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Rock Hall 2004
Thursday
photos by Uncle Al

According to my trusty directions from Expedia and MapQuest, it is a drive of 9 hours and 5 minutes from Oakville, ON to Chestertown, MD. Since my crew, Marc Bennett, had once again been kept at work, I left alone on Wednesday evening, enjoying a peaceful drive and by just after 11 p.m., reaching my overnight rest stop in ...
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... Binghamton, New York in intermittent rain. By early afternoon Thursday, SHADES and I had reached ...
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... sleepy Chestertown on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, and more specifically ...
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... the little dinghy park of the Chester River Yacht and Country Club on a hot and muggy afternoon ...
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... with the Chester River as a backdrop.
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Soon SHADES was ready for the next day's Chester River Race ...
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... her first outing since Marc and I had spent a month re-doing her interior, the decks and the transom.
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It is a lovely, quiet area, and afternoon heat ...
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... brought out a few swimmers from ...
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... Chester River Yacht and Country Club across the road.
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Some lovely, classic boats at the dock, and ...
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...  nice little home across the river.
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A quick 5-minute drive later, I was ...
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... back in downtown Chestertown ...
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... supremely ready for a nice, cold beer. Alas, I discovered that in sleepy old Chestertown, no place would be open to serve beer until 4 p.m. which was still nearly two hours away! Later, I would try the Starbucks-like coffee shop and get a very nice coffee, but even there I would strike out on Sunday afternoon when they were already closed when I wanted to start my long drive home with a nice coffee to go just after 4 p.m.
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Ultimately, I had to go back to the Chester River Yacht and Country Club for a much needed ...
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... and most refreshing ...
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... beer from a lovely young waitress who seemed un-offended by my sailor's attire
of Wayfarer T-shirt, Tilley shorts plus bare feet in Birkenstocks.
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By quarter to five I had followed Frank Pedersen's flawless directions to his home with the Wayfarer signpost. With the BBQ not scheduled to start until some time between 5 and 6, I sat out in the car admiring a downpour and doing a crossword, until ...
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... Frank's wife, Sue (l) and her daughter-in-law, Kim, noticed me and forced me to come in and join them. Despite violent thunderstorms all around the area, people began to show up:
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Lee and Karin Cowperthwait who would provide me with the best billet anyone could imagine,
and my crew for the next two days, the new owner of W3627, Bill Bagwill (r).
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Sue and Kim supervise the refreshments.
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Frank's daughter, Sarah, had flown in all the way from Boise, Idaho, to be his crew in W4270.
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(l to r) Vicki and Richard Budden (Wayfarers and neighbours of Frank's), our host, Frank Pedersen and Bill Bagwill
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Nick and Mary Seraphinoff pulled in a bit later from Detroit, only to tell us they'd have to go back to the airport in Washington, D.C. (a good hour's drive!) to make a second try at picking up Nick's daughter ...
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... Julie Price whose plane out of Detroit had been delayed. A better rested Uncle Al volunteered to do the driving with Nick as navigator, and we soon had Julie with us and provisioned with a fine Sam Adams beer.
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The Rock Hall
2004 River Race & Regatta

River Race results
Regatta results
report

pictures
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Thursday
Friday - 1
Friday - 2
Friday - 3
Saturday - 1
Saturday - 2
Sunday