Good weather made the cruise up a very pleasant one for our 16 boats who came up to celebrate our annual pilgrimage to Mindarie Keys. More than 60 people came up either by boat or car to enjoy our festivities over the WA Day long weekend 5th – 7th June. Lots of boat hopping, dancing, singing, complimentary beer tasting, “indoor jetty party” and mostly lovely weather made this weekend another stellar one for us. It was great to enjoy normalcy again after a difficult 2020 year and bring back our Cruising Section events this year with so much enthusiasm.
On Friday night several boats came up to Hillarys Yacht Club (HYC) for an overnighter before travelling onto Mindarie Marina on Saturday. 17 of us enjoyed the hospitality of HYC for dinner. New faces plus the regular stalwarts enjoyed the evening.
The majority of people came up on Saturday and after settling into their pens, bottles of bubbles were heard popping, beers raised and with wine glasses clinking, people boat hopped and relaxed enjoying the beautiful weather.
Just before 6 pm 58 of us headed over to the Indian Ocean Brewery for our complimentary beer tasting. A short description followed by the beer and comments from “our own” SoPYC beer connoisseurs continued during the several different tastings! This was followed by a very tasty dinner from the menu. It was a great fun night with lots of chatter and banter across the tables. The Indian Ocean Brewery staff gave us another very warm welcome and could not do enough for us. The food and beverage manager plus other staff sincerely commented on how much they enjoyed (and always enjoy) having us there. A great compliment to our members!
On Sunday afternoon our jetty bbq lunch had to be moved onto our boats with threatening weather looming. It drizzled and rained for about 2 hours and then fined up for the rest of the afternoon and weekend. The rain certainly did not dampen our spirits with the wonderful aromas of onions and sausages soon wafting upwards from our boat bbqs.
We woke up on Monday morning to a cool but sunny day and people started heading off back to SoPYC with gentle seas making it a pleasant trip home.
With more than 60 people partaking in our great weekend it was excellent to see so many new faces who joined in with great gusto. Many new friendships were made and it was remarked to ‘your scribe’ more than once how friendly and welcoming our SoPYC members were to new comers. That is what the Cruising Section is about; enjoying our “old” friends, welcoming new ones and enjoying our boats and the good life!
A really big thank you goes again to Dave Ewart for organising this weekend and to the Cruising Committee who continue to organise these wonderful events which build relationships, comradery and keep our club strong.
Don’t forget to read your “Coffee Pointers” to check our next great day out!!
The Cruisy Scribe :)
