Search Party!

You may be wondering what's up with the letters. Have you figured it out yet? This one should be giving it away. We delivered the boat to Denton on November 7, 2021. Seems like only yesterday that happened, it was such a perfectly glorious day (see the vlog ). Don't worry about the math, it's easily close to two years. It's a long haul. Truly. Hauling the damn transmission first to someone in Virginia who never worked on it and hauling it back. Then hauling it to South Carolina where as many of you may know, it got fixed (hooray!), came back, but then had an issue and went back (boo!) only to be there ever since. As you would imagine, the mental state around here at home has been nothing short of pins and needles, but including... Insanity. Frustration. Anger. Futileness. Resignment. Fugit. Basically, we've been super mega monster boundlessly and daringly infuriated. Yes, a dare. Daring ourselves to make it through this. It's a way to look at it, deal with it, and not kill each other or get divorced over a damn boat. Whatever it takes. But mostly we've just been U pset.

FADE IN. INT. HOME OFFICE. Following yesterday's scene - it is the next day, communications are attempted, questions abound, and seems like the same old story. HOLLY and BRAD. HOLLY I don't know why I do it. BRAD I don't know what to tell you. HOLLY You know I love that old grandfather clock. You were the perfect husband getting someone to come out to fix it. Surprising me with a clock guy who shows up as promised and tells me what he's going to do to get it working again. A month later, after he comes and puts it all back together, the friggin' thing stops 4 hours later. He told me not to "panic" if it stopped. But seriously, WTF? He was here again and did whatever, and it ran flawlessly, beautifully, for just over 24 hours. He asked me to text him a picture of the face of the clock and the position of the weights. BRAD What is he going to do? HOLLY He said he'd "bench-test" it in his shop. OMG. Where have I heard that before... BRAD I heard the chimes but I still can't hear the other one. HOLLY I can't help you. I told you to put the ship's clock next to your ear! BRAD I'll refrain from negativity. Hill grilled me on that this past weekend. HOLLY Glad you heard him at least, I will appreciate your restraint. Anyway, while you were out, we talked on the phone and he walked me through some tests. Then conversationally he says he'd performed his task, I'd paid him fair and square, but his obligation was to get it working. #($%! I can't wait to see how long this takes... Brad is sitting at his desk, staring at his laptop, typing, listening, but not saying anything. Holly is standing at her desk, looking at Brad, wondering what to think about anything... The clock chimes in the foyer. HOLLY Next time it stops, which I'm sure it will, he's coming back to take the whole thing, all of it, not just the insides, to his shop. This bitterly reminds me of another situation... Does every restoration attempt have to be so damned hard? FADE OUT. A re you kidding me?

FADE IN: EXT. A REGULAR WORKDAY Traveling on a highway, heading to work in the morning, and making a phone call to the boat yard. HOLLY Hi there, have you heard anything about the infamous transmission? I know Brad visited you last Thursday and mentioned Jones Marine had made some progress. DENTON FOLKS Hey! No, I have not heard anything from them. But yes, Brad did say he'd talked to them. I will contact them today, actually, I'll call as soon as we finish talking HOLLY Excellent, I hope, and we all know how much I've hoped this summer... and now fall... I did hear someone was working on the engine hatch hinges though. DENTON FOLKS Yes, and we're all ready to go as soon as the transmissions arrive, we all want to get the boat in the water! HOLLY Sounds good, text me if you hear any good news from the gear guy. DENTON FOLKS Will do. A few hours pass at the office and a text is received. DENTON FOLKS Spoke with the gear guy and he said he expects to be... FADE OUT. C an you believe it???

...and counting. This post, a bit of therapy and catharsis, attempts to think through the past four hundred and sixty-one days since commencing CAYUGA's refit. The process began the day CAYUGA was docked in Denton, November 8, 2021. Lest I despair too much, I do admit that first summer was pretty wonderful, it still carries me, but I seriously hope the days are few and numbered for wrapping up this work. The delivery to the folks who will be doing the work, way up the Choptank River (check out the blog on that here ), to Denton, was "magical" as Holly would put it. So we began the refit work which was to include taking out the engines and the transmissions for service. Note that I say "service". In the meantime, I have to share that a few things have gone swimmingly well. Namely, the varnish work, of which my previously varnish-averse wife, is exceedingly thrilled about, and the trim tabs. The Zipwakes , we are anticipating will be the game changer for going "slow" but at a nice speed, not full out like the original owner, Blair Brown, designed so he could get from one point to another in record time. Story for another day. Check those for DONE! Holly thinks those trim tabs are sexy, I don't understand her definitions... but I like it. Back to the rest, to accomplish the services, Holly and I began engaging in commerce with many marine industry businesses. In hindsight, to say that we now find ourselves behind schedule and over budget is an understatement. Holly, ever the pragmatist, says she is happy just knowing CAYUGA exists in her life. I hear her, but see the sadness in her eyes that she didn't get the boat in the water for summer '22. That and I know she was utterly spent by summer's end with friends asking her when the boat was going in the water. I, on the other hand, well, those who know me know exactly how I feel, and for those of you who do not, I'm exasperated, irritated, and can barely utter our eponymous website name, neither in sarcasm nor jest. Were we naive and overly optimistic? Should we have known better what we were getting into and planned accordingly? How could we have planned or known? Holly paid for our boat slip for 2022, but it went unused. The annual Antique & Classic Boat Festival held in St. Michael's every June went unattended. CAYUGA stayed in storage, gathering dust and collecting stories. Antique & Classic Boat Festival at St. Michaels (photo clipped from https://shorebread.com) I'd say this is going to be brief, but it probably won't be (making a parallel statement?). Anyway, over the past fifteen months of "Project CAYUGA", I'll try to distill the good, the bad, and the ugly. First, we still do not have an end date. You would be in hysterics if I were to try to tell you how many end dates we had planned, or were near meeting, or were given, or promised, or conjured out of thin air just to feel better on any given day. All of the above by all parties. Probably mostly by me. But after a near meltdown, which prompted this post, I asked my dear power-boating wife to take the helm. Holly is not only pushing for in-the-water but is visualizing the calendar in everyone's head for sea trails come April. Some of the challenges and tribulations are self-inflicted. Side note: we realize we are entirely reliant upon the marine industry and will not say boo about, but we do need to live up to our I love yachting standard - the things go right version. So, in a perfectly ILY fashion, we sourced our Annapolis-based engine mechanic to handle our engine services. Well, we needed more than just some service once things were apart. OF COURSE! I will say, if nothing else, I've learned quite a lot about marine gas engines, transmissions, and v-drives. Backing up a bit, the Denton folks had enlisted the services of one of their subs to remove the mechanical workings and secure them for transport to Annapolis. On December 11, 2021, (428 days ago) our good friend, neighbor, racing/boating guru, and frequent commenter on posts, Geremy, helped by providing his truck to haul the engines across the Bay to begin the evaluation of the thirty-year-old Marine Power big block 454s. After determining with our Annapolis mechanic's expert input that the prudent course of action was to get the longblocks rebuilt, I searched for a shop capable and willing to do the work. For a recommendation, I called the local marine power dealer, Coby Marine , in Pasadena. Without hesitation, I was referred to Marty Brown Racing in Centerville, MD. With the Eastern Shore close to both of our hearts, we were feeling pretty good. MBR is an excellent family-run machine shop specializing in high-performance engines for cars and boats, racing, and everyday use. The business was started in Glen Burnie by Marty Brown, Sr., then moved to the Eastern Shore, where Marty Brown, Jr. now handles the day-to-day running of the business. The picture is of Holly and Marty Jr., January 27, 2022. Marty enthusiastically agreed to overhaul the engines. Over in Annapolis, on February 26, 2022, our mechanic loaded them on a trailer and transported them back across the Bay. The longblocks were off on their own and now we had the transmissions / v-drive gears to get serviced. While the 454s make the power (the Marine Power slogan being " The Force Behind The Fun "), it takes gears to convert the power to make those propellers go around, fast. Yet again, in another perfect ILY situation, CAYUGA is equipped with no longer made (a company out of business long ago...) Paragon gears. The one-time Taunton, MA-based company is now just a memory, but there are a few shops that remain still servicing the old but trusty units. Parts? Of course, those are also no longer produced either thus adding to the list of "why are we doing this??!!". Remember that self-inflicted statement part... New York Times article about the Paragon factory. November 9, 1981 I got a recommendation for a shop in VA that serviced Paragons. So, with another borrowed pickup truck, I went to Denton to pick up the Paragons and on April 11, 2022, drove them to VA. It felt like real progress with the engines underway and someone to service the Paragons. Back at Marty Brown Racing, the engines were done. The picture is a happy Holly with Marty Jr. and some seriously silver (a sailing buddy of ours had a slightly different reaction, "Silver as #&%@ was his exclamation) like new engines on July 12, 2022. Marty Brown, Sr. delivered the longblocks back to the Annapolis shop on July 18, 2022. Unfortunately, no work was ever performed on the Paragons in VA. After a few phone exchanges, I was in a position where I had no choice but to go and retrieve our transmissions. So on July 25, yet another pickup truck was borrowed, and off I went to bring our Paragons back to Annapolis. Time for you to pour a beverage of your liking, if you haven't already, and tuck in. Yes... ILY once more. Let me explain. Holly's parents were longtime active members of the Antique & Classic Boat Society (ACBS) , Chesapeake Chapter. Shortly after taking over stewardship of CAYUGA, I signed us up for membership. We had (still have) grand plans for entering her in the annual show in St. Michael's for competition. ACBS is all about keeping a boat in a "matching" condition to the original, but not a requirement. The engines, once completed, and without us paying attention, got painted silver as #%)&*. The original Marine Power color is more of a silver-gray. All of the brackets, heat exchangers, pulleys, etc. are that color. Therefore, we needed to prep and repaint the engines in order for our Annapolis guy to put it all back together and dress it up. I contacted an old acquaintance who has been painting boats for decades. He agreed to do the work of paint removal and priming in preparation for reassemblage and then dress-up. In late August a deposit was paid for what seemed like a reasonably straightforward re-paint job to get done in Annapolis. Well, September passed, then October and November, and through December, with January coming and going all without the painting getting done. Going back to the transmissions, they had become a reason for not completing the engine painting - the theory being that they could not be reassembled until the transmissions were complete and returned. Therefore, the transmission work ostensibly became the tail wagging the dog. After returning from VA, I began the task of searching for another shop to perform the work on the Paragons. Eventually, I got an indirect referral through ACBS for another one-person operation (who else is out there but these folks and thankfully they are but they are hard to find) just west of Charleston, SC. I rang up Chris Jones Marine and arranged to deliver the units. I suppose you could say it's all a journey... and with Geremy's truck "Buttercup", (yes, it has a name) I headed south to Sommerville, SC on August 17 (179 days ago) and drove back the next day. SC is not exactly convenient, but I wanted to meet the person who would be doing the work and ensure we had an understanding of what he was going to do and how long it would take. It was a tough couple of days traveling I-95 but it seemed this time it was worth it. The Paragons are ready for the trek south on August 17, 2022. Chris Jones, our hoped-for Paragon guru, at his shop later that day, August 17, 2022. Holly spoke with Chris about a week ago and relayed that he was nearing completion of the second unit and would be shipping in the next week directly to the Denton folks as discussed. Does anyone remember the old show Sing Along with Mitch Miller and following the bouncing ball? (there really was no bouncing ball but that's what folks tend to remember) My parents watched it. I realize that this story might be like that show, but hopefully, you are still with me. The most recent ball bounce occurred last Monday, February 6. Holly and I met with the painter to discuss the status of things. Based on the progress, or lack thereof, the decision was made to full-stop the (non) painting effort and get everything back to Denton. And back across the Bay The Force Behind The Fun - in pieces - shall go. Since the Denton folks have a full paint shop, they can handle the remaining parts to be cleaned of old paint and corrosion and then begin the work to reassemble it all into CAYUGA. For anyone who read the last post and wondered if this latest chapter of ILY has gotten me drinking again, the answer is no. Further, I have remained on that plan for now 85 days with the support of Holly and our friends. Living through this refit, whether the responsibility rests with us or others, has tested my determination to stay calm and to persevere without liquid resolve. As part of my therapy, going back to the very beginning of this post, please feel free to comment with opinions, thoughts, suggestions, or just remind me that ILY.

Ecclesiastes 3:1, For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. On September 4th, Labor Day 1972, I got intoxicated for the first time at the Ulmstead picnic at the community beach. At the picnic were unsupervised kegs of beer. Hey, what could go wrong mixing teenagers with unguarded kegs. Unnoticed by the adults, most of us teenagers liberally helped ourselves on that end-of-summer holiday day. That same day, Olympic Legend, Mark Spitz , won his record seventh gold medal. His accomplishment was much more commendable than mine. I staggered home from the picnic in an inebriated state, crawled up the stairs, burst into my parent's bedroom, and bellowed, "Mark Sppitttzzzz won his sevvveenthh gold meddle!" Like they didn't already know. Dad – usually the firm military disciplinarian – was surprisingly unfazed. He ordered me to go outside and "walk it off." I was hammered. And the next day, I experienced another first - a massive hangover that included a blistering headache and necessitating visits to "drive the porcelain bus." But my parents did not say a word, and my future drinking went undeterred by the ill effects of that infamous Labor Day revelry. That party commenced a fifty-year season of alcohol-infused merriment. Fortunately, and luckily, without ever incurring disastrous occurrences or repercussions. Back to the present to share some motives for my time to stop drinking course correction. In short, it is primarily health-related. I can no longer continue drinking as I have, feel good, and maintain the desired mental acuity and physical health. Those days are in the past. Therefore, I must confront reality and give up the drink. The chances of imbibing in moderation – having that one glass of wine with dinner – won't happen. Moderation is just not in my DNA. Dear Ole Grandpa Cole supposedly said of drinking, "I like it so much, I don't do it at all." I will heed the wisdom of my forefathers. I am already making adjustments with Holly's help. While I loved my Dark & Stormys, Holly has already come up with a "mocktail" replacement for me via "shrubs" she discovered through her much-adored jam purveyor, Blake Hill Preserves . And I thank Peter Howard for steering me to Athletic Brewing , a good non-alcoholic beer substitute. It will be challenging for me to stay committed to sobriety. I will need encouragement and support from friends to stay on the course. And I thank you all in advance. But, not to worry, there will still be plenty of cocktails and barley sandwiches aboard CAYUGA for friends to enjoy. Yah never know though, you might just get served a mocktail and love it.

Shortly after delivering CAYUGA across the Bay and up the Choptank River for winter storage and projects, we were caught up in the holiday festivities and did not provide you with any stories. We also owe you a guest story that we will, we promise, post up soon. Our stopover between the Bay crossing and going up the river, was none other than one of our favorite Eastern Shore places, Cambridge. We made the best of it with a stop at Holly's favorite local brewery and I got my history itch scratched with a burgee exchange. Hopefully, the holidays have been relaxing and enjoyable for you. Monday starts the New Year back at work for most and for us, it's a darn fine time to get back to sharing more I Love Yachting adventures. We wish everyone the best while navigating 2022! Cheers, Brad & Holly

On 11/30/23, CAYUGA went for a swim. She dipped her toes in the water, found it suitable after a minor adjustment, and enjoyed a few hours of floating next to the dock where she was put through her paces by her coach, watched by her ward, and admired by a few new fans from afar. All in all, it was not the day we had hoped for, but in retrospect, it went better than might have been expected given the time everything has been out of the water not doing anything. Why should it be an early happy birthday for me? Well, it was just a day from my birthday month of December. On 12/1/23, what hadn't gone to plan the day before was sorted out and CAYUGA performed admirably. About midday, the engine mechanic, her coach, called and said her idling was so perfect I could go crabbing. I guess if I lived on the Eastern Shore and were a fishing/crabbing person, that would make a lot more sense. So, I'll take the happy results of much work and finger-crossing as the best birthday present I could get for 2023, maybe ever in some respects. It's just a thing, I have to remind myself. It is not Holly, that is, it's not me. It is a boat. It is, though, a connection, a feeling, a desire, or even a need to connect to water and every joy water has and has had for me with family and friends. So, maybe yes, it is Holly, but I had to do the mind contortions to get to that because it's not really just a thing. Here's to CAYUGA, thanks for the present of a working pair of beautifully restored engines and transmissions. And then... it's working! Every day that passes toward the 2024 season is one less in the way of realizing the dream that CAYUGA has been for me since I first saw her, in spite of the ILY meandering journey it's been.

Oh, the joy of fixing things... After a nice run from Annapolis and back at the dock last Sunday, I began to fuss with the wheel because it's still loose, turning it all the way starboard and then port. And then while turning to port, the wheel started to unscrew. Yes, it just kept on spinning. Oh s***! What if that had been while underway? A true I love yachting moment that thankfully did not come to pass. Our friend Berke George, AKA the Cannon Man, is in town, he arrived last Wednesday. Given that we still have a bit of boating to do before CAYUGA gets hauled for the season, the Edson wheel needed to be fixed. Berke has a wealth of knowledge regarding boats and how things work on boats so who better to dig into this problem. As you know, we tried this once, then again, and now here we are doing it one more time. We'd thought our love of yachting moments with this wheel were behind us but not quite yet. So on a beautiful Thursday last week, Berke and Brad went to town on the wheel. The culprit was discovered to be a set screw on the shaft that had been worn and was sliding on the shaft but also scoring it. That's not a pretty picture. Berke filed the shaft to both repair and smooth it out. Then the hunt was on for a new set screw and a threading tap. For those of you who may not know what that is, because I certainly did not, it is used to create threads a screw can go into. I had to look it up on the google, so here's a picture for ya in the middle. We surmise that this was going on all along to some degree, we can't be sure but there's no doubt in our mind that the instructions we followed the second time around got this situation to mayday status. The "turn the wheel all the way and then turn hard again" directions - we don't plan to repeat unless totally necessary. I'm not saying anything we were instructed to do in any way was wrong or bad - what happened was a mechanical deficiency. Berke discovered that the old set screw couldn't fully and properly situate itself against the shaft because of the hub hole threads. Basically, no screw would until the threads were all the way through the hub hole, so this was bound to happen. As an aside, technically, the boat could be maneuvered with throttle alone but that would be only at low speeds, I would not want to try steering that way going at a cruising speed. I don't use the wheel to dock, it's all gear shifting and bow thruster. My comfort level with steering CAYUGA around is growing with more and more scenarios we get her into. However, it's nice to have confidence in your basic boat operating machinery! So Brad and Berke went to Fawcett after not being able to find the right screw or tap at the marina boatyard we are docked at. Two folks at Fawcett were struggling to find what we needed, a longer 5/16th set screw and the same size tap. In was called a wisened old salt who descended into the basement from where he emerged victorious in his quest with just the right screw and tap. Berke remarked that "now we're in business". Once back at the boat, the tap was used to completely thread the whole way through the hub hole. And while Berke was at it, he took some time to Flitz the wheel and get it looking like new. If you don't know about this stuff, you are missing out! This wheel is shiny - I like shiny metal stuff. It's so nice to have a working wheel. We were out today bringing the boat home and it was night and day steering ability. And it looks great too. Look at that set screw doing its job like it's supposed to. Thanks to the always awesome Fawcett folks. And way to go Berke! I learned so much listening to you just to do this post with how you explained exactly what you did and what was needed to be done. I am a much better yacht girl today than I was yesterday.

Today I got a call, about 1530, and it was a funeral home calling to tell me that my very dear friend Don McBride had passed away. I met Don on E dock in the Piney Narrows Yacht Haven marina in the Kent Narrows where I lived on my sailboat CALIX and he had is sailboat COLEMAR. This was 2008. He was an avid sailor. He loved his wife and his Maine Coon cat named Misha. For whatever stars aligned we became friends and enjoyed more than a few gin and tonic/sodas together, a love of jazz and big band, as well as Chicago and a band we saw together with Brad at Ramshead back in 2019, Leonid & Friends. Getting a call like that at work is difficult like you'd imagine, and thanks to the good people there, I made it through the rest of the day and came home to Brad who had a gin and soda ready for me. We sat by the firepit and recalled many a moment with Don. Besides our sailing and music loves, by the way he led a big band way back in the day whereupon he met his wife who was a singer, we remembered his presence for our wedding day, the times he visited down from NJ where he lived, to hang with his boating club, but always stopped by to visit us for at least an overnight so we could gin it into the wee hours. Covid put a damper on in person visits but we all took up Zoom and it ended up being such a beautiful thing. We talked most every weekend with sometimes extended chats when we would put up jazz music videos on YouTube and just listen and comment and have fun. We last did a Zoom this past Sunday 9/27. One of the funniest, best moments, not on the water, but of recent note, was last fall, when Covid had calmed down and Don came for a short visit. His timing was scheduled so he would be here while our good friend Berke - The Cannon Man - was visiting. I will never forget that day, that Sunday, when I asked both gentlemen to assist me with hanging a large flat screen TV. Brad decided this was not his gig and went off to research the history of... something yachty... Hilarity ensued. Berke, being with an engineering background, and Don, have worked with engineers at the fusion lab in Princeton, pretty much had this thing figured out. However, I, being me, had to delve into making sure the mounting was PERFECT. The right spacing above the front speaker, the right height from the viewing chairs, blah blah blah. Between me and Berke, we took one measurement, then re-checked it a 100 times. Don deferred to me and Berke, but he kept us from devolving into chaos. Centimeters, fractions of inches. We shared so many funny moments that day, I feel sometimes like it was yesterday. One of the interesting things about that day was that I made the conscious decision to NOT take any pictures but to remember everything about it in my head, not to make it a post to Twitter, or Instagram, etc. It was too precious, too sincere, just real people together being the best of who they are in a great moment. Berke is visiting during the Annapolis boat shows and arrives in less than a week. Don had reserved a room locally to be here. With heavy heart, Brad called Berke with the news. But Don is remembered for so much fun and joy he brought to the table, mostly the gin. No, just kidding, he also taught me much about music in a classic jazz way - he played horn. I can only imagine his big band days. He did share some pictures during our many Zoom calls, of him water skiing or playing in the band or whatever. He was family to us, Brad and I (and Becket). I could go on but, I miss you already Don, I was so excited you were coming to visit and it may have been your zest for living you wanted to do it but your physical being just wasn't going to agree. Don (and to your family) you will live on with every jazz CD you ever shared, the Chicago and Leonid concerts we planned to go to (tonight Chicago played at the Bloomsburg Fair which we wanted to get to but Covid and tickets messed it up), the Star Clippers sail we were planning on, the visit to the Deer's Head Inn to see Eric Mintel, and so much more. Since no post can be without the theme, I give to you a most uproarious moment... so Don, you remember that "I love yachting" moment when Brad nearly lost his mind because he couldn't get that damn dinghy motor started? He nearly pulled the cord out, almost fell in the water (while in the Kent Narrows - not a place to go swimming), swore enough in those few minutes for most people's lifetime, and entertained us for a good 20 minutes with one simple, frustrating act of dinghy motor non-compliance. I think we laughed for days and well, it's been years and we're still laughing, together...

In an attempt to keep upbeat while winter drearily slogs along, and looking back at better times before Covid, I couldn't help but think of a short story by the late Dave Moss, a.k.a. The Moss-man, which still makes me laugh. A few years ago, during a passage from Annapolis to Bermuda aboard Mark Myers' Swan 51, TONIC, Dave was in (usual) rare form regaling us with his sailing tales. Bear with me, it won't be the same as hearing it from Dave but I'll do my best and here it goes. Years ago, Moss was sailing his boat back to Annapolis from a Block Island Race Week with a young woman as crew, just her and him. They were enjoying a lovely afternoon sail down the Jersey Coast. There were plenty of boat drinks consumed and sunscreen was said to have been required over their entire bodies... Anyway, they make it to the mouth of the Delaware Bay in the early evening, just before sunset, and Moss gets the boat through the entrance of the joyous body of water most sailors love to hate. He puts the boat on a proper course up the channel and by that point it is dark and Dave is pretty spent (from what you can only imagine) so he decides to get some much-needed sleep. Before he heads to bed, the young lady, not an experienced sailor and somewhat unsure of herself, asked Dave what to do. Moss thinks for a minute and then instructs, "It's easy. Just keep the red lights on the right and the greens on the left, and wake me up if you need to" and with that Moss disappeared below. A few hours later, a panicked cry comes from on deck. The young gal hollered, "Dave, I think you better get up here!" Dave cleared the fog from his brain and rushed up to see what the urgency was all about. He looked ahead through the darkness to see that, yep, she had done as instructed and kept the reds on the right and greens on the left. The problem was, the lights weren't the channel lights, but rather the bow lights of a massive outbound container ship bearing rapidly down on them. Moss exclaimed, "Oh shit!"; then grabbed the helm, altered course as quickly as possible, and narrowly averted disaster. After changing his shorts, I'm guessing he cracked a beer and stayed up and on deck for the rest of the night. So when I hear someone giving piloting advice by saying, keep the reds on the right and greens on the left, when inbound, I can't help but think of Good Ole Moss-man. We Miss that guy!

This past Monday night was the third "I love yachting" free outing in a row with the mighty CAYUGA. Thankfully that made for a happy Happy Birthday for me with Holly on the water. As far as the Birthday part, they get treated without huge fanfare at this stage of the game. The thought of having to sign up for Medicare next year only dulls any possible excitement or enjoyment of aging. This year the party was boating with Holly and a stop at the Annapolis Yacht Club, a place that is home away from home for us, for an early dinner. The night was a perfect, humidity-free one here in the Land of Pleasant Living. So, I iced down a few Modelos, fired up the engines, and off we went. We tied up, with Holly getting more comfortable by the day with how the boat handles, and met our longtime friend Gerard at the Club’s Burgee Bar. There we enjoyed a relaxing, casual dinner and before sunset, we departed to head back to Whitehall Creek. On the way out of the Annapolis Harbor, we spotted a friend and fellow Club member, Rick, in his classic Whaler. I hailed him and asked if he’d take a photo of CAYUGA. He did and emailed them over for which I am grateful. This is my favorite of the bunch. I love that proud ensign flying so beautifully - future post about flags... We got back to the dock and poured a glass of wine to have with my birthday cake which was a take-out blackberry cobbler (sans candles). Delicious! It was a perfect end to a wonderful birthday with Holly and CAYUGA.

A moment to reflect on the passing of a yacht. Xanadu II has made her Final Voyage. Above, Xanadu II is captured while participating in the Centenary series of regattas and festivities of the Royal Danish Yacht Club in Copenhagen. (photo above from Motor Boating, December 1966) I got a call this past Friday morning from Holly on her way to the office. She shared that Xanadu II was gone from where she’d been stored along the south side of Route 50, just west of the Severn River Bridge, at Philip McKee’s storage yard for the past decade. And she noticed two big roll-off dumpsters with what looked like pieces of a boat protruding out. Later that afternoon, I swung by to check it out for myself. The dumpsters weren't there, presumably taken away rather efficiently, but what I witnessed gave me pause – a few remaining pieces of the legendary Xanadu II. A reflective and solemn I love yachting moment, and to me, personally, an ignominious ending. I have not yet been able to speak with Philip about it (and will report if I do), but I might only imagine and of course assume, how painfully difficult it may have been for him to demolish his grandfather’s boat – a boat that he'd sailed on from the time he was a young boy. For many years, Xanadu II was the pride and joy of the late yachtsman, E. Bates McKee. She was a 47-foot yawl constructed out of mahogany and was designed by William H. “Bill” Tripp. Built in Bremen, Germany, in 1964 at the yacht yard of Johann de Dood, she was coming up on her 60th birthday. Xanadu II made her debut around the time of the 1964 Annapolis Yacht Club Fall Series. Her first Annapolis to Newport Race was in 1965. She finished 12th out of 22 boats in Class II. According to what I have researched, her first Newport to Bermuda Race was in 1966. She went on from Bermuda that year to race across the Atlantic to Denmark. Of note, she was one of only three American boats to race in the very first Cape Town to Rio race, from South Africa to Brazil in 1971. The other two boats were Ed Hartman Sr.’s, Ma’m’selle, and Dick Zantzinger’s, Molly Brown. From the race brochure of the 1971 inaugural Cape to Rio Race, more on Cape2Rio2025. I would not want to try to guess how many thousands of miles the old gal had under her keel. Xanadu II crossed the Atlantic five times, according to Bates McKee's obituary, and sailed many Annapolis to Newport and Newport to Bermuda Races with Bates as her proud owner/skipper. Another bit of Xanadu II historical trivia is that late, longtime Annapolis Yacht Club member and excellent racing sailor Theo Petersen served as a captain on the boat for Bates from around 1967 to 1972. I suppose, as the saying goes, nothing lasts forever, but the memories do live on. Thank you to those who have contributed with stories and photos. If anyone has any additional information or stories, please be in touch, I would enjoy expanding my research on Xanadu II. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round; And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. - SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE