Schluckspecht

As I was walking up to the bathroom, I hear this German guy talking to Mike say, "Do you know what you are?" Mike says no, what? "Schluckspecht." There was much laughing around from the others on boats near by and all I hear is Mike saying, "What does that mean?" over and over again.

It turns out to mean someone who drinks too much. Who?! Us?! Wait a minute, what's that in your hand? a beer? Hmmm... I don't know how they got this impression of us.
Maybe because we always seemed to have a fresh beer in our hands?
People kept offering them to us, including Stephan Rosehr... what am I supposed to do? Say no to the NFIA president?!
Ok, we had a few glasses of wine at the Castle and shared a moment with each other... heck, we were doing well in a regatta we weren't expected to... so yeah, we had a few drinks.

Ok, Mike did give us engraved flasks with rum and we had a little nip each morning as we left the harbor and we did carry a 6 pack of beer and a bottle of aquavit... but only to celebrate if we sailed well. So, what? No body else brings beer with them when they sail? Right. We took everything else off the boat that wasn't bolted down to reduce weight, to make room for the beer. This was the last day, so we had 12 beers on board... I gave away at least 3, maybe 4.
I picked up these German Captain's hats in Hamburg, thought it might do something for team spirit... with spirits, for the spirits... you get the picture.
We did sit next to the kegerator and refilled our beers until they caught us and turned off the tap. Little did they know our skipper and bar owned turned it back on in a bout 2 seconds flat. :)

Fritz said the legal drinking age in Germany was 18.... he's only 19. Hinnerk was talking about bringing his boat over and selling it... GER 512... maybe he was drinking too much.
Bjorn did reach up and ring the bell... he bought a round for everyone left at the bar... maybe 30 beers?
He's trying to blame someone for him reaching up and ringing the bell, but we all knew he wanted to do it. Schluckspecht, huh? We found out it literally means gulp-woodpecker. Like the beak of the woodpecker pecking at the alcohol... I think it will make an excellent name for my next boat.