Toronto, January 15, 2000

The weather was terrific! We sat around the pool and reminisced about our day at the Toronto Boat Show. The Great CALnadian Rendezvous was gaining steam. The bermuda-shorted waiter brought the first round of Pina Coladas. The palms on the deck of the National Yacht Club swayed back and forth in the gentle breeze.

Larry Gudza and his wife Betty, sat between Roger and Eileen Boyle explaining the best way to install wheel steering. Richard Fuller, Raissa Fuller and Gary Mason discussed the resolution capabilities of their digital cameras, occasionally sneaking a candid shot of their fellow Cal owners.

Just before the waiter brought another round, we took a dip in the pool to refresh ourselves and cool our tired bodies. What a night for a pool party! Our enthusiasm attracted the attention of the owners of a Tatan 34 and a C&C 35. They joined us as honoured guests.

Mark Thomas and Angie Vehrs compared CAL 31 notes with Roger and Eileen. Richard asked for opinions on whether to install a wheel-house on his flat-top CAL 28 creating a poor man's Nauticat. Gary pointed out that the CAL 25 was the perfect size for doing donuts around freighters in his St. Lawrence River home port. Larry talked about how similar his CAL 27 was to the frigate he served on in the Navy. The locale for our Great CALnadian Rendezvous reminded him of his James-Bond-like nights on the town when his frigate would put in to a exotic Caribbean port to take on rum for the ship's stores.

We had another round and retired to the shaded area under the breezeway to get out of the warm sun. The palms *still* swayed in the breeze. In spite of having yet another round, nobody dropped the fine china or grazed the glistening silver wine goblets as we wined and dined in our tropical surroundings.

Since the pool doubled as a skating rink in the winter, it had all the hockey markings painted on the concrete. We had all brought radio controlled models of our boats and raced them on the pool from one blue line to the other. Richard missed a tack, when he was distracted by the returning waiter, and *Mashed* Larry's boat into the side of the pool (crunch). It was the first time a sailor has been assesed a two-minute penalty for "boarding"...   (OK, OK... I realize this is a stretch - you can omit this paragraph if you want to)

After a team picture featuring the C@L burgee was taken, we prepared for the inevitable end to this idyllic evening by having another round. The palms still rustled softly in the breeze.

All the time, we had to wonder about and feel sorry for the poor Pacific North-West Cal owners who had to trundle out in the middle of their dark, dreary, damp winter to meet each other the following weekend - Soaking in Seattle - while we were basking in Toronto.

( Now, you *know* that we Lake Ontario/ Lake Erie Cal owners who attended The Great CALnadian Rendezvous would never mislead the rest of the list about the state of our weather, or anything else for that matter)

JOLLYROG