When we bought Red Ranger, we bought more than a boat. We bought a family. This year's rendezvous involved six boats at the West River Sailing Club dock, and almost 30 people in the various presentations.

CA put together an epic program and party.

Our trip up on Sunday was bouncy and unpleasant. There was 10 kn of wind directly on the nose. There was no alternative to bouncing up the bay. We hoisted the sail near the West River Green "1", but only sailed for a half-hour or so. We had a schedule, and beating back and forth wasn't really part of it.

While Monday is the expected arrival day, Sunday had good conditions and several boats arrived early. Our contract with WRSC doesn't really start until Monday, but, the club was flexible.

The proper content begins on Tuesday.

We learned about the refit on Uhane Kai. It's almost done. She may be departing the Chesapeake next year.

We learned about surveying from a local surveyor, Karen Alt.

We discussed weather, and weather resources. Terry, of Island Time, moderated the discussion. Here's what I jotted down.

Attainable adventure cruising. https://www.morganscloud.com/about/

Modern Marine weather. https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Marine-Weather-Traditions-Technology-ebook/dp/B00BZDR2XE

http://Saildocs.com

http://passageweather.com

http://www.buoyweather.com

Delorme in reach weather

Weather underground marine

http://www.marvsweather.com/cu_01.html

We learned about the San Blas islands from the crew of Memory. Get Eric Bauhaus' book.

We learned about dinghy renovation from the crew of Shooting Star. We're going to buy some ToobSeal for the pinhole leak in our dinghy.

We learned about sewing projects from the crews of Indefatigable and Alembic.

We got some promotional gear from Sailrite, including hats, shirts, and tote-bags. We had a raffle to share the bounty among all the crews in attendance. (I got a new hat.)

And that was just the first day!

On Wednesday, we shared tips and best practices. This is facilitated by Deb, of Island Time, who makes sure that everyone can share their lessons learned with the rest of the Whitby-Brewer family.

The crew of Alembic talked about Western Caribbean destinations. Looking at the hurricane devastation in the Eastern Caribbean made this particularly poignant.

We also reviewed some more mundane details. Scott (of Joie de Vivre) showed is the latest features of the web site, including the Slide Show of boats. We looked at sales information about our boats. And we also have a brief "business" meeting. There's rarely much business beyond reviewing our tiny budget and getting volunteers lined up for next year.

Indeed, the biggest budget issue is the pennant. We have been selling some appliquéd nylon pennants, and it's time to reorder. The current material doesn't stand up well in a marine environment. Maybe we should switch to printed dacron? Or appliquéd dacron? Or Sunbrella? Lots of discussion.

Thursday, we bid tearful farewells.

The trip back had (again) wind almost directly on the nose. The sea state was much flatter than the trip up. With a little care, we could keep 45° off the wind. With a wind-speed of 4 kt, we couldn't really make much headway. We motor-sailed under main alone. This let us make a good speed (generally over 6 kn) with the engine a hair above idle speed. I think we set a record for the trip, doing the entire thing in 3h 20m.

The crew of Island Time are working at the Annapolis Sailboat show. Their boat is in Florida, so we invited them to stay on Red Ranger while they're working up here.