Century Club: Tim Ford

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Thursday, November 3, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
November already
  • end of day for a swallow draft vessel
  • Head for Dobbins
  • through swallow water
  • yawl at G.I.

A long motor prior to the club's monthly board meeting, there being almost no breeze for 5 hours.  Decided to lift the board and go behind Dobbins, chart showing 1 foot at MLW in some places.   It not being MLW, and the board-up draft at around 12 inches, it went fine, albeit slowly, until we popped out into the fairway leading into the mis-named Long Cove (it ain't that long, actually).  Motored quietly all the way into the G.I. inner harbor, put it in neutral, popped a low ETOH session ale and wolfed down lunch, turned back to PSA.  Same thing behind Dobbins, no worries.  Fished a little but luckily, wasn't bothered by fish.  Gooid day and gorgeous November weather...except for the lack of breeze.

Swore to myself to NEVER own a boat on the Chesapeake with more than 12 inches draft. 

Thursday, October 20, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
NOTMAR

I've seen some strange things in the water in the past five decades, and this one rates up there pretty highly.  About halfway out to the point, where I usually make my first casts in the Quest for Fish, I bumped into something floating mostly below the surface.  It was a roll of poulty fencing! 

Now, running your spinning prop into this menace to navigation could ruin your whoie day, so I rerolled about 15 - 20 feet of the fencing back on the cardboard sleeve, and paddled (one-handed) back to the pier at PSA.  Not so easy in a kayak and thankfully all downwind. 

Otherwise, no fish today.  Which was fine with me.

 

 

Saturday, October 15, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
BYCA Harbor Cup
  • Bennu as ore carrier chugs up the channel
  • Joe in fire hose land
  • Symm sail rolly-polly DW leg

Fun race on Inc and on the 2nd upwind leg, from "N" to "K" it actually felt like a Harbor Cup, a few puffs to 22.  It got lighter in the river and we captured line honors in CRCA A, but got bumpoed back to second as Heartbreaker, the S2 9.1 corrected over us.

 

 

Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Excursion below/wet mystery
  • after photo - before was too ugly to post

Went down to make sure the boat was water free, below decks.  It wasn't and there hadn't been any rain so it was a WFT moment.  It was also a shambles below, too much stuff, poorly organized and where the hell is my tiller extension?  So I took a while to empty the mess below, including some dead soldier beer cans and stale pretzels. If we get a few warm Oct. days, I'll go back in with a can of Brightside and improve the below decks scenary.  The bright side of the story? Found my tiller ext.!

 

 

 

 

Monday, October 10, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Launch Party

Friend, Jon, completed his CLC Skerry, and we helped him put it in.  What a great little boat!  A few awkward moments, you know, the learning curve in dealing with mast, rudder and sails the first few times.  Heck, my boat is seven years old now and I still goof up from time to time getting it rigged and ready.

 

 

Thursday, October 6, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
rain evac
  • shredder blues
  • open all inspection ports
  • FS departure

Went aboard and was bummed about how much water was in the boat.  Granted, we had had a few inches of rain connected with Ian but this was ridonkulous. Bailed out a friend's dink, too.  Note to the masses: blue tarps make crappy boat covers, and now another two billion tiny plastic shreds get into the aquasphere.

Saturday, October 1, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Cancelation blues
  • really powerful winds cancel sailboat race...film at 11
  • pretty high tide though
  • there's something very large and angry in there

We pulled the plug on the Race to Rock Hall.  Fx was just too dicey and AYC, TAYC, HdGYC and CYC had all canceled their weekend events.  So I get to PSA about 30 minutes past when our first warning gun would have gone off...and of course it was blowing a mere 12 kn and not raining.  I jumped into a kayak paddled out to the mouth of Black Hole Creek to see if it was really blowing in the river. It wasn't.

While zenning-out back in a recess in the creek, I was just a few feet off the tall grass, just listening to the waves lap up on shore and I guess my resting there too long made some sort of very large mammal nervous.  Suddenly, just a few fet away but obscured my the foliage, something got up and crashed through the undergrowth. I mean large. I expected a water buffalo or huge moose to come charging out to swamp the kayak and stomp me into the mud. But it was probably just a large buck who got pissed off I disturbed his nap.

 

 

 

Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
BCYA - Series 4 Race 6

Groundhog's day - mirroring last week but maybe even a bit more breeze.  Not our best night, but at least when the O/B motor mount broke, the outboard didn't take a swim.

Finishing inside Ft. Mac is nice, reminds me of when I kept a small sailboat in the Inner Harbor in the 1980s.  Coming into the city at dusk is always a sight!

Monday, September 26, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Boat work, club work and cbyra race work
  • it's gone?
  • west marine bargain ware

Okay, technically, I was only on a floating pier for an 90 minutes or so.  Doing boatwork, including installing some springy lifters on my hiking straps (the cheapest things I've ever bought at W.Marine).  But there was the giant log on the boat ramp that we were going to go to work on (see Sept 24 entry) and drag away.  But what?  It's already gone?  How did THAT happen?

In any case, it's great to be done with it.  The other "boat work" chore, was to glean thru PSA's collection of RC gear and make sure all the flags and misc. equipment were ready for Saturday's Race to Rock Hall.   I figure 4-5 hours of club work on the shore of Blackhole Creek can register a Day on the Water...heck I was too tired to even put a kayak in.

 

Saturday, September 24, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Terps, a big log and a Cows Tongue
  • bigger and heavier than it looks, cow tongue in center of frame
  • pizza & beer and terps vs mich.
  • fall has arrived (sorta)

Shook off some sort of stomach malady to go down to PSA and inventory the RC equipment for next week's Race to Rock Hall. Then a short kayak paddle with rod and reel. Hooked a decent white perch who I inadvertantly flipped way into the air about 8 feet over the kayak, trying to set the hook...perch must've been very close to the surface and went flying over the boat, and mercifully tossed the hook, so that made 'catch and release' a lot easier.  It was a great day for a paddle, with the Terps game on the radio and cool temps it really felt like fall, which is by far my favorite season. 

Back at the club, somehow this massive log got brought up on to the PSA boat ramp.  There's no way this could have drifted in, the tide simply doesn't get this high at PSA.  So who brought it there?  Also adding to the mystery...a rotting cow's tongue right next to it.  Riiiiiiightttt....

Strange days.

 

 

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