Most were there the nights of December 28-29. Chase the Clouds hosted the required get together. There were about 18 boats from the club represented. Chase the Clouds had grand baby Aislynn on board, so it made sense that the group came to the baby rather than the baby coming to the group. Ever thus has it been so!

Thursday, Dec. 29 was a free day. Some went to the Lazy Flamingo, some did Pelican Harbor- Cayo Costa things, and one boat went to Don Pedro. Dog beach found us all there for the evening check in.

Friday everyone left. A couple of boats went to Bert’s in Matlacha to party with land cruisers. Everyone else motor-sailed to Fisherman’s Village. Laundry, biking, shopping, and general milling around by all concerned. Evening get together was under the twinkling lights in the trees near the Fisherman’s Village pool.

18 boats found their way to the Marina for New Year’s Eve.

New Year’s Eve day was mostly more of the same from Friday afternoon – Resting up for the bacchanalia to come.

Both boat and land cruisers assembled in the community room promptly at 5 p.m. to get things started. Plenty of food and beverages and a group of about 40 took a practice run at the first round of food and beverage.

Thanks to Bev for recognizing the party crashers and eliminating them from the party! Can you imagine crashing a CMCS cocktail hour as your big event for New Year’s Eve?

18 headed off to The Captain’s Table for dinner while the rest broke out a tremendous buffet for the pot luck.

Special thanks to Raimund Haunholter for all his efforts to put together another fine meal at the restaurant. He even procured a bottle of wine donated by the manager of the restaurant. Raimund conducted a raffle and Judy Sheldon from Merry Morgan won. She graciously gave it to Raimund in thanks for all he did. Raimund also made up an informational brochure so that all of us would know what was going on all weekend!

After dinner, everyone reconnoitered near the pool for…wait for it…more food and beverages. This time donated by the Marina, who also provided a live band.

Besides all this, the shopping mall had more entertainment….you could get glitter of most any color sprayed into your hair, balloon creatures, magic show, and temporary tattoos. OK, this was mostly for kids, but some of us were tempted. They had a couple of bands, too. All free.

Midnight – champagne toasts all around.

With looming freezing temperatures and more wind than most care for, Sunday morning the fleet mostly departed for Pelican, Schoolhouse Bay (hurricane hole), or home.

No known yellow flag incidents occurred from any of the boats participating in the weekend. There is a rumor that a worthy event did happen…..

Boats attending in no particular order:

• Bridget O’Toole
• Antares
• Barefeet
• Chase the Clouds
• Zydeco
• Ariel
• Air Boss
• Samphire
• Hyde Away
• Tyrolia
• Kestrel II
• Tenacious
• Merry Morgan
• Sea Puppy
• Judy Judy
• Four Seasons
• Tanglefoot
• Blank Check
• Win
• Vixen
• Trust Me!!!

If you want to attend next year’s event, please give me a shout….email

treefinder@bridgetotoole.com or 239 283 1138

We have already started a list. Have the room reserved.

 Carolyn Wilson

This is the cruise for which no one wanted to be the cruise leader. So – Linda Raymond (Zydeco) sent out a nice email blast relating a very simple plan for Thanksgiving Dinner at Cabbage Key on Thursday.

2011 Thanksgiving Happy Hour

Well – the plan worked extremely well. Altogether, 24-CMCS boats showed up. Lots of fun was had by all – long walks and jogs on the beach, chatting with friends in beach chairs on the beautiful Cayo Costa coastline, sharing laughter and delicious food in various cockpits, dingy explorations, and doggie social hour. All reports from the various CMCS cruisers were that the Cabbage Key traditional Thanksgiving dinner was excellent as were the Thanksgiving meals cooked aboard the boats.  The weather cooperated nicely.  A front came through, blessed us all with a fresh water rinse and we had nice sailing winds as an extra bonus. Gordon on Aerial commented that the boy scouts that were with him are now spoiled.  This was some of the finest sailing ever!  We’re all thankful for our sailing community and friends here in southwest Florida.

Here is a list of the boats which our sodden memories could recall. Keep in mind, if you were there, and your boat is not on this list, it is simply because no one was keeping a list at the time (I hope that make sense).

 Ariel
Air Boss
Air Supply
Antares
Avanti
Barefeet
Blank Check
Blue Skye
Bridget O”Toole
Chase the Clouds
Freestyle
Island Time
Jolly Mon
Kestrel II
Miller Time
Corrells in an un-named runabout
Rum Daze
Samphire
Slider (Thiele’s runabout)
Tanglefoot
Tiki
Trust Me
Tyrolia
Zydeco

 That makes 24-boats!  The largest number of boats we’ve had at a cruise this year!  (The 2011 Danger Island Cruise count was 23-boats).  That’s just plain HUGE!

Respectfully Submitted by a team effort:

Linda Raymond on s/v Zydeco & Glen Vetter on s/v Freestyle
with special THANKS to those who helped remember all the boats