Century Club: mike pitchford

Saturday, October 8, 2022
Number of days:
1 day

Coming back from a short trip last weekend I noticed a bang-bang from the area of the shaft at low speeds.  I was worried I had snagged a crab pot and had a remnant part rotating around the prop.  A diver checked on it and found nothing but the sound persisted.

 

I made a call (on a Saturday) to one of my favorite service shops, Haven Harbour.  Service Manager, Greta Sommers talked to me in the phone about it.  That conversation was helpful deciding to get the boat towed to a nearby travel lift today.  As it turned out Jabin's was willing to work with me (on a Saturday) and TowBoatUS arrived very quickly and was free, thanks to my BoatUS membership.

 

So, the bang-bang when in gear was from the shaft zinc which had come loose and slid forward to bang on the strut. The travelift team at Jabin's spotted it right away and were pretty sure that was the issue. A quick trip to West Marine while the boat hung in the lift and bingo, I was ready to go back in the water, problem solved.

Thursday, October 6, 2022
Number of days:
1 day

Cold and rain, must be fall.  Finally on Thursday, after five days of rain, the leftover from Ian, we had a nice day.  Our granddaughter was with us for a couple days and wanted to go on a kayak ride to collect leaves that had fallen into the water.

Monday, September 19, 2022 to Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Number of days:
2 days

The daycare for our 15 month old grandaughter was closed for the week due to a positive COVID test for one of the kids.  We had the pleasure of her company for two days as backup daycare.  On the first day we entertined her with a short dinghy row and took her on a longer creek cruise on our runabout on the second. 

Friday, September 16, 2022 to Sunday, September 18, 2022
Number of days:
3 days

About seventy AYC members on 20+ boats and assorted land yachts with near by hotel rooms (and one RV), decended on Haven Harbour North for the now annual Oktoberfest cruise. 

Thursday, September 15, 2022
Number of days:
1 day

not many left in this season (fair weather rower)

Tuesday, September 13, 2022
Number of days:
1 day

mid September.  I am a fair weather rower so running out of days to do this. 

Friday, September 9, 2022 to Sunday, September 11, 2022
Number of days:
3 days

Ten boats joined up in Cambridge at the Cambridge Yacht Club (CYC), for the weekend. The cruisers enjoyed happy hour at the CYC Tiki bar both Friday and Saturday evening.  On Saturday several of us also took the Harriett Tubman tour (she was born in Dorchester County). 

During the Saturday happy hour PC Jim Ellis presenter CYC GM with an AYC burgee. It was a very nice touch.

Saturday evening 26 of us gathered in the CYC dining room for a group dinner.   

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Thursday, September 8, 2022
Number of days:
1 day

Covid kept me off the water for a couple weeks.  Back for a nice row this morning. 

Saturday, September 3, 2022 to Monday, September 5, 2022
Number of days:
3 days

We have all experienced a cool Labor Day weekend; the one that sneaks up on you with cooler weather after a hot summer and foretells the fall to come.  Early forecasts indeed suggested a cooler weekend but updated forecasts showed this Labor Day Weekend to be a continuation of August’s warm days. And so it was.

Fortunately the assembled members of the AYC Cruising Fleet had a hot weather ace.  The cruisers anchored for the long weekend near the Wye River home of Dick and Karen Kimberly.  While the Wye was well stocked with jellyfish, which eliminated the idea of a swim off the boat, the Kimberly’s invited all to their pool to cool off.  It was a perfect match for the hot weekend days.

The cruisers also enjoyed a poolside happy hour, a Sunday morning kayak and SUP trek along the Wye and another evening happy hour aboard cruiser Bob Smith’s 58’ Hatteras LRC, Mary Kathryn. What could be better?

The late summer cruise revealed more than a few boat maintenance issues.  We had house battery charging issues, a generator that would not stay lit, some AC fault codes and a few dinghy engines denying their owners a ride.  All in, the cruisers worked around the problems and banked a great long weekend on the boat.  The sunsets were especially sweet, and the rain stayed away until all were home safely on Monday.       

We have all experienced a cool Labor Day weekend; the one that sneaks up on you with cooler weather after a hot summer and foretells the fall to come.  Early forecasts indeed suggested a cooler weekend but updated forecasts showed this Labor Day Weekend to be a continuation of August’s warm days. And so it was.

Fortunately the assembled members of the AYC Cruising Fleet had a hot weather ace.  The cruisers anchored for the long weekend near the Wye River home of Dick and Karen Kimberly.  While the Wye was well stocked with jellyfish, which eliminated the idea of a swim off the boat, the Kimberly’s invited all to their pool to cool off.  It was a perfect match for the hot weekend days.

The cruisers also enjoyed a poolside happy hour, a Sunday morning kayak and SUP trek along the Wye and another evening happy hour aboard cruiser Bob Smith’s 58’ Hatteras LRC. What could be better?

The late summer cruise revealed more than a few boat maintenance issues.  We had house battery charging issues, a generator that would not stay lit, some AC fault codes and a few dinghy engines denying their owners a ride.  All in, the cruisers worked around the problems and banked a great long weekend on the boat.  The sunsets were especially sweet, and the rain stayed away until all were home safely on Monday.       

 

Monday, August 22, 2022
Number of days:
1 day

We took the big boat over to to AYC for dinner with the Libby's.  This was day 100! It couldnt have been nicer.  

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