Century Club: Tim Ford

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Friday, August 19, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
quick paddle with birds
  • there's an eagle in this shot, somewhere
  • very noisy young osprey cussing out the great blue
  • found a b-ball, but no hoops and no nets

I need to fabricate a new batten for my flat-top main, but like a real dummy I forgot to measure the batten pocket so I needed a quick trip to the boat equiped with tape measure. Once there and done, I figured, "what the hell, I may as well do a quick paddle."

It was nice to actually JUST paddle, no fishing rod, no VHF, no nothin, just some drinking water as it was hot.  But the birds were out for sure.  Lots of juvenile osprey, a cute little cattle egret that let me get super close, the obligatory Great Blue and way back in the creek, a Ball Diggle.  Enormous wingspan.

Nice day and happy to get to paddle for an hour or two,

 

 

Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
MRSA series 4 race 3
  • About 25 minutes before our start
  • Looks ominous, but I don't think we saw a puff above 14 all night

Never thought we'd get a race off!  Thunderstorms all over the place and rumbling along in a weird direction, SSW.  This one looked like it would hit us just as the gun went off, but surpsingly, it passed by to the west.  Major props to the RC boat, HEYDAY.  It was impossible to predict the wind direction, but we got in a sort of W/L, even though the order was reversed. 

Fun night, full of surprises!

Friday, August 12, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Old Friends

Got a chance to take a Friday afternoon sail out of Jones Creek with two blokes I've sailed with since the late 80's.  We practiced a spontaneous Hat Overboard drill, along with a simultaneous Shoe Overboard drill.  We got the shoe, which had surprising buoyancy but struck out on the hat. 

It's always nice to reconnect with old friends, but to be able to that on a great little Carl Alberg boat on a gorgeous weekday afternoon with decent and sometimes gusty westerly was just plain great.  Thanks Garry and Roger!

 

 

Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
MRSA - first race of Series 4
  • new boards
  • yet another beautiful summer evening on the Mag.

Boatwork: got new hatch boards installed

WNR:  a few glitches, was OCS (were we, really?) and punched a tear in the foot of the genoa on a weird hoist where it got wrapped around the bow light! First time in 25+ years that this has happened on Inc. 

Monday, August 1, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Boat projects and short paddle
  • racing stripes
  • beautiful summer day!

Went down to dive into a list of projects on the i550.  She's been looking a little shabby lately and I decided new hatch boards and some touch up of the cockpit sole would be a great place to start.  Except I left the roll of e-glass home. That was stupid.  Did make a little progress on the cockpit though.  A pint, a crummy PINT fer cripes sake, of Interluxe Brightside is now over 42 bucks! 

OK, it's boat ownership, I'll quit griping. 

Got a short paddle in!  It never ceases to amaze me that even with very little air moving, it's quite comfortable in a kayak and even more so when you round the breakwater and tap into the soft, westerly gradient breeze.  And while it's hot as heck, it's still an incredibly beautiful summer day.

 

Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
MRSA - last race of Series 3
  • neck and neck with Dragonfly
  • hatch board upgrades
  • yet another gorgeous July evening on the Magothy

Some boat work and an evening MRSA race.  Nice day.

"Dry fitted" the new hatch boards I made from ripping some pine 1x3's to 3/8ths width and laminating them together.  These will be a big asthethic upgrade over the crappy carbon fiber and doorskin ply I made a few years ago.  Sitting in the sun at PSA has rendered them almost unusable. 

Race was decent with consistent breeze.  We found new ways to mess up on the pointy end but figure we may have still finished 2nd.  Let's hope.

 

 

Thursday, July 21, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Dinner
  • seldom used stringer!
  • bad place to be: 92 in the Shade

I almost entirely catch and release, but with a family member who is deeply allergic to fish out of town for a few days, I decided to keep a half dozen of the larger white perch I caught in the creek. 

The tide was perfect, the last hour or two of the flood, and the perch were biting like crazy, complete with one getting hooked on a rod I wasn't using, just had the lure (shad dart) dangling a foot or two off the boat while I screwed with a tangle on the other rod.

A bit hot but a nice westerly breeze made it pleasant. Grilled the fish with garlic scrapes and they came out nicely.

 

 

Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
BCYA - mid July
  • very short runway for the Start...that container ship was just a few hundred yards behind the line.
  • LEGACY was truckin' all evening and deserved the 1st -- they sure earned it

Great race against LEGACY, Mr. Taylor's FRERS 38.  We exchanged leads a half dozen times, but they got us on corrected time.  Great night on the water, and thanks to the BOXCAR folks for having me back on especially after my performance last month as the mixed-up, cursed bowman.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, July 13, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
MRSA - another fine summer evening
  • July 13 spin start
  • mischief headed dw

Beautiful albeit light air night on the river.  I think we finished 3rd on corrected time.

 

 

Wednesday, July 6, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
MRSA - challenging night
  • wind farm passes by to the NW
  • looking pretty flat at 1730 hrs

Oh boy, what a great Chesapeake mid-summer's evening race. 

The RC displayed the Cat in the Hat, but not for long.  A system passed by to the north that generated plenty of wind to get a start sequence going.  We had set the rig for 0-4 kn and of course, it was blowing 14-16 at our signal.  The upwind leg went OK as well as the hoist.  Downwind, the breeze died until it turned into a header. Genoa up! 

And all of a sudden, we were setting up for a kite hoist after rounding and heading for the finish, 180 degrees from our previous spinnaker run of ten minutes ago.  All-in-all a good set of teamwork and sail-handling to grab a 2nd in conditions that were both confounding and challenging.

 

 

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