(L to R) Medford Mayor Mike McGlynn, Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone, Father Thomas Keys of Saint Francis of Medford and WHYC Commodore Bill Rogers of Somerville. Photo by William Tauro

By William Tauro

On Saturday the Winter Hill Yacht Club (WHYC) of Somerville along with the Mystic Wellington and Riverside Yacht Clubs of Medford, invited Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone and Medford Mayor Micheal McGlynn to be part of the Blessing of the Bay on The Mystic River for it’s 2011 boating season.
The day long annual event began early Saturday from the Somerville Boathouse waterway on Shore Drive where Father Thomas Keys of Saint Francis Church of Medford blessed the fleet of over two hundred boats with holy water as they passed alongside in a single file of the vessel “Jolly Rogers” which Father Keys and the two mayors were stationed aboard.
The procession of vessels then continued to boat up river to the Mystic Wellington Yacht Club in Medford where over three hundred and fifty boaters of Somerville and Medford attended an afternoon cookout, live band, and dinner later into the evening. It was a great family function event enjoyed by all.
For the past 30 years Somerville’s WHYC, along with the four other yacht clubs on the Mystic River, have gotten together as an annual tradition to have their boats blessed by a priest as a way to have a safe boating season.
For several years the mayor from Medford, Mike McGlynn, has been invited by the Medford clubs to represent that city and the WHYC of Somerville has always begun the day long annual event at the Boys/Girls Club dock in Somerville on Shore Drive. Mayor of Somerville Joe Curtatone was on board with the Somerville boating community to begin the boating season and represent the City of Somerville.