Century Club: mike pitchford

Our summer seemed full of long distance boating. We had a late return from south Florida in May. In June we cruised the Albemarle. In July we cruised Long Island Sound and Cape Cod Bay, getting as far north as Boston. In August we charter cruised in the San Juan Islands. Combined with local Chesapeake Bay cruises we have probably covered 3,000 miles on the water between May and August.

After returning from the Pacific NW we went two whole weeks NOT on the boat. Of course it included a family beach week so salt water was still a factor.

Finally back home and settled down for a near term future of purely local weekend cruising. Labor Daw weekend had no big boat crusie but we got our on the 20' runabout for some boating fun.

Yacht Club cruise to another yacht club. In this case it was AYC invading CYC for the weekend. This cruise is especially kid friendly and so AYC folks with kids, or mostly grandkids, make a plan attend.

Many of us have cruised the Chesapeake, some to the far reaches north and south. Fewer of us have gotten out of the Bay, perhaps tasting the waters of Long Island Sound and New England or traveling down the ICW to points south.
If you have made it to the bottom of the Bay there is an opportunity to cruise the North Carolina Sounds, the Albemarle and the Pamlico, that will put a smile on your face. The Albemarle is first up and a circumnavigation to some of the small towns on the Sound can be done in a week or so. The Pamlico is a bit further south. It includes the towns of Oriental, the sailing capital of North Carolina, Belhaven and New Bern, all charming stops.
The Albemarle Sound runs west to east about 50 miles. You inevitably cross the Sound on ICW treks but often without stopping in any of the small towns off the ICW routes. This is a shame because those towns offer some great cruising experiences, and quite often, free dockage. To see them all or pick and choose you may want to consider completing the Albemarle Loop https://albemarleloop.com/
Read more in the August isue of PropTalk

Time to make the 1200 mile trip home to the Bay from South FL. The boat had other ideas. First it was a failing battery charger. I caught that early and had it replaced before the trip was to start.

On departure day the bow thruster offered little actual thrust. We left anyway and planned a diver at the first stop to clean the thruster prop, the suspected issue. Along the way the engine was running about 14 degrees hotter than normal.

We talked to our boat mechanic and determined he had likely installed a defective thermostat. We turned around and headed back to the home slip, a full day 130 mile round-trip getting nowhere.

The mechanic came on Monday and sure enough, it was a bad thermostat. Once replaced the engine temp was actually about three degrees cooler than before. Bonus!

Late in the day the diver came, cleared a lot of hard growth from the backside of the bow thruster blades and bang, it was working as intended again.

On Tuesday we made a 163 miles run to Daytona. It was about eight and a half hours, all good. The next morning we departed early with a plan to get to Jekyll Island for the evening. The boat had other ideas.

Upon first acceleration to planing speed the automatic trim tabs (ZipWake) did not operate as usual. The control screen indicated Interceptor failure. So for the second time this trip we turned around and headed back to the departure slip.

A morning of trouble shooting and an afternoon looking for a haul-out and repair marina followed. We left the boat and flew home the next day. The replacement parts have been ordered. Hopefully the trip can restart Memorial Day.