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There was a first, quick blast of a horn, and then another and another. Soon, all the gathered boats erupted in sound as the people aboard them, some crying, watched a bobbing wreath in Moriches Bay.

The vessels carrying family and friends of charter boat Capt. Casey Mehlinger idled for a few minutes longer Saturday afternoon near Moriches Inlet, in the same waters where Mehlinger spent much of his time fishing and boating, before returning to the docks.

The flotilla of more than 20 boats was a memorial to Mehlinger, who died Nov. 28 at 47 following a motorcycle crash in Pennsylvania. Mehlinger was in the state visiting family for Thanksgiving.

"Casey loved the water," said his wife, Diane Mehlinger, 43, of Shirley. "That was his love. Just being out on the water was a tribute to him."

Saturday afternoon, participants boarded boats at two Center Moriches locations -- Senix Marina and the Union Avenue Dock -- and followed the 36-foot Hatteras carrying Mehlinger's dad, Gunter Mehlinger, 73, of Manorville, and the Rev. Kevin P. Von Gonten of The Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist in Center Moriches.

Just before reaching Moriches Inlet, the boats formed a rough circle. The priest led a prayer over the VHF radio and Gunter Mehlinger thanked everyone for coming and for being friends with his son. Then, a wreath was placed in the water.

"He's my son, he's my friend, and he was my sidekick," Gunter Mehlinger said at a barbecue afterward, at Senix Marina. "You couldn't get much closer. When he was little and I went to the bathroom, if I didn't close the door quick enough, he was there with me."

Friends and family recalled Mehlinger's generosity and skill with his hands.

"He was a very generous guy," said his best friend since the early 1990s, Ron Alcus, 44, a yacht surveyor from Center Moriches. "If somebody's boat was broken -- he was a very handy, mechanical guy -- he would jump in their boat and say 'What's the matter with your engine?' And he would jump in there and just fix their engine."

"He was always helping," added Diane Mehlinger, who met her husband of more than nine years at work.

Casey Mehlinger, who also is survived by his son Sean Mehlinger, 26, of Virginia, and stepdaughter Nicole Fiscina, 16, of Shirley, could fix and build just about anything, loved ones said.

"He got his mechanical skills real early in life," Gunter Mehlinger said. "I would be working on top of the car and he would come out from under the car pitch-black."

"There probably isn't a boat in the marina that doesn't have a part on it that he made," Alcus said. "There was nothing he couldn't fix."

Mehlinger, who ran his charter boat, Seeker, with his partner, Capt. Ed Olsen, was president of the Great Gun Anglers fishing club for four years.

"He took over the club and he significantly increased membership," said Alcus, now president of the group. "He greatly organized the club, and he . . . took the club to a whole new level."

Alcus hoped that Saturday's memorial helped bring closure to those who knew his friend.

"He was very well-loved," said Alcus, who hung a large photograph of Mehlinger on his boat, Surrounded by Girls, during the memorial event. "He would be right here laughing, drinking a beer with us and, you know, really enjoying this if he was here."