So many boats, Not enough water time!

I have to wonder why that, with three boats, I never seem to be on the water enough.

In the past four years, I have used Christina T only twice for our Mariner Class rendezvous held each year in August. The last time I took the boat to Connecticut for the “21 rendezvous, I made a grievous error, read that a very stupid rookie mistake, which resulted in my motor being broken in two, and I was not able to participate. Yep, I trailed four hours to Niantic, rigged my boat, broke my boat and trailed four hours back home. I still beat myself up over that. I decided that I would fix the motor myself, but could never get things to work right. I was dead set on getting this motor working and ignored many opportunities to buy another. I even anticipated that I would have the motor working by sailing season “23 and so reserved a dry slip at our local lake so I could get more sailing time in with my beautiful Christina T. That never happened and she never saw water for a second year. But I am, if nothing else, determined to fix my motor and have a great “24 sailing season at the lake and at the Mariner rendezvous.

Jon-B faired somewhat better, but not nearly to my wishes. In ‘22, my little sailing group consisting of my 24” Hunter, a Cat 22 and an O’Day 22, had two great sails on the Chesapeake Bay, sailing out of Sandy Point near Annapolis. We hoped to do more in ‘23 and started of with a very nice three day sail in the middle bay area. On the way home from that trip, however, car trouble for one of the guys made towing his boat that far a bit of a concern which lead to our not going back to the Chesapeake again for this season. I could have gone alone, but sailing in a group offers a bit more security for us older types. As is always the case, however, we look forward to much more water time in ‘24.

At lease I got some decent use out of Jack-Ash, my 24’ pontoon boat, with several lake trips, a trip to the Atlantic City to watch the airshow from the intercoastal waterway and a very nice day trip to The Sultana Downrigging weekend activities in Chestertown, MD. Each of those trips resulted in a lot of time on the water, especially the Chestertown trip which require a bay crossing from Annapolis to the Chester River and the lengthy trip up the river. Returning to the Annapolis area by late afternoon we opted for a great meal at one of our favorite eateries on the bay, Cantler’s, which is on Mill Creek just off of Whitehall Bay. By the time we got the boat back on the trailer, we had traveled over seventy miles. Next year, Jack-Ash will make another circumnavigation of Manhatten Island,, spend more time in the bays of New Jersey and investigate the Potomac River around Washington. At least, that’s the plan!