The Bon Voyage Bash
Blog Post 3 – The Nersesyan Bon Voyage Bash July 8, 2015 33:46.06N 118:15.08W
One of the highlights of the party was the gag gift that our dear friends John and Ellen gave us. It was a bag that contained several crucial items for us in case we had issues. They gave us a bag of American soil in case we missed home. They gave us 2 paper cups with a string attached in case our communications failed. They gave us a copy of War and Peace in case we got bored. They gave us an oar in case our engines failed and gave us shark repellant (that doubles as a We had a great DJ; Broadway Joe and his wife Anita. They kept the party going and played great music all night. We took lots of pictures with all our friends and family. It was a beautiful sendoff. It was really special. The party was on Sunday July 5th and we are planning to leave tomorrow morning July 9th, at 4:00 on my 54th birthday. We spent the last 3 days doing final provisioning and getting the boat ready. We cannot believe that it is finally happening. All the talking, planning, provisioning and preparing the boat is finally over. There is no turning back now!
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We wanted to have a party to say goodbye to all of our family and friends. A lot of cruisers have a party on the dock and everyone stands there and waves as you take off. We did not want to do that. Too stressful, too much chance for error. We wanted to get up early in the morning, 4:00 AM and take off quietly to start our journey. We started planning the party, who would come, what to eat, where to have it. We invited most of our close friends and family. It was a diverse group. We had Jirig’s Armenian friends, my work and personal friends, Daniels college friends, Nico’s school friends and friends we had made at the yacht club and at the marina. We decided to have it at the San Pedro Yacht Club. It is not what it sounds like. It is not fancy like some yacht club in Newport Beach. This is San Pedro after all. It is a floating barge in the marina where the boaters go to have cheap drinks. They are a great bunch of people. Everyone looks out for one another. The yacht club looked great, they had cleaned it up and decorated it for the 4th of July. 
We decided to cater the event. I did not want to be dealing with cooking and serving and trying to mingle with guests at the same time. We asked our friend Pattie Walker to cater for us. She had done a fabulous job of catering our previous boat de-naming/re-naming ceremony.(you can see the video of the ceremony on You Tube. Search for Savarona de-naming re-naming ceremony) We worked out the menu with her and the food was fabulous. She made kabobs, rice pilaf, roasted veggies and caesar salad. It was awesome. 
Jirig was giving everyone tours of the boat who had not seen it. Nico invited 3 girls and 2 boys. He was having a good old time. He had become quite the star at school towards the end of the year as people started to realize that he really was going to sail around the world. They had thought he was making it up. 
can of Aqua Net) just in case we ended up in the water and if everything above failed they gave us a bottle with a piece of paper in it for a message in a bottle in dire straights. John has a great comic delivery and had everyone in stitches. 
