Its all about the chocolate

[bob budd]

On Sunday 27 June 13 of us were lucky enough to disembark from Pavilion Beach in Ipswich. That we were thirteen was itself a bit of a miracle. Jeff Casey needed to bring a boat for one paddler (other than himself) and stop by to pick me up and carry my boat as well. A little later Adam stopped by at Budd Hall to pick up yet another (tippy - just ask him) boat.

When Jeff and I got the boat secured and drove away, he handed me the map so I could direct him to Ipswich. We took a quick trip around the block and headed off to meet Rte 1A taking us past the Myopia Hunt Club (just love that name) to Ipswich. From there, Jeff knew the way to the beach. Very nervous was he, not wanting the forecast wind to ruin his lazy paddling plans.

The other participants arrived in plenty of time, that's right all thirteen. After a beach briefing and the ceremonial speaking of names we disembarked with the tide and winds to rapidly reach the end of Castle Neck. Not at all what I remembered when Dee and I circumnavigated the neck in the spring, I was badly in need of a break when we reached the end, still trying to figure out how to get the Orion to go straight.

A few of us chose to remain in the water and accompany the fisherman of the group on his hunt. As we rounded the corner Mr. Baldridge and myself were the only spectators. Mr. Bolonsky paddled a bit looking for fish in the water, then paddled onto a sandbar. At this point, Mr. Baldridge had had enough and told Adam he was on his own. We returned to the beach where all others had landed and found the coals hot and Jeff's shishkabob roasting.

As soon as the scents of the erstwhile barbecue reached the end of Castle Neck we found out what Adam likes more than fishing. He soon made our group 13 once again. There were steak tips and garlic mashed potatoes to go with the shishkabob. We also had chips with guacamole (how many avacadoes died for that quac). I must admit, however, to being partial to Roger's brownies courtesy of his better half. Without chocolate we would have missed one of the food groups.

While a stiff headwind blew a fair percentage of the time we returned to the putin, all showed little trouble returning to Pavilion Beach. Mighty Casey definitely hit a homer this time.

[jeffcasey]

...Bob's memory is clouded by gluttony. Many deserve credit for the feast...Patty brought the steak tips and garlic smashed 'taters, Liz sacrificed a number of avagadros for the guac, Yvonne had some sort of healthy salad good enough to kill for, and I think it was Walter who had two kinds of strawberry shortcake...and I'm sure I'm missing something. The biggest problem of the day was loading our bloated carcasses back into the boats to paddle home. (Puts a different slant on "paddling with the big boys"...next time we bring shoehorns.) Oh yeah, Ken entertained us with high-tech kite acrobatics while we feasted. I told folks to make a lazy pot-luck feast of it, and everybody rose to the occasion.

Beautiful day for paddling too, by the way.