Gold.

Greetings ILY fans! Many of you know that one of the things I have wanted to do with CAYUGA is to take her to St. Michaels for the annual Chesapeake Chapter's Antique & Classic Boat Show. This was its 36th year and running. I had done a previous post about it "Boat Show Time" and the ongoing frustrations with getting the boat in the water.

2024 has been a challenge and too often anything but good. Specifically, as an example, on January 1st I woke up after a lovely dinner party the evening prior, and while sitting at the dining room table enjoying my espresso, I happened to look at my ring finger and oh no! one of the sapphires was missing from my new ring! I could not believe it and was fighting the idea that it was a bad omen.

Well, from there on, things went downhill. The boat was having issue after issue. There were two unexpected and tragic deaths of past coworkers. Work problems. Identity theft. Landscaping mishaps. And a bizarre family development. Even minor everyday things have taken the difficulty scale to new heights. If normally it takes one time to do something or should be a short process, it's been anything but. 2024 is the year of persistence, patience, perseverance, and a big pain in the ass.

But, perhaps my string of bad experiences may be winding down, or at least on vacation? I picked up my ring last Wednesday! A good start to hopefully a string of positives. So on to the main story. A good one.

On Thursday afternoon of last week, June 13, we departed the marina at approximately 1pm and arrived at St. Michaels around 3:30pm. CAYUGA ran well. Her port engine started with some barking but fortunately, that went away and our ride down the bay was into a 12 knot breeze that she handled admirably. I juiced up her RPMs while we turned into Eastern Bay to run over the quartering waves and once around the point and headed south through Prospect Bay into the Miles River, we slowed down and cruised along enjoying the scenery (12 knots in video).

The weekend was fantastic. The weather was great. I slept on the boat while Brad drove back and forth to take care of the dog (she does not like the boat - it's too loud). I made a beautiful arrangement with flowers from my gardens, set up a pitcher of iced cold hibiscus tea on a serving tray (a wedding gift with the island of Bermuda carved into it - our favorite place), and displayed the CAYUGA engraved glasses. We looked great. Folks stopped and asked about her - we were all too happy to oblige offering many to come aboard.

I had signed up on a whim to be judged to find out what folks thought of her and learn what we would need to do to make her competitive next year. That judging took place Saturday morning. The awards ceremony was a Sunday luncheon.

I'll just get to it. CAYUGA won a Gold Level award in her class - Late Classic. I had not expected that. I never even considered it. Not in my wildest dreams. Not even a little bit. The only award higher is Platinum. I was so surprised and stunned and speechless, except to say to the audience while holding back tears, "Thanks Dad". Not my usual calm, collected self when handed a microphone.

In past stories, I've shared how Dad is the reason I was introduced to boating and found I loved it, so being Father's Day, the tears just flowed both sad and happy.

CAYUGA motored home with her first, of what I hope to be many, awards and accolades. We have much work to do! I'll tell you all about how I prepped her in an upcoming story. But for now, I am on the lookout for more good things to come.

Time for some bubbly to celebrate the accomplishment and a huge thank you to all of you who have supported us, in every way. I'm exhausted but it's all been worth it.