Century Club: mike pitchford

Spanning from late September into October and the front end of the Annapolis Power Boat Show, a group of 45 international cruisers joined up with a roughly equal number of Annapolis based cruisers and “experienced” the Bay. The ten-day cruise began and ended in Annapolis and included stops in Dun Cove, Cambridge, Oxford, St Michael's, Shady Side and Mill Creek. The cruise is a by-annual function of the International Council of Yacht Clubs and was hosted this year in the Chesapeake by the Annapolis Yacht Club.
The cruising fleet of 30 boats included a host group of local sail and powerboats as well as a handful of locally chartered cruising vessels. Our out-of-town cruisers came from yacht clubs in Louisiana, California, Washington, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, England and Australia.
For the most part our out of town guests do not have home cruising grounds anything like the Chesapeake. The modest tidal range, limited currents, soft bottom and nearly 12,000 miles of shoreline offered by the Bay were a revelation to many. For more on this watch the December issue of PropTalk

From our house it is quicker to go to Cantler's by boat than drive (always better by boat). This occasion was at the end of a weekend of entertaining that included a wedding shower for one niece and a baby shower for another niece. It also included a visit from the family of our Mid nephew because it was parents weekend. After a long weekend of cooking we took the remnant guests out for dinner!

Every year since 1993 the four of us (college roommates and fraternity brothers) have done some sort of a boat trip. Beginning in 2007 we expanded it a bit to include a BVI charter. We completed our fourth BVI charter in January of this year. The "Boys Sail" cruises have also included ICW transits over the last eight years to get our boat to South Florida.

This year will show us as having four Boys Sails (BVI, ICW north, Chesapeake in August and ICW south to come). When it is all said and done they will have served as crew for approaching a month!

This four day trip took us from Annapolis to Cambridge to Rock Hall and home. It included a visit to Nats Park (the Nats won). It included the reinstall of a refrigerator taken to JGordon for expert repair. And a good time was had by all!

Sometime in July and August, you just need to duck the heat and get off the Bay. Friends invited us to Lake George where they have a rustic house on an island known as Three Brothers Island. The daily boat rides, kayaking around the island and more in crystal clear water was a welcome break from the hot Chesapeake days.