Deltaville's premiere marina is Regatta Point, and that's where I am now. This weekend, the Virginia Yacht Club is partying here - big powerboats everywhere you look, bedecked with flags and bunting. Friday evening when I pulled in, there were close to 100 people on the deck, men in white pants and blue jackets with ties, women all dolled up, everyone with fancy drinks in hand - and on the docks were the sailors - scruffy t's, shorts, beers in coozies, every one of them looking a bit bemused at the ostentatious display of spiffery up on the deck.
Of course, I headed to my natural environment, after donning a good shirt and tie and polishing up my black oxfords - ok, ok - stop laughing so hard people. Some of you are going to hurt yourselves. But I do have a nice shirt, tie and good shoes on board, and a jacket. You never know when some hottie might want to go out dancing someplace hoity toity! Mind you, you could fly a small plane using the lapels of that jacket as wings, but I digress here...
What really happened is that a couple of the sailors from the next boat over grabbed my lines and I joined them for some beer and laughs. Someone suggested the next evening we have our own 'redneck yacht club' party at the barbecue pit - and as fast as that, it was decided.
So last night, there we were in our scruffiest outfits - and where sailors are concerned, that's SERIOUSLY scruffy, hokey hats, beers in hand, cooking dead animals on the grill, going 'hyuck hyuck, y'all havin' fun now?' Had to laugh when a couple of the yachties wandered over from their dinner party to chat - seems they weren't all as hidebound as they looked. A couple of the guys looked as if they wanted to hang with us, but with wives pulling on their arms like a terrier on a leash, off they went.
Five of us ended up the evening helping the marina 'social directors' prep for the marina breakfast some seven hours hence, slicing potatoes and fruit, setting out tables and chairs. Raiding the fridge, we found a huge piece of smoked salmon, cream cheese and crackers left over by the hoity toitys. Well, since we were busy prepping and working, it only seemed right that we have a nibble...I mean, no point in wasting good smoked salmon is there? I'm sure you would have agreed.
So there we were, noshing on smoked salmon and cream cheese, sipping 18 year old rum that one of the guys had - an incongruous end to the Red Neck Yacht Club party when you think about it.
