Superbowl Sunday, Cruising Style

We made sure we had scoped out a place in West End to watch the Superbowl. By Sunday, we knew of several bars in West End that were promising to televise it.

We ended up going to the Buccaneer, a nice open-air (but covered) bar along the waterfront, with a big Ohio State flag hanging in the rafters. Bob and Annette on Tempest had originally set up reservations for 8, and then told everyone. By Sunday afternoon we took a head count among the cruisers and counted 20 people planning to go. Bob called in and upped his reservation a little.

We did our headcount in person, by dinghy, rather than over the air on the VHF. It's a good way to invite theives out to the boat... announce to the world that all the boats in the anchorage are going to be vacant for 3 hours. The boats that had been there a long time didn't think it would be an issue, but Dave and Mike were worried anyway. We left a number of lights on on Soggy Paws (to look lived-in), and Mike and Dave ran out in the dinghy at halftime to check on things. There were no problems reported. There is enough money flowing through West End that petty theft on the boats doesn't seem to be an issue there.

2 hours before the Superbowl, we stopped in at the Buccaneer to check on things and found the TV out. They said that the power was out in Sandy Bay where the TV Station was. A couple of the cruisers then ran down to Rick's to get a table there (they had Satellite). But 30 minutes before gametime, the situation was resolved, and we had a nice time at the Buccaneer.

The Cruisers Table at the Superbowl
Tom and Chrissie from s/v Rock n Roll
The people at the Bucanneer did an amazing job keeping up with food and drinks during the Superbowl. For a bar that might do dinner for 10-15 people in a night, they kept us supplied with pizzas and whatever else was ordered. And we weren't the only table there.

They even arranged for our own little halftime show... they had a local 'flame dancer' come do a short show for us. But we missed all the commercials at halftime :(

Halftime at the Buccaneer
I started out cheering for the Patriots (just wanted to see them complete their perfect season). By the end of the game, the Giants were playing with such heart (and success) that I switched to cheering for them. So my team won!