Mini-vous 2005, July 9-10, 2005

Great Salt Pond/New Harbor

Block Island, RI.

The BLISS 2005 "minivous" was held on July 9-10th, 2005 on Block Island.    Despite some difficult weather on Thursday and Friday,  13 boats and 30 people braved the elements and attended the off-year event.   On Friday night, in a driving rain,  packeteers gathered at the "Oar" for dinner and drinks.  While plastic sheets hung from the roof blocked much of the wind and rain, spirits would not have been "dampened" at that point. The dingy or launch ride in was far more challenging than any wind or rain that slipped past the plastic.

On Saturday morning,  packeteers experienced a Block Island tradition as "Aldo" sold pastries and coffee while calling "Andiamo" and getting sleepy sailors up in the morning.  Sailors rode bikes,  took walks and experienced the shops of Old Harbor while waiting for the evening's rendezvous dinner.

At 5:30PM, the group gathered for cocktails prior to dinner.  The "Smugglers Cove" restaurant gave us several tables on the patio and we enjoyed a cool, dry, night and some pleasant conversation before dinner.   After a nice dinner, we gave away the gifts provided by the Island Packet factory and a few sponsors. Every boat went away with quite a haul!

After dinner,  we were pleased to see that fireworks had been arranged by someone having a wedding a short distance away.  Our minivous had a fitting close with several minutes of quality pyrotechnics in the sky.

On Sunday morning,  several boats braved the 20-25 knot winds and 8 foot swells outside of the entrance channel to head to their home ports.   Time Bandit and Snark sailed east and left in choppy seas and brisk winds, When they rounded North light, the seas eventually calmed and the winds laid down considerably.  Snark continued on to Buzzards Bay while Time Bandit entered Narragansett Bay.

For an off-year, it was a well attended event and everyone had a good time!

BLISS 2005 Group Pictures

BLISS 2005 Scenery

BLISS 2005 Rendezvous Dinner Pictures

BLISS 2005 Attendees