Labor Day raft up

Another outing in the Bay for Papy Jovial, this time to the Severn River then the Eastern River, then back home.
We left on Friday august 29, Diana, Stew and myself around 5:00 p.m. with next to no wind. All we did that day was to motor up to Willoughby Bay and anchor there. That gave me the opportunity to discover the back channel behind the Naval Base.
We got to the anchorage around 7:00 p.m., had dinner with salmon and spaghettis and had an early tuck in (at least for me).
Saturday morning was foggy and not much prospect for wind. We motored then motor-sailed up to the Severn River, having some company along the way with Shanty and Tardis.
We managed to do a little bit of sailing, as the picture taken by Tardis shows, but I could not event keep my sails up all the way to the anchorage to show up my brand new sail numbers (my brotherhood flag number) with the brotherhood logo.
Anyway, towards the late afternoon, we arrived into the Severn river and tied up alongside Tardis. As usual, every brother not out of town was there. Orza, of course, was the anchor boat. Then we had Cat Nap, Maraj, Talisman, Bumboo, Fresh Air, Tardis, Shanty and Papy Jovial. Blue Moon and our captain are cruising in the Albemarle sound and brother Limey is land cruising down in Florida.
Once again the food and drinks during the evening were such that there was no way we could have an early morning on Sunday. There was no need for it anyway. So we had breakfast together on Orza and eventually left the raft-up around 11:00 a.m.
We had nowhere to go since we had agreed to meet next door in the Eastern River that afternoon, so we went nowhere, but keeping the wind slightly ahead of our beam on the way out and slightly abaft of the beam on the way back. Wonderful sail. At some point we were keeping 8.1 knots steady with between 15 and 20 knots of wind. Ideal weather for Papy Jovial.
So we came back afterwards to the Eastern River where Tardis was the anchor boat.
After tying up, I stayed behind to fill in my log book, while beer was being served at the other end of the raft up. Although I was supposed to wait for Stew to help me, I went up on deck and started unpacking the dinghy that had stayed in the box since I bought it back in March. My first brilliant move was to drop in the water the fitting required to connect the pump to the dinghy. Fortunately, the hose being brand new, it was still firm enough so that we managed to inflate the dinghy, launch it, fit the engine in it, and run it.
Next challenge will be to try and pack it with the floor in the bag.

We then all shared dinner on Tardis after which we all got together on the upper deck to share the wonderful evening. That is when the back legs of the chair that brother BUI was using collapsed and BUI fell backwards, almost slipping from the deck. Fortunately, the rail kept him in, but he was pretty shocked, with neck and back hurting. Let's hope that it turns out all right with no long term damage.
This called for a shot of rum before retiring for the night.

Next morning, we left kind of early, mindful of the distance to go with no wind. And this is exactly what we got and we motored all day. We got to Scotts Creek around 5:00 p.m., and for once getting into the slip went smoothly. To be confirmed next time.