This is a view of the bay by the De Soto camping area.

This is one of the many small islands that fill the lagoons and bays by the campground. There are kayak trails marked through the islands and bays. Much of the area is a wildlife preserve and there are a lot of sea and shore birds to look at.

This was my home for a week. There are a lot of scruffy racoons running around so you should make sure that everything is nailed down. Foam coolers don't work and they know how to work the latches. I managed to defeat them with tie-down straps. They still woke me in the midle of the night.

This is a view of the lagoon that runs through the camp sites. It was allways very peacfull here. All of the trees blocked the wind and it was a nice place to sit and relax.

The "K"-dock tradition of flying the pirate flags was carried with me to De Soto. I also had the American flag, GSLYC burgee, and the commodore's flag flying high from the spinnaker haliard.

This is a shot of our fearless leader, Bram Dally, rigging for a demo sail. This boat was his baby and was not on loan. Bram was nice enough to bring two other boats for some guest sailors to sail and show the rest of us how to sail skiffs.

This is a shot of USA013 ready to launch.

Bram is showing us how it is done in this one.

This is a shot of all the boats ready for the day. The covers are on to keep the dew from soaking into all of the gear that was dutifully dried after the prior day's sail.

This is a shot of Keith rigging his boat. He complained about waiting a long time for his boat to be finished but it sure looked nice. Keith found out that non skid tape may cover the wood but it is a must if you are going to stay on the boat when it gets wet.

This is a shot looking toward the bay bridge of all of the boats lined up at the top of the dune.

This is Pepe and rigging his boat. Pepe is the silver haired gentleman hidden in the rigging. Pepe was a great addition to the group. There was never a dull moment around him and it was a loss to us all when he had to head home early.

When there was a boat to be rigged, there was never a loss of people willing to help or offer their suggestions. Many of us probably spent more time tinkering that sailing. That is one of the attractions for those of us that like to play with our toys.

This is a shot of Anders, an International Sailing Canoe sailor from San Fransisco, making the final adjustments before heading out. Anders spent a lot of time on the water and was very inpressive especially since he was one of the smaller people to sail. Unfortunately he also left early to go to a regatta with his canoe.

This is the goal for the committee boat for next year. We want if fitted out with davits so that we can launch our skiffs from the deck and have cocktails after the races. The physical therapists would also be a plus.

This is a shot of Mike rigging CAN001 the boat that started it all. You can see the bend in the rig while he adjust the tension of the shrouds. This was a heavy mast that was cut down from an old 49'er mast. The newer custom masts are a little bendier and much lighter.

This is a shot of the blooms that were starting to open up. It was nice to see some color after coming from the cold grey north.

We had two days of heavy rains. This was to be the night of the big turkey bake. We ended up rescheduling for the next night and going to one of the local restaurants for drinks and dinner. The rain was being blown from all directions and sideways as well. We could not find a dry spot anywhere under the shelter.

Back row:  Bill Scheuman USA 020 and USA 040, Robert Harper USA 050, Ron Radko USA 002, Bram Dally USA 013, Keith Council USA 056, Darius Darmantas USA 024
Front row: Ken Bradon USA 028, Greg Ryan USA 009, Christian Rasmussen USA 015, Anders Petersson USA 032, Steve Harrington CAN 014, Roger Wright CAN 048, Sabina Markvaldas USA 024, Mike Jocelyn CAN 001
Missing from the picture: Joe Rome USA 055, Thomas Boardman USA 058, Rob Desmarais USA 025

Sunday after a farewell sail, Roger, Ron, and Bram had too much fun drying the kites. There was a lot of chest pounding and boasts of future defeats as kites were being backwinded and covered.

I had a great time and learned a lot. These are a great bunch of people and everyone was willing to help and give advice. I would like to extend a special thanks to all of those who came without boats and were alway eager to help those of us with boats to launch and land without incident.