Century Club: Tim Ford

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Saturday, July 20, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
July 20 - race to b'more
  • PHRF B start
  • PATRIOT fly by

Nice conditions for a change this year!  Breeze and not too hot. Although some of the DW work was a little sticky when the breeze dropped below 10 -- which wasn't often.

I think we beat the 2nd place boat by about 12 minutes corrected time, which is not too shabby.  We just happened to make all the right decisions, including heading to the beach (west side) to dodge current.  Fortunately, the breeze built over on that side, too.  It doesn't always work that way.  I remember adopting this same strategy about 20 years ago, same race. We went left and all the boats in the middle caught a lot more breeze than we had.  We tried to climb back into the center right, but by then is was way too late.  -- chronicled in the 2nd half of this write-up from 20 years ago:

http://www.nbayracing.com/HeadOut.htm

Fun race and VERY weird to sail through the remnants of the Key Bridge. Nice job by BCYA but hey folks, read the RRS on the definition of FINISH.  The entire boat doesn't have to cross the line to finish !!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
July 16 - Wet Dress Shirt Contest

As a full-fledged geezer, I have difficulty with extreme heat.  So it was a daunting challenge:  I wanted to kayak but it was pushing 100 degrees and god-only-knows what the "feels like" temperature was. It was going to be me against the Sun. Plus I'm still on the Deer Tick scrip, which warns against any sort of "prolonged Sun exposure."

Yeah well...

...so, what you do is: wear a long-sleeved white shirt, dunk it often in the drink and also dunk the hat.  Then, put both on, sopping wet, and let it dribble down into hot parts of the bod. It works. In the breeze, which built all day, I actually felt chilled when clouds blocked the Sun. 

NICE!

Chilling in a breezy shadey spot in the little lagoon on the east side of Cedar Island, I noticed a rather large barge/pusher combo seemingly headed into the creek.  I watched in amazement as these guys threaded the narrow, twisty and unforgiving fairway into Blackhole Creek.  Major props to the master at the helm...I wonder if the twin outboards provide more manuevrability than a single prop on an inboard. Reckon they would.

Later on, we bailed on sailing with the Tuesday night dinghies. It was gusty and there were T-storms in the area.  Turns out the breeze laid down 30 minutes after we decided to put the boat back on the dock and the storms held off for hours.

 

 

Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
July 10 - Reefin Race
  • god's flashlite
  • Futility Point
  • Did NOT get the money shot of 31+

Boy, talk about contrast!  Last night we had nuthin,' this evening we had plenty!

TPML2 had 22-25 gusts to 32 and that's about what we had in the Magothy for the Wednesday Night race.

I took a kayak out to see what the breeze looked like in the river, but after about 90 seconds of paddling in the headwind, just around the point, off of the south side of the club, I gave it up.  I made about 20 feet and said OK, I give up. 

It continued honking when I got to INCOMMUNICADO and did not let up all night.  We went off with a reef and a 3, shook out the reef downwind and, in an unprecedented move, DID NOT put up a chute.  I think we still got a 2nd. Great night but not drinking, due to being on Doxycycline for a nasty deer tick bite, it was a little harder to decompress and no where near as much fun.

 

 

 

Tuesday, July 9, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
July 9 - BCYA last race of Series 2...

...did not happen.  There was no wind. 

Earlier that day it was blowing a nice 12-16 SE, until approx. 1500 hrs, when a tiny rain blob in SW Balto County blew up and became a large, throbbing, orange-red lightning producing convective system.  The good news is that by 4pm, it had dropped temps from 95 to 78 degrees in Canton. 

The bad news was: it sucked every bit of breeze out of the area and racing was cancelled. 

Of course, when we got to the dock, it had begun blowing softly from the SE again.

Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
July 2 - Epitaph
  • everything in its right place
  • rig up
  • fresh air on the mooring - I think I want a mooring instead of a slip now

"Confusion" will be my epitaph (apologies to King Crimson, 1969, In the Court of the Crimson King). It was time to move my boat off the mooring and back into her rightful spot on the pier.  It went like this:

- launch kayak and paddle out to the boat

- realize you forgot the key to the boat and paddle back in

- once back on land, remember that you left the car keys on the boat

- paddle back out

- grab car keys, paddle back in

- try to remember where you hid the boat key when you had the car serviced the week before

- find key (eventually) and paddle back out to the boat. 

Finally got things straightened out and realized: my dim brain becomes even dimmer in direct sun and 90 degree+  heat. I don't think I'm alone, but still it's not optimal. Come on autumn!

Rest of day spent: helping get a rig up on a Daysailer, taking a video sales call from British Columbia on my i550 that's for sale, and continuing projects on the Cal-25.  Long day that felt more like a week.

 

 

 

Saturday, June 22, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
June 22 - a day on the water three times in 3 hours

It was time to move the cruising boat from her slip to a mooring.  This is in order to free up a slip for the safety boats needed for Jr Sail week.

Full discliosure, my brain doesn't work in temps above 94 degrees. It was hot.

We ooched the boat out of the slip and used my 3.5 HP four-stroke to get out to the mooring.  It isn't a long shaft, but as long as no one is on the bow, it sticks down in the H2O enough to satisfy the water pump. Barely, but OK. 

I felt rushed getting the taxi ride back into the dock (I don't have a dinghy) and of course forgot to lock the boat. So trip number two, launch a kayak, paddle out, lock boat, paddle back, leave. 

On the way to breakfast, I remembered that maybe I hadn't closed the vent on the outboard that I'd left below, on the boat. So breakfast and then one more trip to the club, launch kayak, climb on the boat, close vent, get back in kayak and paddle back. 

And it was rather warm, "real feel" 104.  A great day on the water....

Monday, June 17, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
June 17 - breezy kayak day
  • snuck up on this great blue
  • and caught him/her taking off and sqauwking loudly
  • stop here

It was blowing 12-15 puffs to 18 - 22 but I purt a kayak in anyway. 

Hard work getting out to the two shoal poles and then a quick downwind blast back into the creek.  Went back to the undeveloped part of the creek, thinking maybe the tide was high enough to penetrate the thicket that blocks access into the hidden, shallow pond farthest inland.

Looking at the sat map now, I see that I keep running into the mound covered with thick vines and hard growth.  Now I see I need to go either farther left or farther right and wait for an abnormally high tide to attempt it. 

Maybe in late fall...it is hot and buggy back there.

Saturday, June 15, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
June 15 - Du4 ride
  • short work of dousing the main

Ripping good sail with friends on their Dufour 40.  Great boat (a performance cruiser) and we made short work of getting from Jabin's to "84A" and back in less than 6 hours.  N breeze at 14-18 kept up all afternoon and powerboat slop was minimal.  All-in-all a perfect June sail.  Just wish I had picked up my wallet on the Nav Station before leaving to drive home.

 

 

Thursday, June 13, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
June 13 - finally a kayak
  • an LOP on the spot

Went down to PSA to reteieve all the gear and items I had left on the committee boat.  Any OPB I've ever sailed on KNOWS that I always leave stuff on board.  I think it's a subconscious tactic to get invited back, as I am certainly a talent-less hack.

But still.

I had not taken a kayak out in months. Years.

Well, a few weeks.  And I had a mission.  RAINBOW really needs a bottom scrub (and also a bottom job, probably including a new barrier coat) but for now I just want to scape the junk off. But I needed confirmation of a good location, out of any seaway, off the beaten track and in deep enough water to don a wetsuit and fins and go for a swim.

So I found a sandy bottom off a significant dropoff near a shoal close to the club and one day I will swim...hopefuly prior to the annual sea nettle invasion.

Having two keelboats is killing me.

Plus: I think Kasey Musgraves is stalking me.  A cardinal over me as I loaded the car up this a.m., then one acting like a shore bird in Blackhole Creek. Then on XPN on the ride home.

Cardinals do not act like shore birds and a lot of people I know have died this week....

 

 

Saturday, June 8, 2024 to Sunday, June 9, 2024
Number of days:
2 days
June 8-9 PSA Moonlight Race
  • Nice shot of INCOMMUNICADO starting
  • Sunset at CBYRA "J"
  • And yes, there was Moonlight
  • Photo finish between DRAGONFLY and OASIS
  • Some of our stalwart RC crew

I was PRO for the club's annual mOOnLIght race,  fun event that ends in a big breakfast party at PSA. 

I knew we were going to lose breeze, so we set a course that would be easy to shorten.  And once again, we went up to CBYRA mark "J" and put up the S flag.  We could see boats not moving over there off Swan Point Bar.  We even talked about the dreaded N flag. 

But then - whodathunkit - completely unfoercasted, a breeze line appeared to the south and 15 minutes later we had a beautiful 6-8 knot southerly, allowing all 18 boats to finish...well, the ones who hadn't already retired. 

There is a god!

We didn't tie up until Sometime Around Midnight (T.A.T.E. reference for anyone listening in 2007) and I finally trashed out in the RAINBOW motel around 1:30 or so.  I'm embarassed to say, I still have not sailed this brilliant little yatchett, but my it does sleep a Party of 1 quite nicely!

Great weekend on the water!

 

 

 

 

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