All Aboard for Village Theatre!

Captain Steve Hazlerig surrounded by his admirers,
Peggy Swistak, Cathi Hatch and Susan Neumann

What a beautiful evening to climb aboard the 58' Delta Marine M/V Solara yesterday as we embarked on a cocktail cruise which our friends, Peggy & Michael Swistak had purchased at a Village Theatre auction. 

Behrooz Chitsaz and Tom James on the stern

When we arrived at the designated embarkation destination in Newport Shores, we realized that the home was the home that friends, Diane & Richard Foreman had built around 15 or 20 years ago.  I can remember many good times attending Book Club and attending the bris of their grandson, Max, in this beautiful home. 

To add to the frivolity of the evening, our host's next door neighbor was also having a cocktail cruise party aboard his yacht, Yachta Yachta, and several of the Swistak's guests ended up on the yacht next door before realizing that they were at the wrong party and didn't know anyone else on board!

Yacht owner and Village Theatre Board Trustee, Steven Hazlerig was our able Captain and host. Louise Kincaid, Village Theatre Development Director, played the supporting role of First Mate and organized the food and wine and took care of all of our gustatory needs on the cruise.

Gail James, Peggy Swistak, York & Alice Harris

Guests on board in addition to Ken and me, included Susan & Gary Neumann, Sue & Tom Raschella, Gail & Tom James, Melanie & Behrooz Chitsaz, Peggy & Bruce Wanta and Alice & York Harris.

Louise Kincaid, Peggy Swistak, Bruce Wanta,
Gail James and Michael Swistak on the bow
with Seattle Yacht Club burgee flying.

It was the perfect temperature as we cruised slowly through Lake Washington inspecting not only the lakefront homes, but also the barges and cranes, through the Montlake Cut, and on into Lake Union.  Lake Union was teaming with people on sailboards, Ride the Ducks boats, sail boats, speed boats, the Virginia V (where we had spent the previous evening; see blog posting HERE) and other tour boats, and even an old-fashioned sailing ship replica sporting all sails flying.

Steve has amazing navigational instruments and electronics on his boat and it was fascinating to see how many more bells and whistles he has than what I remember on our 57' Ocean Alexander, the StarSpirit which we owned in partnership with the Neumanns many years ago now.

Navigating through the barges and cranes with
ashes of roses clouds in the background.

As the sun began to wane, Peggy pointed out the exquisite fluffy pink and lavendar clouds and told the story of when she was a child, when she was drawing a picture, she would always color the clouds pink.  That has always been my favorite color for clouds too, so I shared with her the name I use which is Ashes of Roses, that slightly greyed-lavendar-pink tinge.  By the time we returned to Newport Shores, the sky was dark and in addition to consulting his panoply of electronic gear, Steve navigated back the old-fashioned way by steering to the red-flashing buoy and leaving it on his starboard side as he threaded his way into the channel.

Ken Hatch and Michael Swistak

Ken Hatch, Gail James, Sue Raschella enjoy the main salon.

Just as Captain Steve was safely docking the boat, an unexpected accident occurred and one of our friends stepped back unknowingly and fell straight down into the spiral stairwell leading to the forward stateroom.  He hit his head and was knocked unconscious. 

Thankfully, Michael Swistak, who is a doctor, was beside him in an instant and 9-1-1 was immediately called.  The medics arrived on the scene within 3-4 minutes of the time they were called and were able to stabilize our friend with a head and neck board to ensure that nothing was seriously injured as under his own power he walked off the boat.  Though we still don't know the end of the story, we were relieved to hear that when he arrived at the hospital he was given a cat scan and everything looked normal, though they did decide to keep in the hospital overnight for observation.  We are still crossing our fingers and praying that he has suffered no damage and will be back to normal in no time!

As we departed, Peggy sent us off with a gift bag which turned out to be two wine glasses and more importantly a voucher that can be exchanged for two tickets for one of the upcoming Village Theatre productions.  Both Ken and I look forward to choosing which one and attending!