WheelChair Regatta

This past weekend we participated in the PICYA WheelChair Regatta at Encinal Yacht Club.  If you are a regular blog reader you may already realize that Encinal is one of our favorite Yacht Clubs to visit, so this combined with the chance to give back to our armed service veterans presented a not to be missed opportunity.  PICYA invites veteran's from the local VA hospitals here in Northern California to come for a ride on a power boat.  They are not necessarily in Wheelchairs but are disabled in some way. 

We had six veterans join us, along with two attendants from the VA and one member of PICYA who narrated the cruise.  We also had our friends Joe and Carrie along so thirteen people in total.  One of our veterans was wheelchair bound and the other five all had canes and used walkers.  The fellow in the wheelchair and one of the others were blind as well.  We got the five "ambulatory" guys settled in on the flybridge, with the blind fellow (he had some visions but was legally blind) picked the spot right by the helm.  He spent the whole trip talking to Matt and seemed to have a great time.  Some of the other guys went to sleep, but I still think they enjoyed being out on the water.

you can see the five vets up on the flybridge with Matt.  The three folks seated on the sun deck are the sixth vet (wheelchair bound) and the two attendants.  Joe, Carrie and I are on the boat casting off and the fellow on the dock is the PICYA rep who came along and narrated parts of the adventure for the veterans.

We were supposed to go out for about an hour and a half and then bring the vets back for a BBQ lunch.  We headed up the Alameda estuary, went to the South of Treasure Island, crossed under the Bay Bridge to the ferry building, then turned South, back under the bridge, ducked into McCovey Cove for a look at the Giants stadium then back across the Bay and down the Estuary.  We were one of the first boats to leave and as we returned, after about two hours, we saw quite a lot of boats just leaving.

We got all the vets unloaded (thanks to the Oakland and Alameda Fire Departments!) and then headed up for the BBQ.  Joe got into a conversation with the Marine running the grill and Carrie mentioned Joe had been a Marine as well.  The BBQer made a comment to the effect of "this long haired hippy was a Marine?" and he gave Joe a pork chop.  I have no idea where the chop came from as the menu was hot dogs and hamburgers!

We were the first boat to get back that was staying the night and we ended up tucked into one of the inside corners of the U shaped dock.  This meant we were at the mercy of those around us as to when we could leave on Sunday morning.  We weren't really planning to leave early as we were pretty sleep deprived after arriving around 2 am on Saturday.  That is a whole story of its own but I'll just say we had a beautiful ride over and we both enjoy boating at night.  That was our first night trip on this boat and all went well.

We had a great trip home on Sunday.  There was a bit of drizzle but all the more reason to stay below and watch the 49ers game during the trip.  The 49ers won, which was a great bookend to a great weekend.