Search Party!

A few weeks back, a viewer of the CAYUGA YouTube playlist commented that my video " Fired up! " did not show what they were expecting. I was of course crushed that I had not delivered on my title, however, for those of you who know our friend Mr. Eney it makes total sense. Fired up is already fired up and getting more so. But to make it right, I responded that I would record a new video of CAYUGA starting up. I believe what I've created sorts out the difference. One small thing... I love yachting as you know, and the moments have been plenty with getting the boat back in working order - the kind of order that lets you relax (a little) while taking her out for a spin. So, for all the good ILY times, and our delivery was fantastic, it was about a week and a half later, when we started up to go out and watch Wednesday Night Racing, that the port engine was grumbly and barky. It was not right, the idle was off, and there's some visible exhaust. HOW IN THE WORLD.... could that be. What happened, what changed, what the *heck? Take a listen: Thus ensued many emails to engine guy with videos so he could watch, listen, analyze, and provide his initial thoughts on what was going on. In the meantime, I took to watching more YouTube videos about engines and carburetors. Since there was an idle issue, that was my first guess. This guy might be my hero with an awesome Holley carb how-to. Even so, I was not about to try it myself, but called in our local expert. Yesterday, Portside Marine visited, and went through the port engine checks and then the tuning, but I learned a lot watching and listening. I get it - and it's such a simple mechanical device in general but the right settings are somewhat fussy to get dialed in just right. In the end, here are the results of the carb fix (and I'm feeling pretty good about my burgeoning engine skills that my hunch on the carburetor being the culprit was correct).

A while back, a friend of mine coined the term 'Perfect Thursday' for a day so uniquely right in all aspects that it was obligatory to get together and celebrate. Perfect ingredients are 70-80 degrees, low humidity, a soft breeze, sunny skies which may have a few puffy clouds, and a location on the water. The last being the easiest of them all of course in the Annapolis area, however the temperature and humidity often collude against such a day. This week, it was the ultimate Perfect Thursday. Cool morning temps, light breeze from the SSW, sunny skies forever, and CAYUGA plying the waters of the Bay. Yes, CAYUGA is in the water. She performed. I cried. The engine man smiled when he got off the boat. The day in pictures: The day in video: For all of the I love yachting moments of the past few months, and years... this day was absolutely, perfect.

A friend called and said, "I have an I love yachting story for you". A little background, he's been restoring, to perfection, a late classic catboat. What's a catboat? It's not this but click the picture to find out what it really is. He decided to have a professional paint the bottom in preparation for the usual summer of barnacle-infested waters of the Northern Chesapeake. So happens he has an old friend who owns a boatyard in a nearby state. The hope was not to get a better price on the work but to get the job done well. You can see where this is going, right? After a successful splash of the boat for the first sail of the season, the centerboard was stuck and he was unable to lower it. After several attempts to get the centerboard down, the decision was made to take the boat to a local service yard and get it hauled out for inspection and repair. Once out of the water, and after the stuck board was unstuck, it was blatantly obvious the yard that performed the professional paint job was also the culprit for the board having been stuck. To make this perfectly clear, here's a model of a catboat as an example for what the centerboard looks like when it is in the retracted (up) position. And the punchline is... the painter painted the centerboard in the up position. The paint had caused the sticking board. However, most egregiously, the painter had left about half of the centerboard without a fresh coat of paint. Seems the painter just didn't know that the centerboard needed to come down to do the job right. Ya just can’t make this stuff up. Examples like this are the reasons why there is seemingly no end to the I love yachting stories shared amongst fellow boaters everywhere.

It's that time of year to start planning to attend the annual Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the Antique & Classic Boat Society's show in St. Michael's. Every year over the same weekend as Father's Day, by water or land, beautifully restored old boats and some works in progress descend upon the small historic town to delight yet another year of attendees. In its 36th year, it will be June 14-16. I've made the trek many times, the majority to see my father and his boats but also to be there for the big day all Dads deserve. Last year I attended as a speaker at a small seminar about the boats we love. I also had done a "Boats of James Bond" powerpoint but was unable to be present for its showing. That powerpoint was probably more fun to put together than anyone watching would have guessed. Pix of Dad and Mom with me back in the early '90s... with Ol' Smoothie and then later in the '10s with Dad's furniture piece AKA the Penn Yann. Sign up to bring your boat. Even though there's a theme for fishing boats, any qualifying old boat can be a part of the fun (join ACBS !). Register for any part of the weekend below by clicking the image OR if you just want to come see all the boats, get your tickets through the museum: link here . I hope that CAYUGA will make the show this year. The ongoing issues with the port transmission have yet to be resolved, but maybe we'll have a light shed on it this week. I #@(*$& love yachting.

Say it isn't so! No, not me and Brad, I'm talking about the couplings for the port transmission. After an all-hands-on-deck meeting on the 20th, with some life-line calls to additional experts, it was determined that the male coupling needed to be replaced. Specifically, the pilot bushing was found to be suspect in that it was a bit undersized. Ladies reading this, please compose yourself. Otherwise, please excuse the fact that I did not know all this in full detail but I'm grateful for the resources available today, including people who still work on ancient mechanical stuff, so that I could learn. It's a bit of a mystery, but the couplings had worked for many years since the purchase by the previous owner and last servicing of the Paragons. Quite obviously, we had no issues for the one summer of enjoyment we've had thus far. Now, for whatever reason, but we all have a plan of attack in place, the port side with the suspicious "leak" has been determined that the couplings are no longer a desired match. In the ongoing Masterclass for me with boat engineering and design of whathaveyou, learning the lingo of even one piece of any system, is daunting. I thought learning the lingo of sailing (let alone boating in general) was insurmountable, try multiplying that by a thousand, and you have power boat engine mayhem. None of this is for the faint of heart. I am tested daily in my patience and perseverance, and I learned something else just last night about what a "cross crosslet" can stand for: fortitude . That's so random right? A cross crosslet? That's for another day. But back to this salacious episode of I love yachting. Let me school you up on a coupling. Here's an article to get you primed for a good night's sleep. Perhaps these pictures will be bit more stimulating or just maybe a LOT more helpful. The first picture, pardon the fuzziness as this was a difficult picture angle under the deck, is the coupling at the V-drive. The second picture is of the drive shaft coupling, and to help refresh how it should exist - the alignment line drawing . The outside diameter of the male pilot should be a mere fraction of an inch larger to fit snugly inside the female coupling. Oh boy, but what's that, a V-drive? First, it's not a poorly-named wanton sex goddess but could be mistaken for anything other than a boat part, but is actually a component of the Paragons , which are technically two happily married parts, the transmission and the V-drive. In the below picture, you can see the side of the engine blocks that the Paragons connect to (the block on the right just doesn't have that big circular (bell) housing connected yet but will look the same as the left when it does), and damn if this ain't sexy stuff. Next up is a naked Paragon, no no no, just not enrobed in a royal blue coating, but clearly you can see the various parts. For those who are scratching their heads, think about the power the engine is making and how it ultimately makes the propellers do their thing - that's what the transmission/v-drive handles; making the boat go either forward or reverse at the desired speed. The V-drive is a bit of a bizarre way to do it since you are taking an engine in a "reverse" installation and channeling that power through an intricate gear design that turns that power around and sends it in the opposite direction. Essentially the engine power is sent ---> (toward the front of the boat) and the V-drive reverses to it go <--- backward (to the propellors at the back of the boat). Ah, now it makes sense, right? CAYUGA was designed specifically to allow for gathering in the middle of the boat around the cocktail station (sink/bar) and pilot station area for tall tales of sail racing glory. With a V-drive configuration, the engines can sit a little further aft in the boat and the transmission/drives are forward and of course under the deck (which was the I love yachting mess recently) affording a very nice layout for those aboard. Not to mention, the engine boxes are fabulous seats in general. Doesn't this look great? Suntan beds, Becket lookouts, log canoe fan seating, the list goes on. Let's wrap it up with the couplings. I say plural because we are replacing not just the disappointingly small port male coupling but also the starboard. All minds felt it was the proper attack to get the machinery right. The correct size couplings arrived Friday and have been sent off with the shafts to be fitted and faced. If you read that article I gave you the link for at the beginning, you know what I'm talking about. For those of you knuckle-draggers, here's a picture from that article with what amounts to a very, very small tolerance for error: After what's transpired, even if the couplings aren't the issue, the right fit is definitely the right way to go. It's been an interesting 2024 so far with CAYUGA, and the psychotic labor of love it is to keep classic boats as true to their nature as possible. So as a member of the Antique and Classic Boat Society and with a high regard for old stuff, including Brad, enjoy the Mad Men brilliance across the ages: CAYGUA, girl, only the best for you, "the finest marine motors should be Paragon geared". In the end, I'm keeping in mind that the house usually wins, that is to say, boats are not a monetary strategy, but I still like the ride even if it's a gamble. 'Nuff said.

Never mind the tech troubles. The 3 part series is over before I even wrote the second story. Tuesday, 3/12, the Word Daily was " longanimity ". I could not help but laugh at that and shared it with Brad while I sat on my yoga ball at my stand-up desk. I balance the time of stand and sit and go through phases of stand or sit, but of late, sit, and was probably best. Last I left you dear reader was with hope. My hope. Maybe your hope. Hope of the universe. Screw the universe and the Martian ship it rode in on. Why? Because when the engine guy texts you to call when you can while the yard has you on the phone and sharing the latest news... OMG, what could possibly be the story after that? However, the engine guy is the upside in this story. That is the good part. This isn't all bad, but the bad is looking pretty bad at the moment. This could be an epic post, in terms of how long I could go on... So I will do my best to distill this from episode 1, through parts 2 and 3, and skip to Tuesday because what I thought I'd write became pointless with the day's news. Mind you I meant to post this almost immediately, but luckily, a couple of glasses of fine red wine had me fumbling around on the keyboard and favorably a few days later the news has brought some hope. Sidebar: my sorority symbol is the anchor. The symbol of hope. You must see the irony, or is that just Alanis Morrisette? Anyway, rewind to three weeks ago Monday, 3/4, after the unsatisfactory outing. There was a follow-up outing that same week on Friday. The engine guy had researched and determined a part that was the issue and got it replaced; a palm-of-your-hand-sized electrical device called the Ignition Control Module, " ICM ". The picture is of the good one from the starboard engine. The newer replacement ICM we had on port, while it fit properly, turned out to be the wrong technical replacement, of course. The correct part was ordered and arrived quickly so we went for another afternoon ride. In comparison to Monday , we went FAST. The issue of the engine stop was solved at high speed. Yes, there are more troubles, trials, and tribulations , because, and I can't believe it, the engine has decided to stop at low RPM and even at idle. It was a glorious hour of being on the water until all heck broke loose. I was having the best Zen moment of the combined 2022, 2023, and up to now, 2024 years because I was on the water with the boat in motion. At the end of that Friday, which started with engine man elated and at ease, closed with him being on edge, unhappy, and exasperated. Oh, come on! We fix one thing, we fix another, we fix something else, and it is never ending!!!...!...!!... But again, that got fixed. After calls to multiple companies by a determined engine mechanic, he went through a slew of technical tests with various devices and checked every single last wire. That led to an uninterrupted (by any engine issue) couple of hours when the yard owner (and an artist at driving a very large boat trailer), and the engine guru put the boat through its paces and could not replicate the problem at any level of speed or situation, thus ruled, problem solved. But it didn't stop the s***show of getting CAYUGA back in working water order from going easy. Nothing is easy with an old boat. Something on port has decided to be fussy, perhaps to leak, or it's something that looks like a leak. You read that right. Haha, right, no, this is left (port). We spent all of last summer hostage to the starboard (right) transmission situation . My conversation with the engine man that fateful Tuesday was epic. He is a calm, dispassionate, professional person who said exactly how he really felt. That was a moment. On the other hand, the owner's voice was a dead giveaway the second he spoke and went to, "How are you doing". So we went from a Monday with the first away from the dock trials and it was amazing until the port engine said NO to FAST and then to a Friday when everyone was feeling good and the port engine said NOPE to SLOW and even NADA to IDLE. Then to a Tuesday, with all the speeds, all the performance, everything everyone has been crossing fingers for to be. But for a new problem. I think I mentioned hope somewhere earlier in this stream of consciousness, hope, i.e. that tricky Elpis (AKA a Greek goddess of hope). I apologize for the limited elaboration as I can't find my Bulfinch's Mythology book, however, I may need to dust off the Oracles of Nostradamus to see what he predicted about this mess. But back to Tuesday's call followed by my call back to engine man's text, both conversations were so depressing, my heart sank past the center of the earth. It had been a week of March weather akin to early May, and Tuesday was fantastic at just over 70 degrees. Next week we'll probably have snow or a blizzard. So there's an upside? The boat won't sink with 3 feet of heavy spring snow freezing up the bilge pumps. I'll leave you with the fact that I had a massive meltdown that night. I called or texted many people who know of our journey and all were just as depressed but all were very supportive and hopeful we'd get through this latest setback. And Brad has been on the phone ever since with some incredibly knowledgeable and talented people in their field about what could be the cause. Various theories are under discussion and we know an answer is imminent, but just how long it will take scares me. My meltdown even entailed me telling the Denton folks I was so upset that I had a fleeting thought of, "Just put a fucking 'For Sale' sign on it". I regret thinking that, but it's the truth. One last thing, about Elpis, while said to be a minor goddess, she had a relatively starring role in the Pandora's Box story. You know the story and while all the other bad bits escaped, Elpis was trapped inside when the lid was put back and therefore has been a source of debate; was hope actually another evil, and thus we are spared its torment, or was hope truly good and without it we are meant to suffer? Is CAYUGA my Pandora's pithos?

Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Yes, I'm awkwardly brilliant perhaps once a year. So right now I'm a bit concerned about how the rest of 2024 is going to play out. Have I used up my incandescent light bulb moment or am I operating on LED and have a long life of ideas ahead of me this year? Recently, as in the end of 2023 and into the very beginning of 2024, CAYUGA needed a solution. Of course, this is a classic I love yachting story about to play out. As you may recall, the engines and transmissions were fully restored. As a part of the overall process, the old engine mounts (solid, but a bit rusty and corroded) were replaced, the old mount holes were glassed in, and the stringers * (in case that word is not quite familiar) were ready for new mounts. Here are a few pictures of where we started. When the tardy transmissions finally made their illustrious appearances last fall, the belles of the ball at that point, with much fanfare, everything was looking up. Here are some pictures of where we ended up. One small problem. . . The new mounts, and you knew this was coming, were slightly larger in height. Maybe because they're better, larger, sturdier, improved materials, whatever? But damn it, now one of the deck hatches doesn't close flush with the deck over the starboard transmission. Port is fine. OMG, whatever the fix is, it's got to be the same on both sides. AND it can't look like there was ever a fix. Not just one issue, but compounding ones. Huh? Why? Because. She's a member of the Antique Classic Boat Society and if she wants to get any chances of any awards, she better look like her line drawings. She'll never win 100% original classic and/or restoration, the first owner changed her original engines from the not-nearly-powerful enough Chrysler M 360s (250hp) to the GM Marine Power S 454s (350hp) we have now. The line drawings are pretty clear on what happened. The original is in black and the new GMs are in purple. This is helpful too as you can see the shaft alignment in degrees, the alley where the shaft goes through the hull, as well as the cabin sole location (deck), and how close the purple comes to the underside of the sole. The guys at the yard were betwixt and between and I was called to the boat yard toward the end of the year after the successful first dip for the engine break-in . It was a somber atmosphere, with many seemingly upbeat ideas being tossed out, all mostly thought through, but none were appealing and all meant a bunch of funky things I just didn't really get. I listened intently, VERY intently. I was standing there on the boat, inside the storage shed, at the edge with the door up, a cool day, but not bone-chilling. There were three of us. The engine guy, of course, the lead yard guy, and I think the son of the owner. Ideas were flowing like a keg of beer at a frat party. I look at everyone with a little bit of trepidation, after all these are professional boat builders, but after about 15-20 minutes of this conversation, I'm like, huh, why are we doing this? There's GOT to be a better way than teak deck grates, a second ladder, bump ups or outs, and other ideas but I don't remember exactly. All of this is to fix the fact that the alignment of the starboard engine on the NEW mounts has caused the starboard transmission to be slightly higher than the underside of the deck hatch, like about 5/8", which is kind of a lot but not a lot. Funny enough, the deck hatches were slightly revised with the installation of the larger GMs - there is a small cut-out on the bottom of the hatches just in the place where the transmissions would have bumped up against the hatch. In the picture, you can see the small rectangle of additional wood added to the top for strength/deck integrity where the cut-out exists underneath. So, now we're revising it a second time. The alignment problem itself was that the starboard shaft did not travel straight through the alley. It was running a little north in the alley and that was a tolerance no one was OK with. And here's the light bulb moment. It occurred to me, why just not raise the deck so the hatch fits right? A few minutes before I mustered the courage to speak up, the owner of the yard poked his head over the gunnels and was checking in on the brain trust. He just listened. So I finally asked, as there was a pause in the brainstorming, "Hey guys, what if we did this...". To my great surprise and delight, he chimed in as if lightning had hit and paraphrasing, said, "Yes, that was the fix, and here's how to do it!" The crew had a collective look of, "Hey, that might just work". And so on March 1, the deadline for "in the water", I went to see the progress. I've been to visit every week since the mid/end of January, usually on Fridays which are days when work is out a little bit earlier, and it's been a magical transition of boat work over the past two months. One more thing. An opportunity had presented itself. There was an ugly "fix" for a cut into the engine box when the prior owner took out the transmissions for service separately from the engines. Brad and I always thought it looked horrible. Truly jinkety janked . I'll let the pictures explain it, because trying to do so to Brad who knew it was something to be fixed, wasn't quite sure what I was saying until there was something on paper. Perhaps the marine industry would be interested in hiring me as a boat designer and/or problem solver. What a new job that would be! The first picture is the crappy-looking old situation. The second picture is the drawing of my idea. The rest is history. I'm thankful that my ideas were made into a reality - between utterly talented interpreters of my horrible drawings, and some nice wood and fiberglass work, my thoughts turned out beautifully. I also got some props (haha) from the Denton folks that my ideas worked really well. I want you to know that the gravity of this the realization that I did something I never knew I could do, so it was a remarkable moment for me (and my boat). I felt proud, which is something I am wary of, but can't help but feel. My closing thought is to share that I don't see a lot of women running boats out there on the water, and what happened over the course of the past few months gave me even more confidence about playing on the water, fixing my boat, and conquering an I love yachting moment. CAYUGA is ready to go!

Randomly, Arthur E. Martin's publication "Recreation or Amusement" popped into my mind this morning. It is one of the most brilliant and encapsulating explanations ever written to illustrate the difference between, you guessed it, recreation and amusement. As a brief background, I first met the late Arthur Martin at the Annapolis Sailboat Show around 1976. He and his wife, Marjory, were displaying their rowing shells at the show. Arthur was the quiet, quintessential Yankee. Marjory was the salesperson and outgoing member of their team of two. The long and short of the story is that I convinced my father to buy one of their Alden Ocean Shells—a boat I enjoyed rowing for years on the Magothy River. With the purchase of the boat came a pamphlet titled “Recreation and Amusement". I remember thinking about how well Arthur Martin made his case for the benefits of recreation. And what the detriments of overindulging in pure amusement are. To this day, even with the seemingly greater emphasis on amusing ourselves and the vast “improvements” in technology to aid in that, there is still nothing more extraordinary than pure and simple recreation. When time permits, give "Recreation and Amusement" a read. I hope it inspires you to seek recreational opportunities on the water. To aid in this, I've scanned my copy. For more about Arthur Martin and his philosophies on boats and life, I suggest reading his book Life in the Slow Lane . Arthur Martin, too, enjoyed motoring on his Energy 48, a scaled-up version of his Appledore rowing shell; powered by a 30-hp (22.5-kW) Westerbeke diesel, it burns 3 quarts (2.8 l) an hour at 10 knots. As a final note, how this popped into my head, at church, was looking at all the elaborate new technology for audio/visual presentations, etc. (my church was renting space, it opened its own sanctuary last month). And as someone who strives to follow Arthur Martin's philosophy, I can't help but think about how boating has lost its recreational aspects, i.e. this illustration ( link to article ): Our I love yachting journey with CAYUGA has been anything but amusing, and while it's not rowing an Alden for pure recreation and philosophical reflection, she is at the same time something that stirs our hearts when you see her, and our imaginations when we think of her simplicity. Aboard CAYUGA, life is never dull.

I pinch myself every time I look at a 2021 picture of CAYUGA somewhere having fun with friends. Yesterday was hoped to be the day the boat was put back in the water after just over two years. Two years. Nope, that's not right . Two years? Two years! If you know the scene, go with it... As I started this last night, I was listening to The Stranglers' song - Too Precious - on vinyl, because I got old stuff, yeah. If you don't know the artist, you might want to, I found them in the early 80s during that wonderful time of new wave, punk, and international music influx that informed my listening habits for life. The word sublime comes to mind to describe the sound I hear in this song. Anyway, that's what CAYUGA is. She is precious. Over the course of the still ongoing non-yachting couple of years, besides distracting myself with plants and whatever else, I've been puttering away at organizing and deleting duplicate/bad/etc photos and videos in my online storage... so I can have more photos and videos in online storage! Long live the cloud. Pretty sure most will be of CAYUGA or my gardens when it's all said and done. Anyway, here's the memory lane of photos I ran across last night. I hope soon there will be *new and improved* memories! I finished up this post with another great group, Men At Work: Down by the Sea . Let me share this; I love a song for the sound, often the words or meaning is not an issue or focus for me, just the sound, so anyway, enjoy it like you do. Lastly, I have much to be thankful for in general, and in spite of the past couple of years of ongoing I love yachting setbacks. Good night and stay tuned for the Thanksgiving week trials.

You know how every 90 days, or some other IT timeframe, it's destined to be the moment when you need to log on but can't reset your password? Well, that's not the issue but it is the point because when the time came earlier this year, and as I've been making passwords related to CAYUGA as I can usually remember them, I set the latest password no differently. And the password is... "Inthewater2023??". Pretty sure I need to change my password now... but hilarious right? As if that was ever going to happen as the days and months passed by, but if you need a little password inspiration, this is interesting , or just get yourself some help: Lastpass . Well, there's a light at the end of this I love yachting spectacle. I'm ever hopeful once again. If you followed along in the CAYUGA series then you know the transmission did finally arrive a couple of weeks ago. There's even better news! So the transmission arrived on Friday, 10/20, and by Monday 10/30, the whole engine and transmission had been put back together, waiting only for forklifts to arrive and do the heavy lifting, find its port mate already in process and soon to be next, finally, and of course, last but not least and what we've all been waiting for, installed safe and sound . We're really making some progress! Still to be done: exhaust hoses, cooling hoses, electrical wiring, and of course after all this time, cleaning out the old fuel and checking all fuel lines in preparation for fresh fuel for trials. The batteries have continued to be checked and charged and are doing well. And we've been told as of this past Friday, "all seems to be going back together smoothly at this point". Cross your fingers, folks, we might just be back in the water in 2023.

Denton never got a message with the tracking information. They did however get a transmission delivery. The text on Friday, October 20, at 12:04 PM was, "It's here!" I yelled and jumped and Brad looked at me like I was crazy but he definitely heard me. Now the race is on to get it put back together and in the water at least for trials before winter. The fact that we're going to get it in the water at all this year almost brings me to tears. The text had just this one picture: Arrived!

We're nearly at the end of the letters to be used for this entertaining (?) series of I love yachting events and emotions. It's been entertaining for me to write if nothing else, a distraction perhaps? Coming up with a simple way to express each letter has been rather fun and easier than anticipated, and the GIFs to express the situation have been hilarious to search for too. The U blog had Brad in stitches. Inviting you into the minds of Holly and Brad we figured would be one way to share our latest state of affairs - oh you're surprised we have minds!? Ha ha, rightfully so, it's certainly debatable that we might have any brains since this is totally not how you enjoy being on the water. But other than that, you should be wondering by now, what's with all the blog entries? Yet, you might recall from the first of this series, there was a text that just faded out. I didn't quite finish and left you with, " Can you believe it?? ". I suggest you go read that first , but if you've stayed with me, this is good. The rest of that text was, "...shipping the gear out this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Will send me the tracking number when it goes. I expect we will see it early next week." G etting close.