Social Scene: Yacht Club boats compete in a Marco Island ‘Sea Hunt’

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The Yacht Club team onboard Team “Lady B” scan the shoreline in Smokehouse Bay, looking for a dock with five colorful chairs. The contest consisted 55 cryptic clues that teams had to identify and photograph on the shore in five different zones. Pictured, from left: Jeff Comeaux, Scot Ruhlander, Ginny Colangelo, Bob Colangelo, Carol Comeaux.

On a sunny and clear day last week, eight Marco Island Yacht Club boats gathered in Smokehouse Bay to compete in the Club’s 5th Annual Nautical Scavenger Hunt. Teams of six to eight people onboard each boat had to identify 55 targets on the shoreline and snap a photo to land them. Clues were divided into five zones to narrow down each search area. The contest kicked off at noon, with 4 p.m. as the cutoff deadline.

Teams had to unravel what each clue meant, then find and photograph the target. A clue for the Pier 81 Condominiums on Factory Bay was: “It may be called a pier but these vertical twin beauties adorn a factory skyline."

The winning team was aboard Lily, skippered by Commodore Geoff Walker, who managed to finish the entire course an hour and a half ahead of the deadline. His sleuth crew included his wife, Cinda, Chuck and Meredith Downton, Russ Doeringer and Cara DuBay.

Yacht Club members aboard Team “Pelican" reach over to pick up their clue packet from the Committee Boat. The eight boats picked up their Clue Packet one at a time, then waited for a horn to go off at noon to open the packet and begin the hunt!

MIYC Commodore Geoff Walker and his wife, Cinda, accept congratulations from Rear Commodore Henry Stanley, who announced "Team Lily" as winners of the Club's 2021 Nautical Scavenger Hunt.