AOG New England - Great time!

[gerygarcia]

Joint Venture underway

John, we would be in a 31TE if it wasn't for draft issues in the Great South Bay

[ENDURANCE]

Ok, i was going to post some of my pics, but Gerry's are stellar. thanks for posting. I nominate Gerry as the designated Albin Rendezvous photographer.

[Pitou]

PITOU has arrived safely in homeport as of late yesterday after Approx. 400 nm round trip from Essex, MA to her sister town of Essex, CT. and a few additional stops along her foggy travels.

A great trip to the NE AOG Rendezvous, reuniting with old friends and new. A nice venue with good people. Many new ideas for tweaking out our 28 : from a great tiki bar (thanks for the dark & stormies) and storage locker above the qtr. berth (Endurance) thanks Garth & Kim / to the custom engine box cushion cover and of course the basket limitations on clothing / finally something that works (Hideaweigh) thanks Dave and Ann.

A 72 hour soak in fresh water was something I never saw happening .... pretty cool. Sure did enjoy Hamburg Cove and all that fresh water. During that raft up I think we gave a few boaters something to talk about.

Thank you to Rob & Erica for organizing the event . Grace & Elle, Joanie is still wearing her anklet .

John & Sharon .... thanks for putting this site together which has led to a venue for sharing and making new friendships.

Eddie ... glad those fuel numbers are better than expected .... you can now afford to boat even more!

John & Marcia ... as last year ... sure do love Joint Venture.

[Carl]

This one had a boat-to-boat masseuse!

Ok, We had pictures of the band, so where are the pictures of this aledged "masseuse".

[jcollins]

This one had a boat-to-boat masseuse!

Ok, We had pictures of the band, so where are the pictures of this aledged "masseuse".

[RobS]

Here's the list of those who attended as well a Word doc attached below. I made the order match the location of the boats starting on the south side of the floater, down to the end and then back up the north side. Many asked for contact info of the members. Safest bet is to use the member ID for a PM or Email from this site and then go from there:

(member id, crew, vessel name)
cdahmen - Carl & Linda on "Great Gatsby"
jointventure - John & Marcia on "Joint Venture"
RobS - Rob & Erika and daughters Grace & Elle, puppy Daisy on "TOY-RIFIC"
mhanna - Matt & Janet on "Doghouse"
Pitou - Kevin & Joanie on "PITOU"
RicM - Ric & Karen on "Time after Time"
gerygarcia - Gery & Anne and daughter Marissa on "Resolution"
zinbaad - Eddy & Cathy on "Mahalo"
Froggy - Carl & Diane on "Froggy"
Tom & Carol "CAROLINE VI (Member ID unknown)
Tachyon - Don & Dee on "Tachyon"
jerseyalbin - Craig & Jane on "Pirates Treasure"
mpel - Mike & Maureen on "SPUTNIK"
Capt Dave39 - Ann & Dave on HIDEAWEIGH"
ENDURANCE - Garth & Kim on "ENDURANCE"
jcollins - John & Sharon “Afterglow” (via Amtrack)

After 11 nights the crew of TOY-RIFIC returned home yesterday from Mystic. Other than fog, wind, rain, rough seas and low tide thru the shoals it was a great ride.

Thank you all for the kind words – my family absolutely enjoyed it and we enjoyed making it all happen too.

Thank you Matt Hanna and Grace for taking the 97mile ride (each way) to Standish on Sunday to pick up the new steering cylinder from Ken Hilton. As if we had not seen enough Albins there were 6 or 7 more at Standish, 28’s and 35’s. Ken was the only place open on Sunday that had what I needed. He is a great resource for us Albineers and he did right by me. Where else would you get a business owner to deal direct with on a Sunday afternoon in July. Thanks Ken. Ken has a strong positive reputation with this group and the members who have dealt with him and rightfully so.

Having just installed the autopilot pumps with Matt on both of our boats this spring made the cylinder install and system bleeding a no-brainer. Glad I took her out to Hamburg Cove on Saturday and discovered the problem as opposed to discovering on Sunday running down the river to Montauk. Gotta always find something to be thankful for.

Thanks Janet for giving Matt up for a few hours that day (or did I do you a favor) and thanks Ric and Karen for the minivan, that was huge!

TOY-RIFIC’s original float plan was to depart SX on Sunday to head to Snug Harbor Montauk. Having to stay Sunday night for the steering repair put us at the “pay for 5 stay for 7 deal” Plus the conditions were not looking great for Montauk fishing I was hoping to do. So we stayed at Essex for 2 more nights. The 2 free nights covered a bulk of the cost of the new steering cylinder.

After the last Albin left on Monday (Sputnik) I was cleaning the bilge of some fluid residue and heard the unmistakable indescribable sound of the bow thruster and thought, hmmm has someone returned. I looked up and it was AOG member Mike G on his 28TE with a group of several boats from my home port. Mike’s home port is the same as mine and I had met him on the water this spring. Mike said he had commitments over weekend that kept him from getting to SX sooner.

As Kevin posted, it was great to see old friends and make new ones and I never thought the guy with the biggest boat could ever be the nicest guy.

Thanks John and Marcia for the recognition during the cookout, the bottle of bubbly and the generous “note” you taped to my chartplotter, you guys are a class-act for sure and a role model for us all.

Thanks John and Sharon for making the trip up to us. It was certainly a highlight of the weekend having you there. Now that you have that auto-pilot maybe we’ll see you next year aboard “Afterglow”

Ed & Cathy, thanks for the great BBQ’d chicken and steak at the cookout and the dogs on the grill at Hamburg.

Gery thanks for the AOG cards and the beers.

During the weekend I talked to several members about next years event and SX seems to be the place. Many groups have their event there every year due to its location and accommodations. In order to secure our weekend and keep us all together again on the B floater I reserved the weekend of July 23rd and 24th 2010. There is no commitment in case the group decides against returning to SX.

Ric, if you would like to coordinate 2010, let me know before the end of 2009. I will provide SX with your contact info as they send out the initial paperwork just after the 1st of the year. At some point within the next couple months we should start a post for 2010 to confirm the location and go from there.

Love the pic of Erika's dive at Hamburg Cove, click on the picture - looks like Erika got 2 thumbs up from Elle on this dive and a quite an expression from Grace.

Looking forward to some more pics from the group. Any Raft-up or Cookout pics out there?

[RicM]

OK all, I'm sorry it took me so long to get these posted, but I came home to face a couple of personal and work challenges that are just easing up. Here is a link to a slide show of all the pictures I took at the Rendezvous. Once again it was a great time with a lot of fun people.

http://s117.photobucket.com/albums/o49/ ... mview=grid

[RobS]

Great shots Ric, thanks !

at least you're in one of them

[mhanna]

Sorry for the delay in posting also, we where home a few hours and the wife was asking where we could go next. Just goes to show how much of a great time we had with everyone !!
I will get the pictures posted soon, like all I'm playing catch-up with work (ok..not all, you lucky guys ) and home.
Thanks very much to Rob and John for organizing and having this great site !
It was great to finally put faces to names....We dont wish to wait a whole year to do again.

Matt

[Carl]

It really does look like a great time. The masseuse was a nice touch that must have felt great after sleeping on the boat for a few days. John, I guess you have to look into the dancing girls for next year!

[jcollins]

It really does look like a great time. The masseuse was a nice touch that must have felt great after sleeping on the boat for a few days. John, I guess you have to look into the dancing girls for next year!

Carl,

You read my mind. The "flirty-girl" is a bargin but the "x-pole" may be the way to go.

http://www.flirtystripperpole.com/pole_ ... l#compare2

[RobS]

If we have the next Rendezvous on Long Island, we can get the boats bikini-cleaned. I actually met the owner yesterday...

http://www.bikiniboatworks.com/meetthecrew.html

[Pitou]

If we have the next Rendezvous on Long Island, we can get the boats bikini-cleaned. I actually met the owner yesterday...

http://www.bikiniboatworks.com/meetthecrew.html

Cabin Service???? .... Long Island it is.

[RobS]

Matt took these pictures as he approached me in Moriches to meet up for our early AM departure to Essex..