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The 2nd Commodore Dave Booster Rally was held in Madeira Beach, Florida on August 4 as dolphins, egrets and pelicans played outside. Despite his affection for cruising the corridors of power, Governor Charlie Crist could not attend as he was home waiting for a call from John McCain. Vinny Lecavalier, the superstar hockey player who recently signed an $85 million contract extension with the Tampa Bay Lightning, was also a “no-show”. Apparently he was out shopping for his own cruise line.

The rally in Mad Beach was hosted by John and Linda, who moved to Florida from Virginia nearly 20 years ago and now run a home décor and furnishing store called “Sign of the Dolphin.” They are avid cruisers, and John is a newly appointed “Cruise Director” of the Tripharbor community, which means he is an active and valued contributor to the site.

After reading my blog about the Commodore Dave rally in Ottawa, John invited me to attend a similar function in this pretty beach community on the west coast of Florida. “We’ll do it with a Florida flair,” he promised, “on the waterfront with shrimp and chardonnay!”

The rally was attended by 16 people, most of whom are avid cruisers. That shouldn’t surprise anyone as Florida has the busiest cruise ship ports in the world, and more Floridians walk up the gangplank every year than any other state or province. The locals also love to plan group trips and take cruises for special occasions like anniversaries and weddings, which is even easier to organize when you can avoid airports and just drive to the port of embarkation.

That’s exactly what one of the couples at the rally told me they are planning to do this winter. Doc and Hazel’s daughter is getting married this year and the families of both the bride and groom are going to celebrate with a cruise. They’ve booked 15 cabins for a 5-day Caribbean cruise that will generate a lot of fun and a lifetime of wonderful memories.

In order to test the cruising knowledge of our rally participants, we held a short trivia quiz half way through the evening and gave out prizes, compliments of Tripharbor, for the best scores. The quiz consisted of 12 questions, some harder than others, such as “What is the name of the largest cruise ship in the world?” and “What is the suffix that the names of all Holland America ships end with?” (The answers to these and other questions will appear in a future blog.)

Doc and Frank tied for first place with a score of 8 points. Kathy, Denise and Hazel tied for second place with 7 points. And Marina, with assistance from her husband Tony, took third place with 6 points. Hazel dropped back to third after a tie-breaker question – “What was the name of the character who was the Captain of the Love Boat on TV?”

As for the remainder of the evening, we continued to sip champagne and chardonnay, graze on shrimp, cheese and smoked salmon pinwheels, and enjoy the wonderful company of our hosts and their fabulous friends. But before the night concluded, someone raised the inevitable question that comes from talking about cruising with good friends: “Why don’t we all go on a cruise together?”

Thanks to all the chardonnay, I don’t remember exactly what happened next. But somehow I think I’m on the hook to organize a Panama Canal cruise for 16 people!

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