Kadey-Krogen Rendezvous

What an action-packed, educational, motivational and fun 5 days we had at the Kadey-Krogen rendezvous. Former, current and wannabe Krogen owners meet annually at Calvert’s Marina in Solomons, MD. Every day began at 6:45 a.m. with either yoga or a 4 mile walk and concluded as late a 11:00 p.m. the night of the dance. Fabulous classes and social activities kept us super busy. An enormous amount of work by volunteers goes into organizing this event and it is certainly appreciated.

There were 44 boats and approximately 150 people in attendance. It’s quite a feat the way the dockmasters wedge the vessels in like sardines. Boats are typically docked bow to stern on these docks but for this event they are nestled in side-by-side and tied to both the docks and to each other, separated only by fenders.

There was a substantial list of topics covered by well-known and knowledgeable presenters who had a combination of technical, boating and weather expertise. (See previous blog to see a list of classes). The speakers were well known in the boat world such as Jeff Siegel, Chris Parker, Steve Zimmerman and more. Scott is still raving about the quality of the speakers and is already using his new found knowledge and skills. With Hurricane Michael heading our way he will put this in practice .

We attended a round table discussion on the Bahamas so now we are chomping at the bit…Exumas here we come! We had already planned on visiting the Exumas this winter so the valuable tips on communication, medical emergencies,
provisioning and more will be put to good use.

In another class one boater shared his experience on the Down East Loop which goes up the Hudson River to Canada, out the St. Lawrence Seaway, around Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and back to the USA. This inspired us to explore the possibility of lowering our mast so that we can go under the lowest fixed bridge on this route. This would be quite a project, perhaps more than we would like to tackle.

A marine shipping company spoke about the process of shipping boats overseas. I took good notes in case we should ever want to ship Unforgettable to the Baltic or to Fiji or the Med! Not so sure that we have enough guts to cross oceans, at least not by ourselves—yet! Scott definitely wants to take her through the Panama Canal though and I want to go all the way to Alaska.

We were asked to facilitate a class for “newbies” even though we have only had our current boat 1 year. Our friends, Neal and Margretta, helped us and hopefully we helped those people that were either new to boating or new Krogen owners. We presented a variety of resources that covered the topics that we felt would have benefited us within that first year.

Along with the great classes, another boat owner-pharmacist gave vaccinations and I received the first of a 2 dose series for shingles and was one of 10% that had a reaction. I had flu like symptoms, extreme soreness, swelling, redness, etc. I get to do it again within 2-6 months!

Daily “docktails” and dinners provided plenty of opportunities to hang out with old friends and make new ones. My favorite evening was the last one when we danced the night away with a really good band. I think we only sat out for 5 songs so we were a sweaty mess.

I believe a good time was had by all, certainly by us! We are already looking forward to next year’s event.