Busy Yacht Club takes cruises, plans for another

The Canyon Lake Yacht Club, one of the community’s fastest growing clubs, held multiple events this past week, helped raise funds at the Canyon Lake POA Maui Sunday and are putting on a Jimmy Buffet Cruise Sunday.

The Yacht Club teamed up with the Canyon Lake Pickleball Club again for their second of three supermoon moonlight cruises last Thursday and packed the dock with over 100 people and 17 boats. Two days later, the Yacht Club held its annual Oktoberfest Bavarian party and cruise, before raising funds at Maui Sunday the next day.

At the Supermoon Moonlight Cruise, the members and guests of the two clubs wandered from boat to boat at the docks noshing on finger food and hoisting toasts to each other. Old friends made new friends, and new residents or members of the clubs had a great time meeting people, exchanging stories, sitting on boats and swimming.

Canyon Lake Yacht Club members tied up at Catfish Cove Thursday with members of the Canyon Lake Pickleball Club and waited for the Blue Moon to shed its clouds and come into full view. The Yacht Club has been busy, holding three events in four days this past week. Photo by Cindy Cameron

Close to a dozen people swam behind boats with floaties. The mood was light and the cloudy day gradually cleared to reveal blue sky and moderate temperatures.

As dusk settled, boats began boarding for the cruise around the Main Lake with the flotilla traveling at low speeds with navigation lights on. Boats found their way to Catfish Cove where they mostly anchored independently, waiting for the rising Blue Moon to show itself.

As the eastern sky lightened, the moon gradually appeared and then passed through a bank of clouds before finally showing in all its glory, to the shouts and merriment of the boat passengers. It was a beautiful evening with Yacht Club Commodore Ron Wilbur and Pickleball Club Activities publicist Ray Stribling commanding the evening.

The two clubs have one more Supermoon Moonlight Cruise together on Sept. 29 when the Full Harvest supermoon will make its appearance.

Then, as the holiday weekend began, Yacht Club members and guests gathered at the Holiday Harbor Guest Docks for its annual Oktoberfest Bavarian party and cruise Saturday with Cruise Captain Paul Hawker for the festive event.

Photo by Cindy Cameron

Activities include food and beer, a cruise around the Main Lake, and a tie-up with swimming and socializing. The Oktoberfest Cruise and Tie-up Party was just one of 44 events and activities the club is holding this year.

“With 44 events and activities, we have lots of different kinds of options for people to choose,” Paul said. “We have picnics to parties on the water to moonlight cruises all on the calendar.”

One of the 44 events is Sunday’s Jimmy Buffet’s Party on the Water.

Leave it to the Canyon Lake Yacht Club to have a Jimmy Buffett party on the water this weekend. The popular and fast-growing Canyon Lake club seems to have a knack for timing.

At the beginning of the year, when the Canyon Lake Yacht Club put together their event list for 2023, Sept. 10 was selected for a Party on the Water featuring the incredible music catalog of Jimmy Buffett music. Obviously, the club had no way of knowing that the iconic singer would pass away on Friday.

In his honor and to his memory, Yacht Club members and their guests will gather at the Holiday Harbor Guest Docks at 6:15 p.m. for a time of finger food sharing, libations and meeting new and old friends.

The massive Jimmy Buffett music playlist will be playing on speakers throughout the event. After an hour or so of socializing, the boats will load up and head out for a slow cruise around the Main Lake before tying up in Catfish Cove for continued music, food, drinks and Margaritaville-style partying.

The club, though, will take a somewhat solemn moment in Catfish Cove when members and guests will spread flowers on the water, as has become the new custom for the Yacht Club to honor passages of life.

“I started Parties on the Water during the pandemic year of 2020, when there were restrictions on gatherings,” Commodore Ron Wilbur said. “It was simply a means for people to get out of their houses, gather together ‘socially distanced,’ and party. We brought out big speakers, tried broadcasting in FM, and generally gave people a little fun in what was a pretty bleak period.”

For Yacht Club people, the new socially-distanced party provided welcome relief from the craziness and fear that reigned that year, he said.

“In 2023, we’re bringing back the tradition because our club is known as ‘the best party on the water’ and what better way to do it than party music, good friends and boats,” he said. “At least a third of our members don’t have boats, but Yacht Club members are exceedingly gracious and welcoming, so everyone manages to get a boat ride and participate in the party. As Buffett pronounced in one of his songs, we all need ‘changes in latitude, changes in attitude.’ We have a party attitude and on Sunday we’ll have it on the water.”