Fort Foote Cruise
June 24, 2001

On Sunday June 24, eight fleet 50 boats and 30 skippers, crew and friends participated in a social cruise to Ft. Foote.  This was the first cruise to that location in fleet history.  Fort Foote was only half the distance to Ft. Washington, and that gave us more flexibility in setting a date; the current was much less a factor.  So we had high expectations about Ft. Foote.  It did not disappoint us.  In fact, this is a wonderful discovery.  The beach anchoring area of about 200’ was completely free of stones, rocks and mud.  A short walk up a path led to an open picnic area.  This path, in fact, was constructed in 1863 to get supplies to the fort from the river. What a contrast to the mile plus hike to get to the picnic area at Ft. Washington.  The park service put four tables in a shady spot.  Nearby was a grass flat area just perfect for volleyball.  We had more than 3 hours there.

Nabeel, with Russ Roberts and friend Hilary Fried, and Valeri (newly arrived from Bulgaria) led the way and was guided to our spot by Cathy Bleakly who drove down earlier and was on the beach showing the location.  Joe Anderson brought his son, and his son’s wife and his crew.  Jeff Storck brought  Lori Duncan and Emilie Pavilon.   The all female crew did not escape our notice.  Jeff handed over the tiller and we hear they got revenge on him by forcing Jeff to jibe the spinnaker several times on the trip down.   And, of course, in typical skipper fashion, they commented repeatedly on the quality of his work.  Jim and Robin Krest brought friends Lori Rudolf and Eric Nemeth.   Joe Warren also brought John Hart, Susan Nickbarg, and a guest, Cj Fisher.  Rich Welch sailed with his sister, nephew Andrew, and Jim Truman, who, although on our crew roster, has not sailed.  Paul Maher and his regular crew Ben Kuykendall sailed with Drew Hudson, and Frank Gallagher sailed with wife Maryann, and daughter Colleen.  We had three more boats than last year.  Several other skippers said they would have gone but were out of town or could not sail.   We were blessed with favorable winds of 6-11 knots from the north to northwest which held up all day, eliminating the need for a tow back.  The strong ebb tide provide some challenging tacking on the return trip, especially between the Wilson bridge pillars. 

Even though food was carried in coolers it was an impressive spread.  Hamburgers and hotdogs were the main item, but it was amazing how many desserts there were.  This was topped off by Paul Maher’s wonderful strawberry shortcake. We all had plenty to drink too, despite no on-site water.  The big hit was the volleyball game--I should say games.  There must have been at least six.  I was in one of the earlier ones on the same side with Jeff and Frank, Russ Roberts and Robin Krest.  There were several experienced players and those with somewhat less experience.  Experience was evident in Jeff's side serve and Robin's excellent returns.  I was impressed by Russ Robert's backward facing returns.  This could have been simple protection from Frank’s unique shank shots that were more of a threat to his side than the other.  We all enjoyed Frank’s impression of a one legged player as he collapsed to his left going for a return.  Now I know what Lightning folks do when they don’t sail!