Jazz on the Water

Views: 183
Added: Tue Jun 24th 3:43pm
Posted in: Entertainment

• » print
• » report
• » email

The other night my wife and I along with some friends went on a little cruise on the Indian River Lagoon. It was the annual WFIT Indian River Queen Paddleboat Cruise where two hundred sixty Jazz aficionados/WFIT supporters gather on the ninety-nine foot paddlewheel boat and cruise down the river. Two of the three decks had Jazz combos providing entertainment while box dinners were provided and drinks were served. I’ll get to that a little later.
As we were preparing to leave the house, my wife asked me what we should wear. I tried to think of what type of people would be going and decide how to dress based on that.
I asked what do people who like Jazz and support public radio wear on a cool evening like this. Right away we’re thinking casual which for me means jeans as opposed to the more dressy Docker’s style pants. Then something dawned on me that touched my conspiracy theory nerve. What else do people on this cruise have in common?
In addition to dressing casually, I would venture to guess that the vast majority of our boat mates have not been happy with the present administration and most likely would be voting to remove some of our present lawmakers. Timing further supported my theory as Election Day was less than two weeks away! The fact that it was to be a three-hour tour added even more fuel to the fire.
Could it be that some right wing organization planned this trip? What a great way to eliminate 260 left leaning voters. Send them out on a sabotaged cruise to Davy Jones Locker. I could see it now on the front page, “Paddle Boat with 260 aboard sinks in Indian River Lagoon”.
I wasn’t too scared because the deepest the Indian River Lagoon gets is about ten feet. Even if the boat did sink there would still be plenty of boat above the water line. This of course wouldn’t be the first poorly planned terrorist event. Remember the shoe bomber?
Just as I thought, security before boarding the boat was lax. Some people were sitting at a table with a list of names. They ask your name, find it on the list, and let you on. They didn’t even ask for ID. When it was my turn, I looked at the list and found a name I liked that hadn’t been crossed out. I said “Kempinski”. A nice lady drew a line through that name and let my wife and I aboard.
It wasn’t long before we were on our way. After scouting out the boat we decided to grab our box dinners, which were surprisingly delicious, and find a place to sit. This was more difficult than we anticipated as all the tables on the first and second decks were full. We made it to the upper deck and finally found some seats. I guess the fifteen mile per hour winds kept all but the bravest from dining up there. Keeping the boxes on the table and out of the lagoon would prove to be quite a challenge. After we finished juggling our dinner we headed downstairs to listen to the music.
On the lower deck, known as the Queen’s Room, was the Lorrie Hafer Quartet. They were great but my paranoia was setting in and I didn’t want to stay too long on this deck. If the boat were to sink, Lorrie’s Quartet and whoever else was in the Queen’s Room were getting wet. We went to the second deck.
There we listened to the Sunnie Paxon Quartet. They too were outstanding. The name was a little deceiving as there were five people in this combo. I’m guessing Sunnie added Davanda Simmons, vocalist extraordinaire, to make the group sound even better.
One thing about a cruise of this type is that the clientele never changes. It reminded me of an old Jackie Vernon pick-up line he used while on a cruise. He walks up to an unescorted lady and says, “Do you live around here? May I walk you home?”
Part of the fun of going to clubs with live entertainment is to watch the people come and go. After about two hours we were getting a little tired of seeing the same people. No one left. No one entered. Usually at the end of the evening the place starts to thin out. Not here. It was the same people in the same places the whole time. We were starting to get a little tired of looking at each other. Thank goodness the music was great.
As we returned to the dock it seems my fears were unfounded and the Indian River Paddleboat Queen would make it back safe and sound. As we lined up to go ashore we saw this couple having a discussion with the boat’s captain.
“Mr. Kempinski, we’re very sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. I hope you understand we could not take on any more passengers than allowed by the Coast Guard. We have to be a lot more vigilant these days. We are fortunate space was created when Mr. and Mrs. Lurby did not show up.”