Century Club: mike pitchford

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Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Number of days:
1 day
Golf ball day
  • golf balls salvaged on a kayak outing

Our Florida condo and winter home has the advantage of being on a navigable inlet of the Atlantic ICW, having a marina and being surrounded by a golf course.  The combination means tee shots from the par three 16th hole go over salt water on their way to the green (or not).  Something about water is a magnet for golf balls and many end up with a kerplunk, short of the green. 

Every season I collect errant golf balls to redistribute to my golfing friends. Today a good low tide coincided with late afternoon on a slow for golf weekday.  Seeing a target rich environment I jumped in my kayak (the preferred vehicle for golf ball harvesting) and collected 122.  Not a bad hall.    

Friday, March 26, 2021
Number of days:
1 day
Legacy maintenance run

In the service life of all good diesel engines comes the time to do some of the "big stuff".  This involves thousands of $ and a week or so for the diesel mechanics to visit the boat remove the after cooler, oil and transmission coolers, heat exchanger etc.  Actually, most service manuals call for this to happen every few years.  This year it was my turn.

Winsome Winn is in Florida for the winter and the nice folks from Shearwater Marine were more than happy to take on the job. They visited the boat to scope the job, prepared an estimate, came to the boat to remove the parts, came back to reinstall the serviced parts and scheduled a test run to make sure all was good. 

The latter happened today, a nice sunny and warm south Florida day.  It was a short run but enjoyable.  Unfortunately there was a small saltwater leak in the transmission cooler so off it came and back to the shop.

Friday, March 26, 2021
Number of days:
1 day
vaccinated boomers gone wild

The pandemic has generated immense pent up demand for all things social.  Today a group of ten of us, all vaccinated baby boomers, chartered the local party pontoon boat for a three hour tour of the ICW around Jupiter.  Adult beverages and dancing were on the menu. 

Tuesday, March 16, 2021 to Thursday, March 18, 2021
Number of days:
1 day
Jupiter tour and lunch stop

Any excuse to take the boat out!  Neighbor had her sister and brother in law in for a visit.  We suggested a tour of Jupiter by water to include a lunch stop.  

Thursday, March 4, 2021
Number of days:
1 day
Jupiter tour and lunch stop

Friends Joe and terry conway stopped by and we did a little tour of Jupiter and stopped for lunch at Guanabana's. 

Saturday, February 27, 2021
Number of days:
1 day
Up the ICW for a picnic

Motored the little Key West up the ICW 15 miles and a lot of no wake zones to Franklin Lake for a two boat picnic lunch with Friends from Stewart, Hank and Elly Libby. 

Friday, February 12, 2021 to Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Number of days:
12 days
West Coast of FL cruise

We brought the cruising boat (Legacy 32) to FL on the ICW in November. We sold the larger trawler and have a condo in Jupiter FL.  Bringing the cruising boar back down was not initially in the plans.  It was  COVID-19 addition to the plans.

After the easy going trip down the ICW (we took 27 days), the boat sat a while as we got the condo opened up for the season and got our little runabout ready as well.  Friends talking about a FL west coast trip got us thinking.

On February 12th, armed with our now completed second vaccination, we made our way from Jupiter to Stuart, FL.  Stops followed in Cleweston (on lake Okeechobee), Ft. Meyers, Punta Gorda and Sarasota before we reversed course and stopped on the return in some of the same places.  Along the way we met up with five sets of friends now either part time of full time FL residents.  Things were beginning to feel almost normal.

 

Sunday, January 24, 2021
Number of days:
1 day
First "social" of the winter and pandemic season

With a cleaned up and ready for the season boat and at least the first round of vaccines behind us we motored over to Admiral's Cove and picked up Fiends Patty and Bob for a casual picnic lunch cruise on the ICW.  It felt almost normal!

Friday, January 22, 2021
Number of days:
1 day
Remove the Hurricane season cover and get ready!

We arrived at our FL Condo in early January but it was too cold to contemplate boating early (we are warm weather wimps).  So, finally a bit warmer, I lowered the lift and took the hurricane season full cover off our little Key west 203DFS for a good cleaning.

Friday, December 18, 2020
Number of days:
1 day
restoration of a cold molded dinghy
  • The restoration begins

Ok, I am at 99 days with slim prospects for the century mark.  There is a chance I will kayak before New Year's Day. But I am going to take advantage of the Editor's largess (brought on by Covid) and log a boat maintenance day for day 100!

Long story short, I inherited, free from my brother in FL, a cold molded dinghy of undetermined lineage and in need of serious restoration.   Today I dropped this sorry dinghy at the Mast and Mallet shop, home of my favorite wooden boat builder and restorer, Joe Reid.  That is Joe in the background of this photo.

The plan is for Joe to do the serious woodwork, repairs to the transom and keel, gunnel and rub rail.  I will paint the hull and purchase and finish the oars. For Joe it is a side job to fit in over the winter. For me the finish work will come in June when I return from FL.

I will be writing about the restoration in sister publication, PropTalk.   

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