RRCs for the Southeastern US report on a busy season

Bill and Lydia Strickland, Regional Rear Commodores, SE USA © Bill & Lydia Stricklan

Hopefully, we have said our final goodbye to the hurricanes for 2018. It has been a challenging time for our members who have been in harm's way. In addition some of the ICW may have been altered dramatically for boats moving south.

The Annapolis Fall Dinner on 3 October was a sellout. With a seating capacity of 100, we opened the cocktail portion to those on the wait list for a reduced price. Overall we had 112 in attendance, up from 88 last year! For some this was their first OCC event, which whetted their appetite for more in the future. We also had a special occasion to celebrate: the 100th birthday of Herb Weiss. He was in fine form and is such an inspiration to all who know him. We had two speakers; John Page Williams, Senior Naturalist with CBF and Pete Goss, a new OCC member (!), who has been awarded the MBE, as well as the Legion of Honour. John Page was informative and had the room studying maps of the Bay 400 years apart; Pete, a huge hit, was engaging with his sea stories. It was a wonderful evening.

Hats off to Westbrook Murphy, PO Annapolis, for a tremendous job in organizing transportation to the dinner for all our members who were carless. He and Gemma, PO Crab Creek, and several others played Uber drivers and made it all work without a hitch. Couldn't have done it without them. Also saw a post by Anne Lloyd about Westbrook driving her to Home Depot to find parts for a repair she was undertaking on Sofia RYS. He has been a huge help to all our members passing through Annapolis.

Further south on the Chesapeake Bay on 18 October 2018, we had the annual OCC dinner at the Mathews Yacht Club sponsored by Port Officers Will and Martha Story. This is a great segue from the Annapolis Boat Show to the very popular Salty Dawg Rally (a great passage qualifier for OCC membership) from Hampton, VA to the BVIs or Antigua.

Bill and I have been busy getting ready for the cocktail hour with the participants in the Fall Salty Dawg Rally on 31 October. Currently there are 77 boats registered, 14 of which are skippered by full OCC members and 3 Associate members. That leaves us 60 boats, plus crew on all 77 boats that will make a qualifying passage in November. We are enlisting the help of those OCC members to be ambassadors of the club. POs Norfolk, Greta and Gary, will be lending a helping hand with the event.

Greta Gustavson reports that they are open for business in Norfolk again. The dock work at their condo is complete and boats are once again welcome to stop by. They have missed the interaction with the visiting yachts and are looking for company.

This article has been provided by the courtesy of Ocean Cruising Club.