The mooring ball is in - the bar comes next

VALOIS, New York, USA - The mooring ball for the Crimson Tide sailboat (or other visiting vessels) is in place off the end of the Valois Point Yacht Club after a hour's worth of salty language Friday. My salty language.

The cable out to the chain that holds the mooring buoy was right on the ground where I left it last fall, so rowing out with it was a breeze (except for algae slime on it).

It was a breeze until I was about 25 feet from the spot where I knew the chain was.

Crimson Tide on the mooring last fall

The cable suddenly didn't want to be pulled up. Stuck tight as a tick. (However tight that is...)

!!!!!!!!Santa Crappo!!!!!!!!!

Peering over the side of the boat, I saw that the cable ran underneath a sunken log of about 10 inches in diameter that must have drifted over the cable during the winter.

But just as I was about to give up, I remembered my 9th grade science class from high school and working at Lakewood Beach in Lakewood NY, where we would move around a 55-gallon drum of concrete under the water as an anchor for a raft.

With another half hour of pulling, I finally got the chain aboard and the mooring ball is secure.

And I almost have gotten all those *%&*&*%^ tiny wire slivers out of my fingers that poked through my gloves.

Open-shut case, time to close the VPYC for 2011

VALOIS POINT, New York, USA - The VPYC had a busy season, after getting off to a very slow start.

Too busy to even post anything on this blog.

Lo siento, amigos.

A number of new members join (by showing up in their boats) including Joseph Campbell and Yvonne Taylor, amigos and Seneca Lake sailors. And continuing members Eric and Tina Hazlitt were frequent visitors, too.

Jennifer tests out Crimson Tide

We also added a sailboat boat to the club fleet - a 17-foot Siren named Panacea, which will be rechristened in the spring with the official name of Crimson Tide. The idea for the name came from co-owner Jennifer Marshall of Tucson, Arizona (and a Seneca Lake/Hector native) who comes to Seneca Lake each summer on vacation.

She is also half-owner of the Red Rocket sailboat, which saw limited duty this summer, once the new boat was added to the flotilla.

The club also put out a mooring (for Panacea/Crimson Tide) and after much ado, procured a yacht club sign, too. The mooring held the boat secure through a windstorm that torn down trees and branches all over Valois Point.

Perhaps next year a second mooring - for large boats - will be put in, too, when the club reopens are the spring thaw.

Here are some photos from this season:

Yvonne (Bonnie) Taylor on the VPYC dock

Red Rocket heads out for first 2011 sail

VPYC sign

Busy day on the VPYC docks

Crimson Tide on the new mooring at the VPYC