It was a dark and stormy night. Whoops! Wrong intro.
Actually, it was a overcast, drippy afternoon - Saturday October 9, the scene of Annapolis Boat Show and the first annual C@ East Coast Chapter meeting.

Gina Strauch and Gary Wilson drove in from way-up New York Friday evening, and had bivouacked in Charlie's "Chicken Little". The local CAL folks asked Charlie why he wanted to punished them that way. But Charlie had removed all his bags of sails to another CAL 25 on the row so that Gina and Gary could at least crawl through Chicken. A modest fumigation was all that was required to make the famous racing boat pseudopalatable for human consumption. The NYers were thirsty and hungry - some beer and vino and a trip to Adam's Rib in Eastport covered that. (Editor's note: Thanks for dinner, guys.)

Saturday, Charlie shows up at the entrance to the large tent wherein Peggie Hall is regaling the hoi-polloi with the merits of various flushing and disinfecting systems, and, as this reporter can attest, she is drawing rapt attention from the crowd at the Raritan booth. Charlie, as promised, is wearing his coral colored (read that "pink") CAL 25 National Championships shirt for easy identification. He hears a "Charlie?" and turns to find a cute young lady who says "Hi, I'm Amy VanHoose." (And Charlie had been thinking that the coral shirt was just making him more generally attractive.) Charlie meets Dwayne VanHoose and a friend who had come with the VanHoose (VanHooses?) from their CAL 35 "Sauce" in Charleston, SC. (Charlie thinks of the week he had been socked in by a hanging Low at that lovely port city in April - Ashley Marina.)

Dan Sadler from the northern Bay stops by to say hello, but he boated in on his CAL 33 early in the o-dark-hundred AM and had much work (read that "spending") to do at the show.

Kevin Tisdall and his wife, Vera, amble in from their CAL 40 "Tumble Home" home in Connecticut. Kevin volunteers to be the photographer for the Cal-List Times, a much appreciated, and often thankless, job. Thanks.

Peggy takes a break from her booth and decides to follow the yellow brick road to CAL Row with the rest of the pilgrims. Charlie, never one to suffer gawking crowds, motors the assemblage through the madding crowd - stopping only long enough to get a round with the troops at a dockside bar. Then he accelerates the pace again because the drizzle is building, and he knows that the Spa Creek draw bridge will open any second (many comments on the view from the bridge) delaying our trip.

At CAL Row, it is discovered that, other than chilling the beer and the white wine (red wines are, or course, not chilled - Charlie reeks of class), Charlie had been remiss in his preparations. Much raw material, little that is presentable. Peggie and Gina volunteer to wedge their way into "Chicken Little" to cut up cheese and veggies, dig out chips and salsa, and turn the melange into an attractive presentation of finger food.   Twas a good use for that Buck marlin spike with blade.

Charlie and Kevin spend some time discussing the reworks Charlie has done to "Chicken Little" including the mast support beam and redeck work. Kevin is a great source for CAL 40 info. Conversation is breaking out up and down CAL Row.

Members of the local CAL contingent drift down the dock. Bob and Cindy Gibson (owners of CAL 30 "Checkmate", the friendly Sailor's Wharf Marina, and a really neat B&B on Mill Creek) come by to join the fray. Mike and Redina Miller (CAL 25 1297 - "Quintet") stop by to say Hi! H. Marie Harkenrider (CAL 25 1497 - "Arctic Tern") arrives. "H.", as we call her, is a long time crew member and sometime skipper on "Chicken Little". Occasional CAL@ contributor Dave Godwin and his fiancée Carol Buchman (Dave used to have a CAL 25, but now Dave and Carol hold forth in a C&C 37) join the group.

Charlie, meanwhile, is tossing beers up and down the dock with a stabilizing spin (never end-over-end) to prevent overeffervescence (Editor's note: Is that a word?) The empty beer cans start to collect in the cockpit of "Chicken Little".

Kevin is snapping shots all over the place to document the festivities. With building rain and darkness, and maybe a little beer, the photos grow fuzzier, but they are definitely worth viewing. Once again, thanks Kevin. (See comments at end of article.)

Peggie must run off to take care of other duties. Seems she is the den mother for a group of folks from a fleet that this reporter will not name, lest Peggie charge said reporter with libel.

The somewhat soggy aggregation begins to disperse as the darkness deepens. Snow shovel loads of cans and leftovers are removed from "Chicken Little" to make her once more habitable for Gina and Gary. Offers are made to make racing crew slots open for the next day on the CAL 25s and tentative promises are made. Fortunately, none are kept. Next morning is blowing 25-30+ and raining sideways out in the Bay. This reporter would have been happy to visit the Raritan booth for the day Sunday rather than go out and get soaked and beaten up for the fun of it. Bay chop in a southerly blow - yuck.

About the photos (with ftp site reference names):
cal25-1 and cal25-2 are shots from both ends of the dock. Every boat between is a CAL 25. We have a combination of good relations with the ownership, and a set of slips that fit a CAL 25 just fine, but nothing ant bigger.
chusar1 does indeed show Charlie with a boat show entry wristband (lest you were wondering what that thing was). More significantly, it is the only photo of a Tisdall in the lot. That's half of Vera on the left (sorry bout that Vera, but your guy had the camera).
gina-1 is a good shot of the lovely Gina Strauch, but somehow chopped off Gary's head. That's not hard to do since Gary is quite a tall guy. The photo does indicate the growing piles of MGD and Lite cans in the cockpit below them.
gina-2 gets Gary into the friendly shot.
party1 looks like a lot of folks ignoring the camera.
Recognizable are Amy (center stage), Cindy (from the back), Gary (on left), H. Marie (I think), and possibly Carol and Redina. Sorry Vera, once again we missed. pegchip shows the hard working Peggy Hall dicing cheese and veggies with a marlinspike blade. If you look very carefully, you can see Gina in the shadows behind Peggie performing similar duties. Thanks, Guys. Next year, All?