Century Club: Alan Batcheller

Karen took her kayak, and I took my paddleboard out on Mattox Creek this morning.  First paddleboard of the season for me.  

First real good day for saling this year.  Went out to the marker 2 in the Potomac then to marker 11 in Mattox Creek.  Spent about 2 1/2 hours on the water.

I guess I could count this as 5 days on the water, but I’ll put the first 4 days in my back pocket in the unlikely event I need to qualify for Century Club 2024.  On Friday, March 29th a friend helped me take down my mast and on Saturday I put some spikes on the top of the mast to discourage the Osprey’s from perching on it.  I don’t dislike Ospreys but last year in addition to using my boat as a lookout they also used it as a latrine.  Sunday another friend helped me step the mast.  Monday I used an amazing product called Roll Off that pretty easily helped me remove the Osprey dropping from the boat.  I also put my 3.5 HP outboard back on, and it started in about 10 pulls.    Today I finished getting the boat ready to sail and decided to take her out.  Got maybe a ¼ mile from my dock when it started raining.  Down with the sail and motored back home.  Not the first sailing of the season that I wanted but I did get out.

We visit a floating village in Siem Reap, Cambodia.