Prior to (hopefully) my FINAL board meeting, I took a relaxing paddle. I had forgotten how quickly the water in the creek turns clear. And it's not even that cold, I don't think water temps are below 60 in the creek. Nonetheless, I love being able to see the bottom now and maybe I'll find a winch handle or a cell phone later on when the water really gets clear.
One solitary osprey in the trees...I guess he is the last to leave.
The 1860 Martenet Map of the Magothy shows a spot called "Ford" in the backwaters of Cornfield Creek. My great-grandfather, John R. Ford, owned and operated a bugeye and did oysters in the 'R" months, hauled product from St Michaels up to Balitmore in the summer. His gravesite is about a mile away at Mt. Carmel United Methodist Church. So I guess I should assume, as my relatives have suggested, this was the family hideout. I shot some video and we ate lunch drifting gently offshore. Surprisingly undeveloped property! I suspect it was pretty swampy when we Fords owned it. But it looked pretty and if I won one of those billion dollar lottos, I'd offer a pretty penny for that property,
Fun day and a 15 mile motor boater ride on a sailboat.
Mixed day of pier fishing (good!) paddle fishing (no good) and then a great sail on Mr. Floyd's Corsair 27.
Then on the porch with adult bevs to top off a perfect day.
We tried going off with a single reef and a number 3. Clearly we had too much sail area up and it quickly became an exercise in futility. I asked the skipper how he felt about retiring. He said fine. We asked the rest of the crew, they said yes, we are fine with that. On the way in we heard two boats in the CRCA fleet having a conversation on 72. One said they were going to retire as he expected the breeze to build. We had already seen gusts over 35 all the way up to 39. But the data from the Patapsco "smart" buoy suggests he was right, as by 3:30 there were puffs in the 40s, one up to 42.7
So it was a good decision. Out of 42 registered boats, only 14 finished. Hats off to them!
Paddled a bit before our club AGM - the one that marks my esacpe from being Rear Commodore. It's been a ride.
In the weird department, a couple of days ago I was looking through old photos and saw one, I guess my mother took, of me and my dad. I was holding a whiffle ball bat and I guess they glued or taped a whiffle ball to the bat that made it look like I was making good contact. I got to thinking about whiffle ball and how much fun we had. I hadn't thought about whiffle ball for a couple of decades, I reckon.
So, yesterday, I'm out in the kayak just leisurely paddling and I see something white just below the surface and I thought, hmmmm....a bit early for Lion's Mane jellies, and a bit late for the standard Chesapeake Bay sea nettles. So I got closer and it turned out to be a whiffle ball.
Ugh, what a sad title! Fun season on board BOXCAR and I am sad to see it end. But there's always the Harbor Cup in a few days.
One thing I will not miss is being on the dock next to a heliport. When they come in and out, all conversation comes to a stop. Some of them are rapid response for medical issues, so no problem with that. But it is disconcerting to have these rotary blades a couple dozen yards away from a bunch of sailboat masts.
Results are not up yet, but I think we won the last two series (due to light winds being BOXCARs sweet spot).
Was PRO for the PSA Race to Rock Hall. Weather could have been better but a very fun trip. Sail back to the Magothy was epic on Bryan's Tashiba 42 in 20-25, gusts to 32. What a ride.
I went out to eat lunch (cold pizza and an NA beer) and just for grins, took a rod but no tackle. Then I noticed that it was high tide and I figured, hey...I might catch something. 2nd cast, a nice white perch. 4th cast a smallish rock. 7th cast a much bigger rock that may have met the 19 inch size minimum. Unfortunately he knocked off my paddletail and I was done for the day.
But this was all catch and release and that's fine.
BOXCAR continues its streak of light air domination. The boat is a force below 7 kn of breeze. Weird getting back to the dock in total darkness though. Maybe total twilight would be more accurate. With all the light pollution in Balto Harbor, it's hard to tell when Twilight ends.
I try to prepare myself for earlier sunsets but somehow every year it seems shocking how abruptly they show up...
In spite of a huge amount of convection over on the mainland, we launched at Old Ferry and did a little hour long tour of the creek and guts. Very beautiful day and conditions, before things got gnarly the next day, with gusts into the low 40s and a struggle to keep three tents from being blown east into the ocean. There's a lot to be said for sand pegs!
A colony of Large Egrets with their youngsters was a real treat to paddle past.