St. Patrick's Day Cruise 2023

The Green was on display and plenty of fun was enjoyed as well as plenty of food.

This year's Cruise was at Lake Santa Barbara just South of Atlantic Blvd Bridge, it's a big lake with plenty of room for a lot more boats that we saw on Saturday. Affection was first to arrive: Skipper Jeff and passengers Paul & Peggy aboard to help as Judy was working until the evening.

During the morning, Alebrije rafted on our Starboard side with Hector & Lucy and their cute dog Marina. We all shared a lot of sailing and cruising tips especially the details of Alebrije's washing machine - oh the Envy!  We'll talk about practically anything when tided up to another boat.

Later on, Destiny arrived and tide up to Affection's Port Side. I think this was the first cruise that Morris has joined and it looked like he and his crew Leo and Phillipe really enjoyed the weekend. Morris has an interesting history so he fit in well with the rest of us.

Before the party started, Loony Poons joined us and tide up on the Port side of Destiny, Mike Miceli  brought Tom Garvy and Joan before Lady Gray turned up. As we already had 4 boats all hanging off of Affections big anchor, Barry and Jamie on Lady Gray, still recovering from the morning Youth sailing session, had to anchor, but there was still plenty of room to drop the hook. Jeff had headed over to pick up Judy and stopped on the way back to the host boats to pickup Barry & Jamie - suitably attired in Green.

We had food! Everyone brought something, Crackers & Cheese & Salami, Grapes, Olives in blankets ( sorry I don't know what they were called ) Cookies, Cake and a huge Cottage pie eventually made it out of Affections Electric oven ( it took me a while to figure out how to heat it.)  Oh and there was Irish Beer and some of the beer left over from previous cruises. One of the best Irish beers was O'Douls - but not a lot of guests drank it.  There was Wine ( White of course ) and Coconut Rum ( we are sailors ! )

I think we solved the problems of the world before everyone went quiet around 11:30.

The lake is a great location for a weekend cruise. Plenty of places to anchor, there are some skinny spots but mostly it's greater than 6' and much of it much deeper.  There is also a great pickup point over on the East side of Lettuce Lake to the East of Lake Santa Barbara. The dockside at 'Indian Mound Park' is pretty reasonable to get from down to a dinghy and it's literally 5 mins from the middle of Lake Santa Barbara.

The weather was almost perfect! The wind picked up later in the day but before the party began and overnight it was a completely flat lake, not a squeak to be heard, not even a mast slap all night long.

Sunday morning, as normal, a few heads poped up out of the cockpits to see if the world was still there and to see which way we had swung, they also checked out the fishing boats that headed out from the lake to the Intracoastal, probably heading up to Hillsboro Inlet which is perhaps 25 minutes from the lake if you have to wait for the Atlantic Bridge and 14th Street Bridge to open before getting inline for the next opening of the Hillsboro Inlet Bridge.

We had a late start for breakfast, Alebrije invited everyone onto their boat for breakfast, they have the biggest table. I made Scrambled Eggs with Sausage, Peppers and some home made Bread - cooked twice ( Toast ) Lucy brought out some fruit so we had plenty to eat.

It was probably noon before Destiny departed and shortly after that, Alebrije slipped from the side of Affection.

Jeff & Jude pulled the anchor and then headed over to see the situation at the Indian Mound Park, very definitely a pickup location and there's parking withing a short walking distance

By the time Affection arrived by behind Jeff & Judy's house, despite the threat of rain, it was still dry and we quickly secured the boat and took the kitchen sink ashore, no - really, not a lot to lift and shift.

We, Peggy & I, had a great time aboard Affection and it was really good to spend time chatting to the others that came out. A fun weekend

Thank you Jeff & Judy on Affection, Hector & Lucy on Alebrije ( and Marina ) and to Morris and his crew. You all made it a really worthwhile weekend. Thank you for sharing your stories with us, they make memories and this was a good one.

Of course there's photos - Click here

The hosts from this weekend have earned their 2023 Cruising Flag - Sailing, it's in our DNA

To see our Cruising Flags from past years, click here