Diane also showed up with their whaler (that really wants to be a skiff). The kids took off with Diane for a day on the rides at Cypress Gardens.

It didn't take us long to get the boats moving in the water to tour the area.  Leading the way through the canal we headed over to Cypress Garden.  We came to the little lake where we use to dock the boats when the Sunnyland's Chapter had a show at the Gardens and BOY IS IT DIFFERENT!  Don't think we'll be having any shows there any time soon.  There is a 40' high retaining wall installed with a few large water rides/slides being installed.  It was good while it lasted.  We did a few laps around the lake, did a quick flyby the Ski Show Grandstand and headed over to another lake.  I looked up at the sky and say a LARGE BLACK CLOUD.  Marty - we need to make a decision... out run it and hope it passes us by - OR - let's haul butt back to the hotel.  We opted for the later and let me tell you the rain surely does hurt as it pounds you when you're traveling at 60 m.p.h.  

It's late afternoon by now a few of us headed out to the store and bought the supplies for the evening BBQ.  Others took a nap, a shower and some even dried and polished their boats.  Mostly it was all about a bunch of people enjoying the company of each.  Cliff was appointed the official grill master for the evening and as he turned the burgers, dogs and brauts, Roger who was appointed athletic director was playing volleyball with the kids.  Dianne the official bartender, had the blenders a buzz making pina coladas for everyone; and thanks to Fran for brining the umbrella straws for the drinks!  I had a chance to take a quick headcount and was pleasantly surprised that we had 28 people for dinner that evening.

Time for a poolside party including swimming, relaxing, and playing.  Paul and Timmy took on Cliff and Kathy in chicken fights, I did a few laps, Marty and Jeb relaxed in a corner talking boats and the kids were starting to wind down.

Saturday morning the guys let the ladies sleep in while they readied the boats.  At 8:30 am sharp Sun Dog, being driven by Marty and Phil as the look out attempted to pull Cliff behind the boat on a water ski.  After many attempts the boys decided to give up - it was fun while it lasted and quite the site to see.

The days agenda had much of the same thing as yesterday - boating, swimming, and volleyball.  We loaded up the skiffs to go lake hopping and watch the ski show over at Cypress.

No schedules to keep this weekend - just one goal of having fun!  Later in the day Roger was giving Patriot Rides to all willing participants.  First the kids went, then Diane and Karen, then Betty and myself, Bill and Marty then Paul and Cliff.  The kids had a blast riding through the water being pulled behind a skiff.  Diane and Karen were jumping the waves that Doug was creating as he rode by them, Betty and I laughed from the moment we got on the raft until we got off.  Billy and Marty probably would have scored a perfect 10 if we were keeping score.  But the ultimate Patriot Ride has to go to Paul and Cliff.  They were trying to shift their body weight in an attempt not to have the raft dig in and crash and burn! Well, the attempt was a formidable one.

More BBQ'ing later that evening, and another poolside party. 

We all went thru at least one tank of fuel, most one and a half. Roger now holds the record of 3 tanks in two days.

I cannot quite put my finger on what made this the best outing ever.  Perhaps it was a combination of no schedules to keep, good boating, great location, well planed, and great friends!

Till next year... maybe a pig roast?

Claire

Additional Pictures Provided By Mike Howick - click here