June 2020

Flower Moon Set over Boca Ciega BayPhoto courtesy of Paula Shur

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2020 Flag OfficersCommodoreCathy Talisman

Vice CommodoreRoger Gilmore

Rear CommodoreJenn Buckley

SecretaryLisa Glaser

TreasurerLezlee Kramer

Assistant TreasurerMarty Southard

Fleet CaptainJames Masson

Board of DirectorsBoard Members 2019-2020

Beth BerkobeinDoug FullerRuth PetersonPatty Tishuk

Board Members 2020-2021Frank DamicoHarold SmallGary RhoadsBarb Meyer

Immediate Past CommodoreNick Southard

Windword Newsletter published monthly.Submissions deadline Wednesday following the Monthly General Meeting. Email submissions to Jen Rogers:windword@sailbcyc.org

Commodore’s CornerSubmitted by Cathy Talisman, 2020 BCYC Commodore

View this newsletter in full color online at www.sailbcyc.org

Flag Officer, Board and other BCYC member phone numbers and email addresses available to club members at www.sailbcyc.org

Boca Ciega Yacht Club & Anchorage4600 Tifton Drive South • Gulfport, FL 33711727-321-7295Mailing address for ALL payments by check:Boca Ciega Yacht ClubPO Box 530848 | St. Petersburg FL 33747

Hello Everyone,

The next board meeting will be on Monday June 1st 2020. At that time, the board will revisit whether to resume sponsored club activities. The club had remained open for the members to use.

The opening of our basin to non-members has increased the traffic flow and new faces that we do not recognize. Our various patios are very inviting and are great places to chill. If you see unfamiliar faces, kindly approach them and inquire if they are members and introduce yourself. If they are not, you can show them around, remind them this is a private club and suggest that they check our great website if they would like to join.

As a reminder, keep all the doors close when you leave. Do not give out the lock combo, it is for the members only. Do not pass it on to your friends/guests or to anybody that you do not know who ask for it. The door lock combo is on our website.

Please be careful and remain vigilant about your distance with other people, wherever you are.

I hope that all of us are healthy and remain healthy for a long, long time.

An update from the Board (May 21, 2020)

BCYC is still monitoring and following the CDC Guidelines and Recommendations and as such, remains closed to all BCYC scheduled activities and club functions until further notice.

The clubhouse and property is still open for use by members but this is at your own risk. Regularly scheduled weekly cleanings of the clubhouse are still occurring. It is advised that you follow these guidelines while at the club:

• Please be mindful of others and be respectful of social distancing rules

• Please maintain at least 6-feet of space when interacting with other members

• No gatherings of more than 10 people (and follow social distancing rules)

• Wash your hands often and wear a mask• Take every precaution; it is possible to spread the virus days

before symptoms appear• Please clean and sanitize after yourself to help protect your

fellow club members• Please be prepared! While there is a supply of toilet paper,

paper towels, hand soap, and hand sanitizer, please be aware that procuring these supplies has become difficult and there is a strong possibility that BCYC may run out at some point

June Birthdays

BCYC Merchandise for SaleSupport BCYC and Look Good Too!

Our display case at the club gives you a sampling of items from our ever-changing inventory. They are available for purchase at monthly club meetings and at some work days and club events.

Please email Beth Berkobein at merchandising@sailbcyc.org, and she will try to accommodate your schedule within reason.

We accept cash or checks only. Checks to be made payable to BCYC. Thank you and smooth sailing!

Are we missing your birthday? Please edit your member information in Wild Apricot.

BCYC gear goes everywhere! Send us a photo of you wearing BCYC gear on your travels and we will feature it here.

View this newsletter in full color online at www.sailbcyc.org

Sheri Ogorek ............................................................June 2

Ken Shur .....................................................................June 2

Judy Trehy ..................................................................June 2

Allen Ahern ................................................................June 4

Jim Dimmick ..............................................................June 7

Fauss Hull ...................................................................June 9

Mark Ratcliffe ......................................................... June 11

Mark Rother ............................................................ June 11

David Henshaw ..................................................... June 18

Rand Valentin ......................................................... June 18

Gary Rhoads ........................................................... June 19

Pat Nolan ................................................................. June 20

John Utley ............................................................... June 23

Marty Southard ..................................................... June 25

Picot Floyd............................................................... June 27

Doug Fuller ............................................................. June 29

Jennifer Rogers ..................................................... June 29

Throwback to easier times: Victor Hugo Market, Toulouse, France. September 2019

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Advertising RatesBusiness Card Ad

One Month ................$15

Three Months ...........$30

Six Months ...............$50

One Year .....................$75

Quarter Page Ad

One Month ................$30

Three Months ...........$60

Six Months ............ $100

One Year .................. $150

Half Page Ad

One Month ................$45

Three Months ........ $100

Six Months ............ $150

One Year .................. $250

Full Page Ad

One Month ................$60

Three Months ........ $120

Six Months ............. $200

One Year .................. $300

Thanks to Our Photographers!The most popular part of the Windword each month is the club photos, candid and otherwise. We want to thank all of you shutterbugs out there who send us such great material. This newsletter wouldn’t be the same without you.

This month’s contributors are: Gary & Cathy Rhoads, Harold & Trish Small, Dianne Benedetti, Art Hyslop, Dan Chesnut, Kathy Maechtle, Meg Banitch & Ellen Alexander, Gerard Gaudry, Paula Shur, Nancy Bennett, Lee Nell, Lezlee Kramer, Matt Maloy, Carroll Risk, Ruth Peterson, and Tony & Gerri Angel.

Thanks to you all!

BCYC Web Site Be sure to check our web site regularly to sign up for events; for What's Trending Now and calendar updates, weather and tide links, full-color Windword online, Wild Apricot membership features and more.

Free Marine Classifieds Do you have any marine related items you want to purchase, trade or sell? Take a step up from the club bulletin board. Email windword@sailbcyc.org

Submit payment to: BCYC Treasurer, PO Box 530848, St Petersburg, FL 33747 Checks made payable to: BCYC

Questions or ad specs: Call Lee Nell at 215-518-7671 or email advertising@sailbcyc.orgSubmit artwork (PDF preferred) to: Jennifer Rogers, windword@sailbcyc.org

www.sailbcyc.org

REMINDER: BCYC BOATUS Group Discount

BCYC's Group number is GA80544Y. When renewing, please add this to your statement to receive $15 Membership dues, plus 10% off on-the-water towing services.

FOR SALE: Mystic; 1971 Morgan 27’. Boat is in great shape for its age! Electric start outboard (Mercury 9.9). Many Sails and lots of extras included. Asking 3600.00 OBO. Will consider all reasonable offers! See Mystic in the BCYC basin, slip B22. Contact: Denis Sousa at denis.m.sousa@outlook.com or 305-900-8524 Greg Sousa at gregkeywest@gmail.com or 305-923-9183

FOR SALE: Irwin 33; Built 1975; I have owned since 1980; can sleep 4 comfortably; berths for 7 very friendly people! Complete boat, dink, TV, antennae, DVD, galley with 2 burner alcohol stove (pots, pans, plates, tow-els, even tooth brushes!). Rebuilt Atomic Four engine, life jackets, wet suit, VHF and hand-held radio, hand-held GPS, whisker pole, stainless steel charcoal grill. Asking $8,500.00. Michael Collins, cell: 813-230-0578; michaelpcollins44@gmail.com

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To avoid scheduling conflicts, please contact Secretary Lisa Glaser for calendar updates. Email: secretary@sailbcyc.org

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

July 2020

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12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30 31

Sea Scouts(every Wed 5pm)

Windword Deadline

Board Meeting 7:30 pm

General Membership Meeting 8 pm

Cruise TBD

Cruise TBD

2020 Spring/Summer PHRF Racing Series11 am

Workday 8:30 amRhumb Runner Meeting 12 pmFish & Grab 12:30Potluck Dinner 6 pm

Every Tuesday night: racing 5pm-sunset

Note: for the safety of everyone, ALL scheduled activities and club functions, inclusive of the Rhumb Runners and Sea Scouts, will be cancelled until further notice. Please check web site calendar for updates.

6:00 PMJuly Sunset/Full Moon & Fire-works Sail Out

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

June 2020

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7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30

Sea Scouts(every Wed 5pm)

Windword Deadline

Board Meeting 7:30 pm

General Membership Meeting 8 pm

Cruise TBD

Cruise TBD

2020 Spring/Summer PHRF Racing Series11 am

Workday 8:30 amRhumb Runner Meeting 12 pmFish & Grab 12:30Potluck Dinner 6 pm

Every Tuesday night: racing 5pm-sunset

Note: for the safety of everyone, ALL scheduled activities and club functions, inclusive of the Rhumb Runners and Sea Scouts, will be cancelled until further notice. Please check web site calendar for updates.

630 PMApril Sunset/Full Moon Sail Out

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Pos Sail Boat Skipper PHRF Finish Elapsed Corrected Score

1 3 Capri Hull 261 13:56:11 00:56:11 00:48:30 12 115 Legacy Roberts,Dave 257 13:57:29 00:57:29 00:49:52 23 6 Capri Stanislav 261 13:59:31 00:59:31 00:51:22 34 889 Godzilla Rother,Mark 180 13:54:02 00:54:02 00:51:49 45 5 Capri Richardson 261 14:00:39 01:00:39 00:52:21 56 102 Galene Gaudry,Gerard 222 14:02:24 01:02:24 00:56:35 67 135 Fantasea Cavillo,Robert 231 14:04:00 01:04:00 00:57:22 78 72 Pilgram II Kreutzer,Bruce 286 14:09:35 01:09:35 00:58:16 89 2 Claudia Gail Hendricks,Elizabeth 270 14:09:33 01:09:33 00:59:22 9

Race 2Class: PHRF. PHRF (Time on time)5: Wind Speed 12: Direction WStart Time: Sunday, May 17, 2020 14:30:00

Pos Sail Boat Skipper PHRF Finish Elapsed Corrected Score

1 115 Legacy Roberts,Dave 257 15:48:24 01:18:24 01:08:00 12 3 Capri Hull 261 15:49:00 01:19:00 01:08:11 23 889 Godzilla Rother,Mark 180 15:42:00 01:12:00 01:09:02 34 6 Capri Stanislav 261 15:51:04 01:21:04 01:09:58 45 135 Fantasea Cavillo,Robert 231 15:59:18 01:29:18 01:20:02 56 72 Pilgram II Kreutzer,Bruce 286 16:13:47 01:43:47 01:26:54 67 2 Claudia Gail Hendricks,Elizabeth 270 16:17:21 01:47:21 01:31:38 7

May RacingSubmitted by James Masson

Two social distancing races were held on Sunday May 17 in the middle of Boca Ciega Bay. Rules were no more than 10 per boat and no meeting at the club before or after. Nine boats joined us; the results are below.Race 1Class: PHRF. PHRF (Time on time)4: Wind Speed 10: Direction SSWStart Time: Sunday, May 17, 2020 13:00:00

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What Have the Sea Scouts Been Up To?Submitted by Ruth Peterson

Sea Scouts know how to adjust their sails!

2020 began with a weekend adventure at the 49th Ala-fia River Rendezvous in Homeland, Flor-ida. These photos attest to the grand time had by all! What’s not shown is the experiences of exploring a 600 acre pre 1840’s encamp-ment complete with living quarters, busi-nesses, archery and gun ranges, dances, an outdoor church service, singing and much more.

This year we were invited to a “Birthday Party“ for any-one who had a birthday in the last year! For an entry fee of $10 each we enjoyed hors d'oeuvres of several different cheeses on crackers with homemade jellies on top, rice and meat dishes, salads and of course, birthday cake. The adults sampled homemade wines that we could later purchase if desired. The best part was the conglomeration of multitalented musicians who played for hours under the starlit night.

Back at our own modern campsite, Larry led the Scouts in a game of “do what the leader does”! Check out photo of the pile up of off balance scouts at the end. HA! Saw that one coming!

Since this adventure, a long list of postponed adven-tures have come and gone. BUT, Sea Scouts know how to adjust their sails. We are keeping up with each other

via weekly Zoom chats. School has been a challenge! One scout even had her final dance recital via an online video session! I have no doubt it was well received by her instructor.

Our seniors are looking forward to a fresh start in the fall. Two will be room-ing together at Embry Riddle. Another is headed to University of Florida… I have no doubt it’s with interests in music! We wish them each the best and look forward to hearing how they’re doing.

Hopefully the rest of Ship 915 will be able to set sail again soon. In the meantime, let’s all stay safe!

Fair winds!Ruth

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Sailing TranquilitySubmitted by Trish and Harold Small

Trish and Harold Small had three sailing adventures over the past month. Our first was to Weedon Island Preserve. Favorable winds helped us sail up the bay to

Venetian Isles where we then motored to an anchor-age at Weedon Sandbar. We jumped in our kayak and explored Weedon’s kayak trails for two hours. On our return the tide had receded and our catamaran was perched nicely on the sand bar. Harold took this op-portunity to clean the bottom and scrub the hulls while standing in water up to his knees. We celebrated Cinco de Mayo as the sun set over the city. The next morning we waited for the tide to free us and we headed home.

Our second sail was north to Three Rooker Island. We entered the gulf at John’s Pass and had a great six hour sail before turning on the engines to pull into our an-chorage on the northern end of the now divided island. We had some protection but the westerly winds kept us under a blanket through the night. The next morn-

ing we kayaked ashore and explored this bird sanctu-ary where we saw thousands of birds in courtship and nest building. We then motored south to a protected anchorage next to Moonshine Island in north Clearwa-ter Beach. We kayaked near large expensive waterfront homes and next to the empty Carlouel Yacht Club. Winds were forecast to shift north and build overnight. Moonshine’s tall mangroves gave us great protection. After breakfast we headed south into the Clearwater basin. We saw three men in the water near the Clear-water bridge. They were hanging onto their capsized

dinghy. Trish hailed the Coast Guard and we hung around close to the men for less than 10 minutes when two boats raced to the rescue. One was the Coast Guard and the other the Core of Engineers. With winds at the bridge gusting to 25 knots we decided to stay inside and made our way home.

Our third trip was south to Sarasota. Favorable winds brought us to Big Sarasota Pass in about six hours. We cautiously made our way up the pass to our anchor-age between Lido Key and Otter Key. We spent two nights at this protected spot as winds shifted from the northwest to the east. There we kayaked the kayak trails on Lido Key and enjoyed our first restaurant dinner since mid-March at St Armands Circle, which was a short walk from a friendly home owner who let us keep our kayak at her dock. The wind shift helped us sail home with one reef in our sails.

Quarantine never felt so good.

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Flower Moon CruiseSubmitted by Paula Shur

To combat our cruising withdrawal, Ken and I took Island Time, our Catalina 355, out for a short trip.

We unfurled our new sails for a light wind sail from Pass-a-Grille Pass to DeSoto Point, a favorite spot. At the anchorage, roofers onshore were blasting lively, happy music. We checked our phones for the date since the days have blurred together. It was Cinco de Mayo. The music without the sawing of plywood, pounding of nails, and the beeping of a backing up dump truck, would have been a bit easier on our ears. Thankfully, five pm was quitting time.

After sunset, the hull resonated with the rat-a-tat-tat-ting of dolphins and the purring of a manatee - sooth-ing sounds we had missed. The orange flower moon rose in the sky, always more special to view from the water.

The next morning Island Time headed to Beer Can Island with a following sea and wind. She sailed under the Skyway, a rare treat for us. Since the incoming freighters were far enough ahead, we did not have to alter course.

Every now and then we looked behind us at the build-ing seas and white caps, grateful we were not going that way.

Around one-thirty pm we arrived at the bouncy, crowded anchorage. Southwest winds were not sup-posed to be in the forecast.

Hmmm - Beer Can would not be a comfortable, pro-tected place to spend the night.

Time for Plan B. Boca Ciega Bay called us home.

We turned into the mess of wind and waves, the way we did not want to go earlier. The wind was on our nose.

We waited for a few freighters to pass before we crossed the shipping channel. We motored toward St. Petersburg where the seas and wind direction were a bit more manageable for sailing. We reefed the main, unfurled the jib and flew along at over seven knots.

Ken and I discussed which opening of the Structure E Bridge we could make. We thought we could make the six o’clock. Maybe we could make the five-thirty.

When we reached the Meisner Bridge the outgoing moon tide was ripping. We placed a waypoint on the bridge and checked the time to go. We would be five

minutes late for the five o’clock opening. We said, “Heck, let’s go for it.”

Hoping he would be willing to hold the bridge if he was expecting us, I called the Structure E bridge tender.

“Island Time expects to be there for your five o’clock opening,” I told him. “I’ll look for you,” he responded. “Thanks.” I said.

Avoiding a twenty-five minute wait with a rip-roaring outgoing tide pushing us to the bridge would be nice.

At 1655 I called the bridge. The bridge tender an-swered, “I see you. By the time I get the bridge up you will be here.”

Yes! We punched it. Other than slowing down momen-tarily for the obligatory powerboat who had to zip in front of us to stop under the open spans, we had no bridge delay. Nice!

We anchored outside the Gulfport mooring field for prime Flower Moon viewing of both the orange ball ris-ing and the white ball setting.

Thursday we enjoyed a full day floating in Gulfport before returning to the dock on Friday. Although we miss our two month cruises, we are grateful for any water time.

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Cruising Local WatersSubmitted by Kathy Maechtle

Our story begins in January, well before the uninvited arrival of Covid-19, also known as Rona in some com-edy circles. Curious about commercial sailing, veteran cruisers and BCYC members Ellen Alexander and Meg Banitch suggested we book a short cruise to Cozumel to celebrate my 60th birthday in early April. They prom-ised happily to “show me the ropes” of holiday cruising.

Since acquir-ing SV Grace, my 35 foot Beneteau, Ellen and Meg have graciously shared their expertise as crew, and advanced my knowl-edge of boat ownership. The exciting prospect of cruising on Carnival to Cozumel with them was most appealing. Our plans, dashed by Rona was disappoint-ing, but the social distancing restrictions prohibiting Ellen and Meg’s assistance as my supportive crew for day sailing, felt suffocating.

To quell my disappointment, Ellen and Meg hatched a plan for us to do some over-night sails in tandem, with my daughter Ireland acting as my first mate, however I failed to factor in her lack of time and enthusiasm for our plan. This is when I knew my time had come to fledge, and cast off for single-handed sailing. With ample planning, docking assistance, and shadowing Ellen and Meg on their boat Luffin Life, my first solo over-night to the Manatee River was a success. Buoyed by confidence, we looked for a window of time to try an extended sailing journey.

Fast forward to May 17th when we set sail for our 5-day tandem cruise south. Shadowing Luffin Life once more, Grace and I headed to the gulf. With brisk SW winds we set our sails for the 8-hour cruise to Venice. After adjusting my mainsail I noticed a slack line and shackle floating past my bimini. Startled, I wrongly thought it was my inhaul line, and I cringed at the prospect of

docking under sail—a feat well beyond my current skill-set. After a deep breath and re-analysis, I discovered the floating line and shackle was none other than my boom lift line, as the shackle pin had become detached from the boom. Relieved, I contacted Meg and Ellen to let them know I needed a “MacGyver” minute to repair the shackle and reattach the boom lift line. After 30 long minutes, we were off sailing south on a gorgeous beam reach, sometimes clocking 7 knots as we made way for Venice.

With the assistance of my first mate Otto, the autopilot, the 8-hour trip felt like four. Along the way, I was enter-tained by pods of dolphins, several sea turtles the size of truck tires, and crazy schools of flying fish boiling at the water’s sur-face. As previously arranged, once at the Venice Inlet, Ellen and Meg went ahead to dock in advance while I waited just outside the chan-nel, which is nar-row with a lively current, and hosts heavy boat traffic. Docking Grace was then made easy by Ellen’s phone guidance, as Meg and the Crow’s Nest crew caught my dock lines. Once settled, I noticed a young osprey on a nesting platform at the end of our dock. He was vocalizing to his recent-ly fledged nest mate sitting comfortably on a piling just

below the nest. Not at all happy to be left be-hind, he contin-ued to make his concerns known, protesting loudly on and off for the next 24 hours.

Experienced sail-ors know time and destination are determined

by weather. We were scheduled to leave Venice the

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next morning on the 18th to sail north to Sarasota, but weather decided differently. We stayed an enjoy-able extra day, and in between storms explore Venice’s ambiance on foot. Social distance lunch and shopping (masks in place!) were a highlight. Upon our return to the marina, after the four-mile round-trip hike, I de-cided to spend some time watching the young osprey who was still protesting his nest mate’s independence. Ospreys are notorious for the items they use to build nests; twine, fishing line, and barbed wire are just a few

of the potential entrapments that can foil a young bird’s departure from the nest. It is not uncommon to find a dead nestling as a result of entanglement. This young male did not appear entangled, but his reluctance to leave the nest made me curious enough to call an os-prey expert friend for his insights as I was watching from below. By now I had drawn the attention of some of the other boaters staying in the marina. I guess a crowd was all the young bird needed. Within a minute of calling my friend, the female nest mate, likely tired of all her brother’s show-boating, flew aggressively at the for-lorn young male, prompting him to flare his wings, and as with our sails, the wind did the rest of the work for him—he was off on his maiden flight—thank goodness. In the end I guess it was just “entitled dependence,” or failure to launch, the current world-wide phenomenon

Local Waters, continued page 15>>

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Stay at Home Teacher Tells His TaleBy Dan Chesnut

Hello, fellow members. Long time, huh? I hope you are well.

My “stay at home” experience has been blessed by 1) my still having a job, and 2) and being able to work from home, which means providing math lessons for my high school students. Of course, online learning means that the parents have to deal with their own kids more, and there is a little joke going around that if stay-at-home school lasts much longer, the parents will develop a vac-cine before the scientists do.

My experience also means hav-ing time to do more things of a hobby nature, like taking and editing photos, and exercising more. One of my favorite places to exercise is at Roser Park in St. Petersburg:

There is a rather tame squirrel at Demens Landing, where my boat is, that I have fed several times. He

once tried to take an almond out of my hand, but knocked it to the ground instead and picked it up from there. I talk to him, but he acts deaf. Here is a photo of it eating one of my almonds.

Outside the front door of the house I’m staying in is a mockingbird nest in

a confederate jasmine vine. From inside the house, I’ve gotten some photos of the mom with her chicks, and by placing my cell phone high over the nest, I managed to get a photo of the eggs from the second batch this spring. These eggs are expected to hatch by the 19th of May. When I do this, the adult bird perches nearby act-ing concerned, but not much fuss, really.

Once the chicks hatch, the adults constantly bring bugs and, in just a flash, drop them in the open mouth of one of the cheeping chicks. Here is mama bird keeping an eye on me inside the door where I'm looking through the glass. Notice in the background her chicks in the nest.

Here are the first two eggs in their latest “batch”. They are a beautiful turquoise-green with mottled brown patches.

As far as boating, I’ve been taking out my kayak from time to time. What a great feeling that is, being out in nature and exerting some muscles after a day of being cooped up in front of a computer.

Take care, fellow members. May you find your stay at home bliss, be it playing gin rummy, gardening, go-ing through old photos, or making things. Or, working on your boat, taking out your boat, talking about your boat…

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Something to ProveSubmitted by Matt Maloy

Recently, Mr. E, our 25 year old outboard, developed a cough and was too tired to power the HideAway back to the boat ramp, requiring a four person rescue team to put her back on the trailer.

After obtaining a degree of safety in HideAway’s dry slip, Mr E. appeared to run a bit warm - Then he refused to idle. Spark plugs were pulled, examined and tested. Deemed by the Dry Slip Committee as; “Probably OK”- we proceeded down the logic tree to the carburetor.

Nothing brings more fear in the two cycle outboard engine owner than the carburetor. The Carburetor is chock full of tiny parts so particular that they demand special mixed drinks and a degree of cleanliness not of-ten found aboard 40 year old sailboats,nor the ancient mariner who ponders these mysteries.

And don’t ask about the identical choke linkages that only make sense on February 30th.

What Do You Do When Your Nozzle Well Rots?

I developed a strong, per-sonal, relationship with vin-tage OEM (Always) 2-cycle outboard parts, and explod-ed, unreadable diagrams. I came into possession of a new Carburetor Repair Kit, with Float. {Apparently a new float assembly is impor-tant to achieve the nirvana of a smooth idle). Later, I developed a fanatical need for a chunk of plastic called a “Nozzle Well” with its all-im-portant and easily misplaced fragile gasket. Not one of these parts came with the slightest hint of instruction, nor could such knowledge be found in all of known cyberspace.

I Made Up My Own Instructions

I disassembled the offending carburetor on my home wood working bench, taking photos, making videos and laying out each piece in sequence of removal. The new Nozzle Well was missing a threaded shiny brass thing with a hole in it that the old one possessed. I cleaned the old one and screwed it into the replace-ment well. Then I noticed a small rubber hose that

ran from the Nozzle Well up to the maze of channels & other unknown stuff before vanishing into the under-side of the carburetor top. The replacement hose inside diameter was way too small to fit over the easy to reach fitting—I didn’t want to try the infinitely more remote end. I left the old one alone, keeping the new one “just in case”.

Out of curiosity, I removed a 2” bolt, of unknown func-tion from the top of the carburetor. It was just a bolt. Great, I thought, somebody lost the right part and stuck in this bolt. No wonder it won’t idle. Using a large mag-nifying glass I studied the exploded chart and discov-ered the hole was supposed to have just a bolt. Eventu-ally, I put the carburetor together only shy two or three parts that I hoped were with the boat.

Three hours later I had the carburetor installed. I hooked up the gas line, rechecked the plug gaps and pulled the starter cord. Mr. E started on the third pull AND idled perfectly!

I prepared my bill and gave it to my CFO. I included 16.42 hours of labor, at the going rate, along with parts and freight costs. She is still laughing.

Ready to Sail

Sunday is a good day to go sailing because most people sail on Saturdays. Besides, it was the only day we could schedule a launch and both of us wanted to prove that we still could handle the boat. Sunday turned out to be the club race day. I haven’t seen so many witnesses in years.

Let’s do this!

I threaded the rig through the parking lot, one potential victim saw me coming and wisely moved his little sport car, others ran for safety.

New Technology & Old Habits Collide

I backed down the ramp with no issues. Then I started to push HideAway off the trailer, however the boat stopped when an old fender board hung up on one of the brand new trailer guides. I started to pull the boat back on the trailer and realized I needed the power of the winch. As I started to crank I noticed a masked man had jumped aboard, made quick work of the offend-ing fender board and then hopped onto the dock with all the confidence of youth. The crowd cheered. We cheered – HideAway was free at last!

SMALL BOATS ROCK!!

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Cruising May 2020Submitted by Cruisin' Susan McQuillan

Unfortunately, we have not been able to do our official monthly Club Cruises and Full Moon Sail Outs for a long time now. However, a lot of you have done your own cruis-ing! We have had really great cruising weather lately and the best source of Vitamin D, or Sea, there is.

A couple weeks ago, John and I cruised down to Seafood Shack, in Cortez. They have a great restaurant, that was only doing take-out at the time, nice people and a great price on dockage for BCYC members. If you have not cruised there yet, you might want to add it the next trip on the ICW. Once things get back to normal, there is a Mon-key Bus that will pick you up at the Marina and take you anywhere on Anna Maria Island for a tip, and it runs until 2 or 3am. There is a lot to do and see on the Island. Make sure to mention BCYC when you make your reservation.

May 7th was the Flower Super Full Moon and 5 boats went out to see the always amazing sunset and moon rise. I heard through the ‘Coconut Telegraph’ that one boat ran aground in the Bay. Hmmm…..oh Tony, get your paint brush warmed up!

Saturday, May 9th, was the 40th anniversary of the Skyway Bridge Collapse where 35 people lost their lives. 6 BCYC boats left their slips, while only 5 made it. One boat, Jour-ney, had transmission issues and to drop anchor and wait more than 2 ½ hours for Tow Boat to show up, and missed the whole thing. The other 5 boats met at the center span, or at least tried to meet at the same time, and paid tribute to those 35 people and their families.

Former BCYC Club Chaplain, Andy Bell, joined in the flotilla with his boat, as well as another non-member boat joining in. If you have not taken a cruise to the Skyway Bridge at night, it is beautifully lit up and well worth seeing. This will be a Club event in the near future.

I heard through the ‘Coconut Telegraph’ again, that the same boat that ran aground for the Full Moon Sail Out, ran aground again, along with the non-member, and possibly kissing each other’s boats. Guy O’Connor will have more details on all the events of that evening. Oh Tony……more paint please!

Hopefully, we will be able to get back to our normal cruis-ing schedule in the near future. Stay tuned through Trend-ing Now, emails, white board and Club Calendar.

Happy Cruising!

14

parents are experiencing with adult children refusing to leave home!

Checking weather again, we planned our departure for the next morning on the 19th. Skipping Sarasota, with the wind on our nose, we chose to motor up the ICW to the Seafood Shack Marina in Cortez. After what seemed like a million bridge openings (only 5), we ar-rived in time for social distancing cocktails. I can now say that bridges are no longer intimidating to me—an-other skill set courtesy of Ellen and Meg! As I write this, Harley prepares to cast us off, and sends his regards to all the BCYC members. He looks forward to seeing your smiling faces soon!

Next on our itinerary: Sailing the lower Tampa Bay while making way for Terra Ceia to anchor out our last night. After a puzzling few hours trying to keep up with Luffin Life on a beam reach, exploring every sail trim available to me, I gave up and turned the engine on! I needed to catch-up so Luffin could pilot me cau-tiously back into Terra Ceia. Local knowledge is a must to navigate the shoals of this small channel, but worth the anxiety. We snaked our way into a quiet anchorage to enjoy the solace of Bird Key, a small mangrove island at Green Marker 13. Another round of social distance cocktails as we watched the sunset, concluded another rewarding day sailing.

Leaving the next day as the morning sun backlit our return journey, I contemplated how much I had experienced, and all I had learned over the last five days. Remarkably, Rona had pushed me out of my comfort zone, and like my young osprey friend, I found

Local Waters, continued from page 11

Don't Forget our Virtual Happy Hours Fridays at 5:30 pm ...until we can meet again!

Want to connect to your friends at BCYC but don't want to break any social distancing rules, "safer at home" rules, or leave your home? Well then, join us for a Virtual Happy Hour!

Sign up on the calendar page for the date you want.

On the day of, at 5:15 pm, turn on your device, pour yourself a drink...

Click the link in your confirmation email & log in (links cannot be shared - they are a one-time use link) You can connect to Zoom via laptop, tablet, or computer (if using a cell phone, please download the free app, it's easier)

(There is no cost for this event. If you are a couple, only ONE registration is needed which will let MORE people join!)

my wings and the wind. This opportunity to sail with trusted friends while enjoying the beautiful sights and sounds of the gulf coast, has made my solo journey sweeter than imagined. I look forward to more fun in the sun and surf under better conditions, when we can resume the compan-ionship that BCYC so easily cultivates.

Be well--stay safe with fair winds and follow-ing seas,

Kathy Maechtle

Photos provided by Ellen and Meg the trip photographers!

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So…What have we been doing?

Gerri was frustrated that she couldn't work the front lines as a nurse. So instead she is making masks for the residents at Town Shores. Way to go Gerri!

Art is reminiscing about past BCYC Fish and Grab high jinx. "Richard can catch fish after catching a few mangroves."

Dick Risk is getting ready for Christmas - or the Hemingway Lookalike Contest.

Joseph Duffy and Leslie Tiernan-Duffy have finally named their boat!

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Seagal's mast is being removed with a little help from friends Richard Walters and Mark Rother. Dianne & Mixer were there helping as well. The four of them made smooth work of it with the help of the BCYC crane.

EJ and Stacey Dochoda were sailing on Boca Ciega Bay

Paula and Ken found a bouncy reception at Beer Can

And our Flag Officer is keeping a smile on his face!

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Boy oh Boy! Claudia Gail’s Skyway Bridge AdventureSubmitted by Elizabeth Hendricks

I was excited the club was offering a cruise to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge on Sat May 9. This was my first cruise after owning Claudia Gail, a Nonsuch 26 for just over one year. I invited Annie Davidson to be my First Mate and two new sailors and non-members Rick and Ana to crew.

I envisioned the participating boats sailing in a line behind the organizers, Cathy and Guy’s boat, The Rachel. Unfortunately the departure time was moved up to 5:30 from 6 p.m. We departed at 5:45. My friend, Yvonne White and her boyfriend, Tom saw us leave the dock. They were detained because the gate wouldn’t open. Yvonne owns Bob A Buoy, a Hunter 28.

The wind was beautiful for sailing across the bay and under the Pinellas Bayway. We sped up the motor to catch the 6.30 bridge opening at Structure E. We watched the Rachel sail through and the bridge close.

We had 30 minutes until the next bridge opening so we thought it was a good time to bring out the food to share. When the boat jibed, the large tray of broccoli, cherry tomatoes, carrots and dip went flying all over Rick. The ranch dressing was plastered all over him! His shirt, shorts, arms and legs. The seat and floor. It was everywhere!

Annie told me not to worry about it, just helm the boat. She asked Rick to pull in the sail. She told us she’d clean the dressing off of him and the boat! After we re-grouped from our intense laughter, we realized we better head for the bridge for the 7 pm opening. We were happy to spot Yvonne’s boat, Bob o Buoy catching up with us. We went through, but the notorious bridge tender closed the bridge on them. This caused the 30-minute separation between the Rachel, Claudia Gail and Bob A Buoy.

I called Yvonne’s boat frequently over the VHF radio to request her location. I couldn’t get the name Bob A Buoy straight. Buoy is pronounced boy in Canada so I just started calling the boat, ”Boy o Boy”. Guy O’Connor, owner of The Rachel picked up the name. So all night long, we were hailing her as boy o boy, which is very appropriate for this adventure!

Unfortunately we didn’t see a sunset. Heavy cloud cover gave way to dark skies. Moonrise wasn’t until 10.50 pm. We looked for the channel markers carefully, as the channel narrows. We navigated the treacherous ditch successfully.

Our approach to the skyway bridge became more mag-nificent with the brighter lights and magnitude of the expansive bridge. Over the radio, The Rachel told us they’d wait at the center of the bridge for us. Looking for the tiny lights of a sailboat in the pitch dark in such a large area was next to impossible. After 45 minutes, we finally spotted The Rachel thanks to crew member, Lezlee Kramer who shone a flashlight on their sail.

I radioed to Boy O Boy to ask their location. Yvonne said they were going under the bridge. I saw a vessel in the distance off my port stern. Then I heard Yvonne say there was a barge behind them. The vessel I spot-ted was now overtaking us. It was really tall and fast. I scanned the horizon in front of it. All black. Then I saw lights of the front of the barge! The vessel I spotted was actually the back of the freighter. It was massive! It appeared there was a small vessel in front of them. I called to Yvonne to get out of the shipping channel. She actually wasn’t in the same channel but it sure looked that way in the dark!

Finally, our three boats met as we sailed under the cen-ter span of the bridge. Guy from The Rachel radioed to us that the winds had changed direction and increased to 18 mph. It would be safer to return the way we came. The three boats did a wide 360 turn and sailed back under the bridge. Guy called himself Father Goose and told us he’d ensure his ducklings would be safe.

I motor sailed, keeping the two sail boats at 12 o’clock. A crew member used my new 2000 lumen flashlight to locate the channel markers in the ditch.

When we made the left turn at the Misner bridge to head for Structure E, we caught up to Boy o Boy. All of us were so excited to actually see each other and we were close enough to chat for a few minutes. The celebration was short. Over the radio, I hear “Claudia Gail come down, you're pushing us up too far. “ Sud-denly we were both aground, parallel to each other. We turned on our engines, dropped our sails and at-tempted to reverse off the shoal. While Annie and Tom disputed whether the tide was going in or out, I called Geico to dispatch Tow Boat US. Jason called to say he was 15 minutes away.

No time to relax. Abruptly, I hear commotion from Boy of Boy. I look over to see that Yvonne has freed her boat. She made a sharp u-turn. A strong wind is push-ing her boat sideways towards us, our boats are parallel. Her stern is approaching my bow.

Claudia Gail, continued page 21 >>

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A Grenadine Honeymoon, in 4 ActsStarring Kathy Rhoads, Gary Rhoads, and Pirate Mike

Act I = ASA 106 (May 2020 Windword)Act II = Bequia Beach Resort (May 2020 Windword)Act III = 3 Pirates of AndatoAct IV = Bequia / Land Based

Act III - 3 Pirates of Andato (Continued from last month)

Friday, March 27th arrives and amazingly the Barefoot Offshore Sailing School agrees to rent 3 former stu-dents a boat for a month. By this time, we are sailing experts after all! What we didn’t realize was the price was cheap for a reason, which should have been a huge red flag to Kathy, Mike and Gary… but we were too thrilled to be setting off on a sailing adventure. A final lunch out, a trip to buy more drinking water and a dinner of Sunset Rum (90% alcohol), we felt like we could conquer the world; even though an in-depth look at the boat revealed why we got such a great deal. It was a 1983 Gibsea 44 that happened to be their low-end sail school boat!

Saturday AM, with no chart briefing and a 20-minute walk-through of the boat, we were guided out to sea by the sail school dinghy and set adrift. We quickly hoisted the sail and set off for Bequia, a small island 9 miles South of Blue Lagoon. Andato may not be much to look at, but she sails like a dream. We completed the 9-mile trek quickly and set anchor midafternoon in Lower Bay. Confident now that we are “real sailors” we Kayak, dive the anchor, cook a fine chicken dinner and watch the sunset. Fortunately, both Gary and Mike are true “MacGyvers” because we gradually realize that a lot of things on the boat don’t work! There was no can

or bottle opener on board and Mike spills an entire beer into the engine compartment trying to open it on the binnacle. Even after bailing out the beer, the entire boat smells like warm Hairoun (the local brew) for several days. The oars to the kayak get fixed with zip ties, the broken lock on the companionway gets somewhat fixed, a bottle lid becomes the coffee percolator top, and a poncho becomes a wind scoop over the hatch. The refrigeration does not work either, but who needs that in the tropics?? Fortunately, we do have a large cooler on board, but ice becomes very hard to get. How-ever, we persevere!

In Lower Bay, Mike creates a new sport of water skiing on a kayak and after a lot of looks from the other cruis-ing boat yachties, we all 3 had to try it out… tooling around the bay being pulled by the dinghy! Nachos and rum with fresh mango for dinner after several beers at Jack’s Beach Bar… heaven! True pirates we have be-come.

Monday brings Gary’s first day of work aboard. Which works out fine with high speed data supplied by a cel-lular hotspot. A cardboard wind scoop is fashioned on the inside of the boat to deliver a breeze over the work-table. We later dinghy into Port Elizabeth and find the marine store, bank, ATM, supermarket, and several bars and restaurants are all open; more provisions (mainly of the liquid type!). In the afternoon, we motor out of the bay to head to Canouan and the engine overheat alarm goes off. The coolant had leaked out due to a broken hose clamp. But, the 2 “MacGyvers” fixed the problem pronto! We sail the 20 miles south and anchor without any further issues. Perhaps we are getting the hang of this? Well for every step forward… little did we know that the tiny 15-pound anchor was not nearly adequate for a 44’, 20,000 pound boat… We ended up dragging almost every night!! So much so that we renamed the boat “AnDRAGo”.

Friendship Bay in Canouan was much more shutdown than on Bequia due to Covid-19. There was also no dinghy dock, so beaching the dinghy was the only way to get to town. Provisioning became much more of a system of bartering and to whom to ask the right ques-tion. One such character we met who had answers to our questions was Grofton. He owned a tiny little mar-ket (see picture next page) and we spent the afternoon with him discussing politics and having a few Hairouns. We also met “Baby Shawn”, who often liked to smoke the local product a little too much. But at least Baby Shawn

Honeymoon, continued page 20>>

19

Honeymoon, continued from page 19

liked to carry our stuff to the dinghy for us, regardless of his state of mind (for a few Eastern Caribbean dol-lars). We spent the remainder of our time on Canouan snorkeling and kayaking and enjoying the Super Moon come up over the hilltop.

As the month wore on, it got way too hot to sleep in the boat. So, every night we would pull cushions, sheets, pillows, etc… out into the cockpit and on the deck to sleep under the stars. This would have been great, except for the fact that it rains several times per night almost every night! Oh well, the rains were light, so we would usually just sleep through it.

We soon settled into a routine… Gary worked most of the day, Mike studied the Annapolis Book of Seaman-ship, and Kathy kept up with work emails, read and cooked. Happy hour usually stared at 3PM (it is 5PM somewhere, right?), we were asleep by 8:30 and up

soon after dawn, what a great life indeed!

On Good Friday, Gary had the day off so we sailed to the Tabago Cays, one of the most beautiful places on earth. Winds were the typical 14 – 18 knots out of the NE, seas 3 – 4 feet and we sail 7 knots so our arrival was in the early afternoon. The whole place is basically like a giant aquarium surrounded by a reef. There is nothing between us and Africa at that point. While snorkeling, we see turtles, large speckled and black rays, 10” Sea stars and a lot of very colorful fish. We hiked to the top of Petite Bateau, one of the nearby islands, to get a pan-oramic view of the entire area. At the bottom, we have the entire beach to ourselves and was able to relax on the chaise lounges provided.

One side note, on the way into the Tabago Cays, we had to come within about 20’ of a mega yacht in order to tack. We found out later that David Geffon was the owner and was on-board at the time. He was apparent-ly hiding out due to the virus outbreak. Unfortunately, he did not invite us on-board.

Next stop was Salt Whistle Bay on Mayreau. Usually the bay is packed, but only 7 boats were anchored there at the time. We swim, walk the beach and have a delicious BBQ fish dinner at Black Boys, one of the several beach shacks open.

It is good that we enjoyed our time on Mayreau and were well rested. Our next stop in Clifton Harbor on Union island was an adventure. We anchored among a lot of other boats in 20’ of sand. Mike dove the anchor, and all was looking pretty good, so we head to town to have dinner. Union still has a lot of places that are open, so we had a good choice of where to eat and provision. At about 2AM, a squall kicked up winds over

20

30 knots and AnDRAGo was at it again! This time we were headed directly at the famous schooner from Pirates of the Caribbean, Scaramouch! No kidding, we nearly smashed directly into it!! Fortunately, after short deliberations on how to handle the issue, Mike and Gary jumped into the dinghy and drug AnDRAGo up to a nearby mooring. Kathy stayed on the helm in case she had to start the engine to help avoid the legendary schooner. Crisis averted! Wide awake now at 3:30 AM, we of course celebrated our success with a Hairoun!

Most people from St. Vincent told us to skip Union island, but we were glad we made the stop. Mike found a kite board school and is living there now (in May) and Kathy and Gary fell in love with Chattham Bay on the West side of the island. It has great snorkeling and some of the friendliest people we met on the entire trip. At Sunset Cove beach bar on Chattham Bay, we met folks from France and the Netherlands who were very accepting of us considering this Covid climate.

One last adventure awaited us before heading North back to the main island of St Vincent to return the boat… We anchored right off a small island named Petite St Vincent (PSV). It has a fancy resort, which was closed, and is directly across from Carricou, which is an island a mile or so away owned by Grenada. Due to the proximity of the islands, they share a lot of resources

(ie smuggled) much to the chagrin of their respec-tive governments. We happen to anchor very near the dock on PSV thinking that the island was deserted, and no ferry would ever be coming there anytime soon… wrong! Three hours later Kathy nearly has a coronary when a huge supply ship comes within 10’ of our stern, drops anchor, and backs into the dock! Then, to make matters worse they stay the night… bright lights, men looking down into our cockpit, loud banging noises all night. Not the nice calm evening we expected. The supply ship eventually leaves, but a day or so later, Gary reads that there is an international incident between St Vincent and Grenada over illegal supply ships taking items to Carricou. Some men were detained (ie arrested) and it just so happens we were just a few feet away from said supply ship!

Our sail Northward to St Vincent was relatively unevent-ful… Genoa stopped furling, the mainsail block broke off of the bottom of the boom in heavy winds, the swim ladder broke, the dinghy painter bolt came loose, one of our kayaks drifted away in the middle of the night (recovered the next morning). But… nothing that these 3 pirates of the AnDRAGo couldn’t handle at this point!

Stay tuned next month for Act IV – Bequia / Land Based and Our Trip Home

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Claudia Gail, continued from page 18

I shouted to my crew, “Put the fenders out!” I raced to the starboard bow to flip the fender over the lifeline. I braced myself and fended her boat off by pushing it out and to the right, past my stern. The F bomb may have been dropped. What an adrenalin rush! It felt good to know that I could respond so quickly and I’m thankful my crew sprung into action to help. The only damage to my boat was a small smudge of boy o boy blue paint on my hull.

Tow Boat US arrived and Jason pulled us off quickly. My huge sail had folded over the wish bone rig and we were unable to bring it all the way down while ground-ed. As soon as Claudia Gail was afloat, the sail was freed and came down easily. I learnt that when a tow-boat is towing a vessel, its flashing lights dictate that the bridge needs to open immediately. The Rachel and Boy of Boy sailed through the opening after us.

Jason told us the location where we grounded was still within the channel, but it was a super low tide. Jason

cut us loose and we motored safely back to BCYC. It was midnight when we docked.

I have finally earned my first club flag! I plan to talk to Tony with my vision of what it should look like. I picture me standing on my boat braced for the impact of an-other boat. Perhaps big Popeye arms in the air holding a sailboat up above mine. Yvonne and I agree her boat should be nick named “Boy o Boy” on the flag.

Because Boy, oh boy, that was an adventure!

21

Data Driven ProvisioningSubmitted by Phong Long and Asa Folsom

We have been keeping a running grocery list for years, even before we decided to learn to sail. As we've learned about all things sailing, everything is a carefully considered compromise. With that in mind, if we can reduce our grocery budget we may be able to redirect some of that money elsewhere. This is a part of our preparations for understanding our diet needs objectively - with the goal of allowing us to better plan for when we finally sail out-side of US waters and into parts unknown.

As most good seamen can't remember half the projects they've only half-finished, they keep logs. Not all sailors log the same things, but given our lack of experience, we decided to simply log everything. After a while, the logs that don't seem useful are discontinued or consolidated with the useful ones.

One such log is an itemized list of all of our expenses. This came out of the question, "where's all our money go-ing?" We had an idea of what they were, but the month to month trends are difficult to see when so many things seem to take precedence - repairs, insurance, cleaning, etc.

Here's a snapshot of what our budget log looks like. It's designed to make obvious trends as well as calculating a cur-rent month's projection based on past months (highlighted in yellow) so that we can head off a runaway budget situa-tion as early as possible.

Ignoring the huge bump in April due to insurance and replacing a bad starter battery, you can see where our grocery spending got a little out

of control in January as our record keeping was inconsistent before 2020. In the subsequent months, we were able to reign it back in to something more manageable.

Now we got to thinking - if we can reduce our grocery spending by a third with no special tools or analysis helping us other than sticking with the grocery list (Phong has been particularly bad at this), can we do better?

Let's think about it. The easy way would be to simply buy a bunch of beans and rice and power through the meals and the mornings after. We think we’ve heard a tale or two around the clubhouse of maybe a person or two hav-ing done just that.

But alas, that is a road we don't want to go down and it would be a shame if our cat ate better than we did. So where do we start?

Let's begin by listing some of our needs and things that we were unwilling to compromise on:1. Tasty meals2. Variety3. Nutrition

Taking a look at our logs, we decided to give ourselves a reasonable budget of $250 based. This is well within what we've done in the past months, but it was a bit of a struggle.

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What do we have to work with? An itemized list of groceries kept to an almost OCD level. And when we say item-ized list of groceries, we mean this:

It really doesn't take more than one morning a month done while hav-ing coffee to go process everything. We keep all our receipts and before the start of a new month, we'll go through and enter things in. Autocomplete, by the way, helps a lot.

With some quick excel sor-cery, all of that data turns into something a little easier to understand:

Those nice orange bars are the effect of funnel-ing all of our purchases through a credit card that accrues Amazon Prime points. We then use those points to reduce the price on expensive items that never seem to be on sale - like cat food.

With this information, we know what we like to eat and what we already spend most of our money on. There's no sense in

forcing ourselves to do some-thing drastically different - so let's focus on what we already like to eat, and see what we can do with that.

The top 4 are Produce, Dairy, Meats, and Grains & Legumes. Next, let's do some more excel magic and let's see what's the most efficient use of our money for groceries.

This graph shows what we've spent on groceries (green bars - total cost) against how cost efficient they are (blue bars - cost per quantity). What we're

Provisioning, continued page 24 >>

23

looking for are combinations of a small blue bar and a large green bar. Lo and behold, it appears that eggs, canned foods, pasta, grains & legumes, and produce are our best bets for value.

Armed with this information, we move on to our next phase: the search for recipes.

We're looking for recipes that use what we like to eat as well as recipes that use the most cost efficient ingredients. Luckily, Asa found a great source of recipes for that: budgetbytes.com <http://budgetbytes.com/>. This website was made by a woman who set out to create a resource of nutritious recipes while working within a student’s budget. We both individually scoured the website and picked out every recipe that sounded interesting and tasty to us.

We saved each recipe as a PDF, and then Phong got to work entering all of that data into another spreadsheet - this time, the question we're interested in answering is, "What groceries should we buy so that we can make all of these recipes?"

This step took a bit of work. The steps included:1. Copy and paste the ingredients from each recipe into an excel spreadsheet. 2. Parse/Reformat each of those ingredient lines into a series of columns so that we can do something useful

with that data.

The end result is 950 rows of ingredients and their respective recipes. With some more excel sorcery, we got this end result:

What you see here is an excel spreadsheet of every recipe, their ingredients, and how much of each ingredient is needed to produce that recipe. The photo above has everything sorted by ingredient.

Armed with this information, we can now do one final task: tally everything together, have excel count how many times each of those ingredients are used, and then we can sort by frequency of ingredients. This effectively gives us a list of exactly what we should spend our money on.

There are now 3 columns. The ingredient, frequency, and have.

"Ingredient" is the ingredient used in all of those recipes. "Frequency" is how often they're used. "Have" is just a 1 or a 0 indicating whether we have that in our pantry.

So on grocery day, we just go through this list, see what we have, what we don't, and buy just those things that we need.

Provisioning, continued from page 23

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Provisioning, continued from page 24

The result? It's been about 3 weeks and we've been able to make a different dish for dinner almost every day, save for an occasion-al pizza that Asa brings home from work. We still have a few fresh vegetables left in our small Dometic fridge and our pantry is still full. We've had to replenish a few things like eggs, milk, sriracha sauce, bread, and jam, but we're still within our $250 budget.

If we can make it an entire month with just a single provision without sacrificing on having tasty nutritious meals with good variety, this would then be something for us to tick off our list as we get ready to go and stay gone.

By the way, if this all seems like a lot of work, it is. In the midst of dealing with COVID-19 by adjusting our spending habits to limit our trips to the grocery store, we see the value it has and recognize that there must be a way to automate a lot of this. We're working on an app that'll allow us to do this quickly every month. If you guys are interested, please let us know and we’d love to have you as beta testers and hear your feedback!

In MemoriamRobert Newcomb, 84, of Gulfport passed away May 4. Robert (Bob) settled in Gulfport, Florida from Auburn, Massachusetts with his beloved wife Beverly in 2006. Bob loved socializing with family and friends, sports and supporting the local communities where he lived. Bob is survived by his wife, Beverly of Gulfport, Florida; daughter Meg (Michael) Parulis of Niantic, CT; daughter Susan (William) Bois of Auburn, MA; daughter Laura (Matthew) Briggs of Gulfport, FL; son Andrew (Chris-tine) Newcomb of Amherst, MA; ten grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations in Bob’s name to The Gulfport Senior Center Foundation.

Bob and Bev were BCYC members for 10 years. In that time he served as Chamber of Commerce and City Liaison, Treasurer, Public Relations/Advertising and Membership Retention committees.

25

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Boca Ciega Yacht Club & Anchorage4600 Tifton Drive SouthGulfport, FL 33711727-321-7295www.sailbcyc.org

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Sunset on the waterPhoto courtesy of Gerard Gaudry