Century Club: Tim Ford

Friday, October 16, 2026 to Saturday, October 17, 2026

Number of days:

2 days

BIG perch
Small striper

We decided to bail on Harbor Cup. Beating to weather in 20-25 gusting 30 just no longer has any appeal to most of us. OK, the younger guys on the crew might disagree. But the decision was made late Friday evening. And I slept better because of it.

Speaking of which, after great afternoon fishing and kayaking, I was done in and crashed on the boat by 8:30. I watched the storm come in but was asleep by the time the worst of the rain went thru. But I'd wake up intermittently, forgeting that I was on a mooring and not at anchor, so my first inclination was to check the LOPs and see if the anchor was holding. Then I snapped out of it and said to myself, "dude...you're on a mooring." Back to sleep. But man, did it rain. And the Cal 25 remained incredibly cozy and dry below.

Nice kayaking in the morning in big breeze but relatively manageable in the tighter coves.

Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Number of days:

1 day

Oct 13 - Die Hard race 2

next finisher behind us
light air upwind kite work
A nice look at the schooners on the way out to the course

Another night where we found wind consistently and footed out, big time, on the rest of the fleet. Funny too, because we went off with the smaller jib (#2) and reckoned on the 10-14 we'd been seeing for the past 15 minutes. Of course, a minute or two before the start, the breeze dropped off to 5 - 8. So we were a bit underpowered. But staying in the breeze is a cure for being a bit under-powered. And a Greg Fisher-like ability to keep the boat balanced and efficient is killer.

Saturday, October 10, 2026

Number of days:

1 day

Oct 10 - storm prep

An unexpected find in the port cockpit locker!
peak gust 41-42? Never happened, thankfully

Sailflow had some pretty dire predictions for this morning, incuding seven hours of breeze over 35 (see photo). I may have over-reacted, as the peak gust so far at Gibson Island has only been 28 mph (so far...1227 hrs Sunday). But I hate being separated from the boat and worrying about it from a distance so I did a little storm prep, taking the main off and stringing another stout like thru the mooring harness. Also lashed down the solar panel.

Better safe than sorry I reckon, but it was nice to see other folks at the club doing storm prep too.

Wednesday, October 7, 2026

Number of days:

1 day

Oct 7 - treadmill again

Got a quick row in before the MRSA Awards Party. In the fairway to Blackhole Creek, it was blowing 15-18, puffs over 20. I like to take the dinghy out into that as see if I can make headway against the conditions. After 5 minutes of that, I said forget it.

Earlier this year, I installed some LED bulbs in the saloon fixtures. They are maybe a bit too bright because once they are on you can forget about your night vision for a while.

Tuesday, October 6, 2026

Number of days:

1 day

Oct 6 - BYCA DHS race 1

Die Hard Series #1 looked bleak at first, but a light NW'erly filled in and we got a very short race in. We clawed our way back after starting in a disadvantaged position, but finally got past Monkey Business and found breeze whereby they found a hole. A bullet for the 1st race.

Boy it gets dark early though! The foto taken at the dock was snapped at 7:09 pm.

Saturday, October 3, 2026

Number of days:

1 day

Oct 3 - PSA Race Up the Bay

foto finish 1 (same class CMA)
foro fin 2 (different classes)

I was PRO for the Race Up the Bay. We had the enormous good fortune to have use of a friend of PSA's Grand Banks 42 as Signal Boat for the day. Huge thanks to Dave and Barbara! What a great boat, especially in the early hours as the sea state was nasty and there was rain. With a fully covered cockpit and fly bridge, we stayed pretty dry. Sort of dry. Well, drier than we would have in an uncovered sailboat cockpit.

We set a course to the usual PSA standard mark, CBYRA "Y" -- why "Y"? Because it provides current relief in a big ebb and it also avoids both the east and west shipping channels and gets race boats out of the heavy metal lanes.

Then up and around Craighill Lower Range Light. I like to round a light and I think most other racing sailors do, too.

We actually anchored at the proper finishing mark this time and there were two exciting PHOTO finishes that required examination later to determine the right times to the right boats.

A fun day for all of us on the RC boat!

Thursday, October 1, 2026

Number of days:

1 day

Oct 1 - fall too soon

maybe the weirdest ever cloud delineation!

Went down to the club to get the RC Boat gear sorted for Saturday's PSA Race Up the Bay. Also got a nice rowing session in, very calm, but someone needs to tell the trees on Blackhole Creek it's way too early to show fall colors.

Tuesday, September 29, 2026

Number of days:

1 day

Sept 29 - BCYA Series 4 Race 6

Very light breeze but enough to get us around and take a 2nd...which leaves us at 2nd for this final series. (final except for the "die-hard" series which is a different beast all together)

Beautiful night though!

Friday, September 25, 2026

Number of days:

1 day

Sept25 - thrash paddle

Threw a beater kayak into the local stream, figuring the recent deluge would allow a decent paddle, but it wasn't to be. There was significant re-arrangement of the usual stream flow and some of the bigger pools were just plain gone. I had no idea the recent rain had had such a profound effect. Even the usual hard-packed trails that lead down to a launch point were gone. So a planned paddle was short-lived and involved more portages around strainers and new shallows and a thrash thru brambles and vines just to get to a launch spot.

Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Number of days:

1 day

Sept 23 - Fish On

can't believe I have a dink named "Duke" (not a duke fan)

A couple of hungry pickerell on the first lure I made during the pandemic back in late 2020. Pike love this thing and it works the best out of the dozen or so lures I carved and painted 6 years ago.

Century Club: Tim Ford

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