THE GREAT MINNOW AND BUFFALO WINGS

This early fall weekend brought one of POYC's premier regattas, the Great Minnow. Sailors assembled on Barren River Lake to compete in the club's last official race of the year. The racemaster had set a creative and challenging course which was complimented by a sailor's friend (and sometimes foe), the wind.

Friend or not, it presented me with the challenge of trying to steer "'ti Punch" (where is Otto when I need him?*), set sails, adjust sails, take pictures, eat lunch all by myself. Otto,* you've been replaced by a couple of bungee cords! Every good regatta provides a forum for its participants to brag about their performance, compliment each other and, in general, to make up new lies.

What's a social hour without good food? Barry's famous wings s[iced it all up.

*Otto--the name with which many of us have christened the "otto" pilot.

OH, MY ACHIN’ BACK!

I planted next year’s garlic crop today. Like tomatoes and onions, garlic is one of those things I can’t get along without. We have raised garlic every year since 1978. Why should this year be any different? It was a bit more trouble than usual and took a bit longer. I couldn’t get the tiller started! Why am I surprised at that? It hasn’t been started in over a year! Rather than tinker with it, I decided to prepare the soil the low tech way—spading fork and rake. So the first part of the process involved spreading manure on the plot of ground. Thankfully we were never particularly good about cleaning out the barn so I have a barn full of well composted goat manure. We closed the dairy and got rid of the goats in 1994 and still have a lifetime supply of manure! So, I spread about 6 buckets of manure on the bed. Then turned the soil and broke it up with the spading fork.

Breaking up the rest of the clods and smoothing the surface with a rake is the next step.

Finally, commit the seed to the ground.

Next spring, I’ll top-dress with more manure. Then, I’ll dig the crop the first week of July.

SHRIMP, GRITS AND FRIENDS

The past two and a half kaleidoscopic weeks have been the best I've spent since that awful night. Being on the boat and among friends was great! Time was filled with boat projects, cooking for all my friends, varnishing teak, taking inventory, a visit to St Augustine, good food and so on.

The Shrimp and Grits Festival on Jekyll Island was a lot of fun. The branches of the ancient live oaks spread like sheltering arms over the crowd.

As with all such festivals, there was plenty of music

plenty of stuff to buy

Lots of people

good food

and plenty of time to relax

The star of the show was the incomparable sweet Georgia Shrimp, prepared and beautifully presented by the numerous restaurants on Jekyll Island.