—- Story and pictures by Barney R. Banks —-

I ran across this picture today while cleaning out some old files and sorting out things I wanted to keep. Thought it would be nice to share with the club. Twelve couples from the club went on a 12 day cruise from Barcelona to Venice and back. What a wonderful time was had by all. Many of us stayed 3 day in Barcelona on each end of the trip which originated in celebration of Gail Banks’ x0 th birthday. That was in October 2011.

Dave Robinson and I took every opportunity, i.e. every seaport with a discernible yacht club, to exchange burgees. Some didn’t have burgees but we visited with them anyway. They were all very pleased to visit with us and everyone knew where the Gulf Coast of Mississippi was. I don’t recall how many burgees we returned with, but there were quite a few. Regardless, we had a great time making the calls on the yacht clubs. I encourage all of our sailors and non-sailors alike to do the same when planning a visit to a unique location. That’s why we have so many beautiful burgees around our club. And as a PostScript, we have Past Commodores David Hanisko and Bradley Randall (may his soul rest in peace) to thank for saving our burgees when Katrina threatened. As a last minute gesture, while battening down the hatches, one or both of them had the forethought to grab all the burgees and take them home for safe keeping — just in case. That’s all we have left of our previous club.

​By the way, the burgee in the accompanying picture was from seaport of Savona, Italy — about midpoint on the Italian Rivera.

Barney Banks