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122º 30' 06" W 48º44' 55"N
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November 2020
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Volume 36 Number 11
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November 2020 issue:
Download this issue as a PDF.
The next CYC Zoom meeting is Tuesday November 14th!
October
Bad Karma,
We did not get out on the water too often this year, but when we did, there were crab pots involved. Overall, the crabbing was pretty good. We actually limited out on all but one occasion and it was clear that our pots had been poached that time. You can always tell, the bait has been picked over, but there is only one small female Dungy in the pot. Then you notice someone pull in their pot nearby packed and crawling with crab. Hmmnn…
This seems to have been a particularly bad year as poaching goes. I heard several CYC members complain about lines being severed, floats set adrift, and pots and gear either stolen or lost to the depths. Two words: Bad Karma.
Not to point fingers, but I do suspect that some locals residing along the bay take perhaps a bit too much proprietary interest in the bounties found below. They view the bay as their own private domain. Indeed, our incident occurred in Chuckanut Bay in full view of all those picture windows along the shore.
Once not long ago, Amanda and I sailed to Stuart Island. Arriving in Reid Harbor, we noted where the locals were crabbing and finding a spot (not too close), we dropped our two pots near the entrance of the bay under the gaze of all the homes along the shore.
We went on into the state park, grabbed a buoy, and had a marvelous time at Turn Point.
Next morning, we picked up our pots on the way out of the bay, only to find they had been poached. Not just poached, the bait had been dumped out and the pot flattened making any catch impossible. I had the distinct impression that we were being watched from the shore as I put away my gear. We resisted the temptation to poach the locals’ pots nearby (but I confess, I thought about it) and gave everyone who might be watching a cheery wave as we left Reid Harbor.
Jon Martin told a good poaching story about the late William F. Buckley (writer and political pundit in the 70’s). He was a frequent cruiser on Long Island Sound and would often take friends out for the day on the water. On one occasion, as they passed a lobster pot, William did a 180, retrieved the pot, and removed three or four “live guys.”
His guests were horrified: “But Bill, that’s poaching!” He replied in his trademark New England accent: “ Aw, they won’t mind a bit,” as he placed a full bottle of Cutty Sark Scotch into the pot and dropped it back in the water.
Now, I don’t expect a bottle in my crab pot every time it’s poached (although it would be nice). But, if you be one of those who have dipped into another’s pot, at least have the decency to re-bait the thing or ….face the possibility that your Karma may yet run over your Dogma.
Your Commy,
Laurent
The Board has been working for several months now to come up with a budget to present to the membership. It is my opinion that annual budgets are basic plans for the coming year, and may be adjusted as needed. 2021 seems likely to be another “out-of-the ordinary” year, so this budget flexibility will be helpful in making the most out of 2021 as we can for CYC. As the year progresses, the Board will be paying close attention to the budgets and will be open to ideas from the membership on changes, if any, to the 2021 “budget plan”.
I estimate that the Club will have approximately $9,750 in reserves at the end of 2020. Please note that this proposed budget calls for $2,500 in reserves to be spent for 2021 operations. In 2019, the Board voted to spend down the reserve to a reserve balance of $5,000. In 2020, we will have spent approximately $2,200 of reserves. We are on track to spend down to the $5,000 level over the next several years, if we maintain the current rate of spending.
Be on the lookout in your email for CYC’s proposed budget for 2021 which should be in your inbox by now.
–Jon Martin
CYC Treasurer
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Commodore - Laurent Martel
Vice-Commodore - Kathy Sheehan
Secretary - Mary Durbrow
Treasurer - Jon Martin
Education - Andreas Weinrich
Membership - Ken Russell
Race - Sean Jones
Cruise - Greg Hartgraves
Reciprocity - Greg Hartgraves
Past-Commodore - Steve Clevenger
Newsletter - Mike Reed
Webmaster - Chuck Dingée
(Email Title at cycbellingham.org)
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Ahoy sailors!
I was out sailing in the Georgia Strait last month and missed posting to the October newsletter. Sorry about that! Here are a few words about our new members that have joined and been approved so far this fall:
Todd S Thompson
A brief sailing cv: I have been sailing since college though most of my 50,000 offshore miles have been done in the last 20 years with family aboard my 60’ Shannon cutter named Elcano. That included around the North Atlantic up to 80 degrees n in Svalbard and around the North Pacific through the Aleutians to Japan ending this summer in the Northwest where my two daughters live with their families.
Mark & Virginia Herrick
When I moved to Washington in 1983, I put my pocket cruiser in the water in Olympia. I sailed north, crisscrossing the Sound, looking for a port to call home. Turned out to be Bellingham, and I’ve been here ever since. I was a member of the CYC in the late 80s, 90s, and early 00s. Virginia and I enjoyed cruising in the San Juan Islands and racing cruising class in the Thursday night races for years. Raising a family kept us from sailing as much, so we sold our Cal 2-27 in the early 00s. This year we started sailing again in our new (1977) Catalina 22. We’re having fun and so glad to be back!
David Wallin
I've owned various boats over the past 40 years. My first boat in Bellingham was a Catalina 27 which I owned for about 5 years, Following a boatless break for a few years, I then partnered on a Catalina 36 for about 5 years. Tragically, my wife and daughter don't particularly enjoy sailing so I went over to the dark side and bought a 26' Tollycraft. Just this year, we decided to move up to a bigger boat and purchased a 1990 Grand Banks 36 Classic. We are loving the boat but still just getting to know it. We are looking forward to lots of cruising on this boat and getting to know other CYC members!
See you out on the water!
Ken Russell
membership@cycbellingham.org
Cruise
SoundRouter App
It seems like every time I’m considering what time to leave the dock for a trip, I’m at home and the current charts are on the boat. This summer I came across a free app that can assist you in determining the best time to depart for popular destinations in the San Juans. The app works on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. The departure location, destination, date and boat speed are entered, and the app provides a list of departure times and overall predicted trip time.
The app can also be a good way to quickly double check the departure time that you have determined from the Canadian Current Atlas. There has been more than one time that I’ve used the wrong date or misread the charts and found myself fighting an unexpected current. With this app you just might save yourself some time.
SoundRouter was developed by a 15 year old sailor Advik Eswaran. Advik is experienced sailing in small boats and cruising with his family. While traveling with his family on their sailboat he saw a great opportunity to develop this tool for boaters.
There are limitations to this app in its current version. The departure and destination locations are Anacortes, Bellingham, Blakely Island, Deer Harbor, Fisherman Bay, Friday Harbor, Port Townsend, Roche Harbor, Rosario, Shilshole, Skyline, Sucia Island and Victoria BC. Hopefully, more locations will be added in future versions of the app. You can go to www.mymariner.com and let Advik know what destinations you would like to see in the future. The other limitation of the app is that the route is predetermined by the app designer. However, these routes are generally the most direct and common. Despite these limitations, this app can be quite useful and worth the price (free).
Greg Hartgraves, Cruise and Reciprocity Chair
Everything you always wanted to know about Corinthian Yacht Clubs
We sail friendly. That’s our club motto. And that’s because we are a Corinthian Yacht Club, a bunch of amateurs racing on Thursday nights and cruising to the San Juan Islands, Canadian Gulf Islands and elsewhere whenever we can.
That’s not an insult to those of us who strive to hone our sailing skills and keep our boats in as ship-shape as possible. It’s what Corinthian sailing is: amateur, non-professional yachting.
So, what is the Corinthian Yacht Club of Bellingham? What is a Corinthian Yacht Club? Are we part of a national or international association of other Corinthian Yacht Clubs? Do we have an initiation fee like other Corinthian Yacht Clubs?
When I first joined the club, I wondered whether the CYC was associated with a Christian group devoted to studying the Bible (St. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians in the New Testament). Later, I wondered whether it had something to do with the ancient city of Corinth in Greece or with Greek architecture.
More recently, a CYC member asked how to take advantage of reciprocal privileges at the CYCs in California where he was headed. So I did a little research.
While we do have reciprocal privileges with the Seattle and Tacoma Corinthian clubs, and many other yacht clubs in Oregon, California, Hawaii, British Columbia and beyond, we are not part of a larger organization of yacht clubs with Corinthian in their names. And our mission is not to study the Christian Bible or to drape the pilings on Gate 9 in Squalicum Harbor with Corinthian columns.
But the Corinthian Yacht Club of Bellingham does have a little something in common with the ancient city of Corinth.
According to our bylaws, the Corinthian Yacht Club of Bellingham has several purposes, the primary one being “to promote, advance and encourage the sport of Corinthian and amateur sailing, particularly of yacht racing and cruising.”
So what is the sport of corinthian sailing? It is simply amateur sailing and amateur racing. John Rousmaniere, the author of The Annapolis Book of Seamanship, wrote in the Scuttlebutt sailing forum in 2011 that the first Corinthians hailed from the ancient Greek seaport of Corinth. They were aristocrats (“the idle rich”) who were known as a little unruly and rowdy, but spunky fellows with hearts of gold.
“This nickname would have appealed to the young American sailors of the 1870s who were challenging the yachting establishment by sailing their own boats,” Rousmaniere says. “Until then, most yachtsmen had just one well-proven ability, which was to write big checks. When three 105-foot schooners crossed the New York Yacht Club’s starting line in the first-ever transatlantic race in 1866, two of the owners watched from spectator boats and the third, James Gordon Bennett Jr., sailed as a passenger.”
Rousmaniere believes that’s how a new class of sailboat racers developed in the mid-nineteenth century. Although some wealthy yachties adopted the title Corinthian ironically and/or because they truly wished to learn the art of sailing in the mid-19th century, the term Corinthian was really meant to distinguish the professional, paid sailors from the amateurs.
“New Corinthian yacht clubs had fleets of small boats,” Rousmaniere writes, “and the rules required that they be raced only by Corinthian sailors who did all the work, had all the fun, and were paid not a nickel.”
Does that sound like our friendly Thursday night races? Or the cruises, work parties, and potlucks we organize to have fun? You bet!
We’re all amateurs — volunteers — in an independent, not-for-profit membership organization that exists to promote the sport of amateur sailing in our community. And to have fun!
We can only hope that 2021 will allow us to get together — in person — to have fun. But whatever happens with COVID safety rules for next year, I hope every member will get more involved with Corinthian yachting and CYC Bellingham, in particular. Your club needs you if we are to continue providing the educational, social, cruising and racing services that are vital to our mission.
It’s not too early to start thinking of your New Year’s resolutions! Can you help the membership chair with membership renewals and printing an annual roster? Do you want to host a cruise next summer? Do you have experience with website development to help with our much-needed website revisions? Or newsletter editing or production? How about volunteering for the race committee?
Join your fellow club members at our monthly potlucks, currently on Zoom, and join in the fun and service to the club. Fun is one of the few things we’re “professional” at.
Bylaws of the Corinthian Yacht Club of Bellingham, Inc.
Article II, Purpose
The purposes of this Club are to promote, advance and encourage the sport of corinthian and amateur sailing, particularly of yacht racing and cruising; to provide the Club with educational, social, cruising and racing facilities and services for its members; to hold and take part in sailboat races and regattas with other yacht clubs and associations and to cooperate and associate with them; to develop the friendship, sportsmanship, and good fellowship of its members and the general public; and to take part in and support other outdoor sports.
Kathy Sheehan, Vice Commodore
November Greetings, everyone,
Fall is in full swing with gales that topped 60 knots and some bitter cold, wintery days, interspersing with beautiful fall weather.
I hope you’ve all been well and able to enjoy day sails and overnight cruises when the weather allows.
As the world is still dealing with the SARS Cov-2 pandemic, we are continuing to stay connected and eventually offer classes by means of virtual meetings, until it is safe again to have potlucks in person.
Our November zoom potluck meeting is in 10 days, on Tuesday, November 10 at 7 PM. Please drop in as we will continue having members share about their recent cruising adventures. We had some technical challenges last month that we ironed out so this meeting will be smoother.
After the presentations, we will be discussing our revised CYC 2021 budget and welcome your input.
I finally got a chance to edit and upload the recording of our September potluck where I introduced marine navigation apps for iOS/Android smart phones/tablets. You can now watch it on YouTube using this link:
https://youtu.be/Vq__LFYlfh4
Looking forward to seeing you all virtually on October 13,
Andreas Weinrich, Executive Officer & Education
Here's the login information for our zoom meeting:
Topic: CYC's Monthly Potluck Meeting (temporary on Zoom)
Time: November 10, 2020 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Please note that this is a recurring meeting and the same meeting ID and Password will apply to all our future potluck meetings (starting with this meeting).
Zoom Meeting by using a browser:
Simply click on this link (or copy and paste it into the address area at the top of your browser window): https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84767905855?pwd=N3p5MWwvUW1WcUN6ejhtNlBjMEorUT09
then follow the directions to join with video and sound.
Join Zoom Meeting by using the Zoom App:
- Start up the app and enter the following when prompted:
Meeting ID: 847 6790 5855
Password: 586637
Join Zoom Meeting by calling-in on your smartphone:
- One tap mobile:
+12532158782,,#,84767905855,1#,586637# US (Tacoma)
- Dial by your location:
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
- In both cases use:
Meeting ID: 84767905855
Password: 586637
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Last week I decided that I needed to escape the craziness of today’s world and what better of a way to do it than to go solo cruising. The weather window for the next three days looked good according to all of my weather forecast sources. So threw a few clothes in a bag, grabbed some groceries, bid Karen and Diaz farewell and off I went.
I love Cypress Island so there I headed. Only one boat on the buoys at Pelican Beach, a good sign. As I rounded the corner to Eagle Harbor I could see two available buoys but both were smack dab in the middle of the fleet, no place for solitude. I hadn’t stayed at Cypress Head in quite a few years and it looked like two of the four buoys there were open so on I went. I grabbed the outer most buoy so as to maintain that solitude that I had hoped for.
Relaxing in the cockpit my mind was taken to early November boating of the past. Of course the Turkey Cruises came to mind but as I watched about 10 sailboats trying to race in near zero winds my brain was taken back to the many ‘Round the County Races I had competed in. A lot of drifting such as those racers were experiencing today but also some big winds too. Happy I was sitting behind the dodger secured to a mooring on this nice sunny, warm, fall day that had settled my mind.
No matter how much research one puts into the upcoming weather predictions it is our Great Spirit, the controller of all that is to be, that always has the final say. The wind forecasts had looked rather benign until early Monday morning when the wind was forecast to turn from light northwesterlies to a moderate southeasterly. I was looking forward to that fast run home on Monday. But that was not to be.
All evening the winds built from the northwest finally maintaining in the 15-20 knot range. The wind provided noise not only in the rigging but with waves on the hull as well. Strangely though while the waves were noisy, Islander sat nicely into them. With the heater on and warming the cabin nicely my escape from reality was progressing nicely. Concerned that the wind was developing differently than predicted I kept an ear to the vhf weather as well as an eye on my digital sources.
Sunday morning dawned brightly, the wind had died back a bit but the heater would not fire up. The message on the control box indicate that the flame was out. Hmmm? No fuel to it? I cleaned the fuel filter but still couldn’t get heat. Fortunately the coffee pot on the stove brought the cabin back up into the low fifties. Turning to the weather forecasts I found that this northwesterly wind was to be with me all day. No heat, little shelter from the wind but with good wind for a sail home the decision was made. Back to reality today rather than tomorrow. The Great Spirit rewarded that decision with a wonderful 6-7 knot reach on port tack all the way back to my slip.
Before you get to thinking that I hadn’t researched the wind well enough, consider the following. My first goto is the U S Weather Service’s report for the northern inland waters along with their forecaster discussions. Second step is to scroll through several apps on my digital devices; Predict Wind, Windy and Wind Alert have all proven to be good sources. On the web I check in at Cliff Mass’ weather blog along with the amateur weather station at http://www.rahknrol.com/rahknrol.html. 48 hours out they all forecast different winds than what actually happened. Inside of 24 hours they came closer, but it wasn’t until they were inside of 12 hours that they came closest. None though forecast that the 15-20 knot northwesterly would hold through the day Monday in order for me to enjoy a beautiful reach home. IMHO it was the Great Spirit that gifted me with that sail in order to help clear my mind and prepare me to reinter the craziness of these times.
So, is there a moral to this story? Sure! Weather forecasts are generally known to accurate only about 75% of the time. No, don’t stay home. Get out there and enjoy our beautiful water world. But keep your eyes and ears open to what is happening around you at the moment and have alternate plans ready in your mind.
And until then: Fair Winds and Calm Seas
Fair Winds and calm seas,
Mike Reed, Editor
Lamb, Harissa and Almond Sausage Rolls
These sausage rolls are easy to make and delicious. I made them for dinner with a large salad, but they would be great for lunch or a snack.
INGREDIENTS
- 1/4 cup whole blanched almonds
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 small yellow, red or white onion, diced
- 1/3 cup diced roasted red peppers (from a jar, or roasted over the flames of a gas stove)
- 1 tablespoon harissa paste
- 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 pound ground lamb (or beef, dark meat turkey or plant-based meat)
- 1/4 cup uncooked couscous
- 1/3 cup currants
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 (14- to 16-ounce) package frozen puff pastry, thawed but still cold
- 1 egg, beaten, for egg wash
- Poppy seeds, for sprinkling (optional)
PREPARATION
Heat oven to 400 degrees and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place almonds on baking sheet and roast until lightly golden, about 5 minutes. Pour almonds onto a cutting board to cool slightly. (Reserve baking sheet and parchment.) Coarsely chop almonds and place in large mixing bowl. Lower oven temperature to 375 degrees.
In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium. Add onion and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add roasted red peppers, harissa and 1⁄4 teaspoon salt and cook for another 2 minutes. Transfer onion mixture to the bowl with the almonds and let cool.
Add ground lamb, couscous, currants, pepper and the remaining salt to almonds. Using your hands, mix thoroughly until well combined.
Roll the chilled puff pastry dough to about 1⁄8-inch thick. Cut pastry into 4 equal rectangles. In the center of each pastry, dollop a quarter of the lamb mixture, then form it into a long sausage running lengthwise on the pastry strip. Lightly brush one long edge of the pastry with egg wash. Starting with the side without the egg wash, firmly fold the pastry over the meat filling to form long rolls, pinching to seal. Place on prepared baking sheet, seam-sides down.
Lightly brush the top of each roll with egg wash and sprinkle with poppy seeds, if using. Bake until sausage rolls are golden brown, about 35 to 40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Linda Benafel
Board minutes are in Adobe PDF format.
Send us your comments about the online CYC newsletter. Do you want to volunteer to write an article or do some editing? Do you have pictures for the Home Port News? E-mail Mike Reed at editor@cycbellingham.org.
9 NOV 2020
Mike Reed, Laurent Martel, Chuck Dingée, Jon Martin, Greg Hartgraves, Andreas Weinrich, Kathy Sheehan, Linda Benafel.
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Our mailing address is P. O. Box 101, Bellingham, WA 98227
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