Had a great day of sailing with Neil and Derek. Allison and Andrea and Michelle went to Dick and Ellie’s Flea Market and had a good time. Then the six of us got together and had a fantastic dinner at the house. I have pictures that I took and some that Andrea took. I’ll get those up tomorrow. It is late and I am tired from the great day.
Updated: It was brought to my attention last night that I really neglected a proper blog entry for the day of sailing that I had with Neil and Derek two weeks ago. I had every intention of pulling together a good blog entry recapping the great day we had. It slipped away from me. So, albeit a bit late, here is the complete recap of that day.
This morning Allison and I went to Neil's parent's house to catch up with Andrea, Derek and Michelle so we could head over to the boat. We pulled in right behind Derek and Michelle. Derek gave us a 2005 first Christmas ornament. Since we were the only couple married in 2005 that he knew he gave it to us. Thank Derek. We made sure we had everything and headed over to the park to meet up with Neil.
Neil rowed in from the boat and picked up a load of our stuff and Derek while Andrea and Michelle and Allison and I looked on and took pictures of the guys rowing out to the boat. Then Neil came back and picked me up and the girls headed up to Dennis to Dick and Ellie's Flea Market. Once on the boat we stowed our gear and prepared to get underway. We motored out of the harbor and headed out towards the mouth of Buzzard's Bay. I thought the water was pretty rough but knew I was in good hands with Neil at the tiller. My stomach however didn't share my confidence and started to rebel on me. I started looking a bit green but made it without incident. We pulled into a protected harbor so that Neil could take a look at the prop on the motor and the barnacles that had attached to it. We anchored and then Neil, Derk and I jumped off the boat into the water for a little swim. After a little while Derek and I realized that the boat was drifting a bit, because we kept swimming and couldn't catch up with the boat. Neil was holding onto a rope from the boat and working directly on the boat so he didn't notice at first. Our attempts to explain that the boat was drifting met with some skepticism until Neil saw how far we had drifted. So we all got back in the boat and motored back over to the original spot. Derek pulled up the anchor and cleaned it of a bunch of seaweed. We reset the anchor, made sure it was secure and jumped back into the water. Swimming off the boat is so much fun. We had a great time. After Neil cleared a mass of barnacles the size of a small bowling ball we got under way again and headed for home. We were running late for our rendezvous with the girls for dinner.
Dinner started off with a great cheese and crackers plate from Neil and Andrea accompanied by grapes and followed by a beautiful salad from Derek and Michelle. Allison and I husked and boiled a dozen ears of Tony Andrew's farm corn on the cob. I started the grill to make our chicken and steak tips. I also pulled the pictures from my camera and the pictures from Andrea's camera together and we watched a slide show. During dinner we were joined at various times by my Dad, my grandparents and our neighbor, Paul, or rather Uncle Paulie D. For dessert we had a cheesecake from Neil and Andrea. Most likely it came from the magical world of Costco. I can tell you that the magical world of Costco helped us out many times that day. It really was a wonderful day. Derek pulled one over on us and had us going all day long till we caught up with Michelle and immediately knew that the yarn he spun through the afternoon was utter crap. But we had fun none the less hearing the fanciful tale that had just enough of a ring of truth to make us believe it. The weather was beautiful, the company the best and the food delicious. Who could ask for a better day?