I’m putting a call out to the entire squadron for a judge in the review of communications for the District 13 Duncan Gleason award. In the past, this position has been rather arduous as judges were tasked to review year-long communications from the various squadrons in District 13. However, this year it will be a one-time evaluation of something that a squadron wants to submit for judging. The duties of this judge will be just to read and evaluate the contest submissions in Feb, 2019. If you have questions about this position, you can contact me or Judie Dee at jabcucumb@aol.com.
Wow! What a busy May we are having. The squadron had so much going on that most of this message will be spent thanking all the members who stepped up to conduct or participate in an event.
If you missed our May 3 meeting, it was a very special night –ask anyone who attended, there were more than 30 attendees. Thanks to Jim Hirsch, Alyssa Lewis, and Patrick White for a very informative and entertaining evening. Many thanks to Janis Johnson for providing an amazing spread of appetizers.
Later that week the Harbormaster’s office organized and implemented Harbor Clean Sweep. The squadron was represented by no less than ten members, so we were assigned a Marina 2 finger all our own. Working with 2 divers, we lugged two toilets, a marine stove, a bicycle, and some kind of large electronic device as well as many other miscellaneous items from the harbor seabed to the roll-off container.
Onto the next week, the squadron participated in the May 12 Nautical Swap meet that was organized by the Harbormaster’s Office. It was well-attended and as it was a little chilly in the morning, we all wore our nifty squadron jackets and were getting envious glares from other vendors. We all had some free donuts and coffee while making about $250 for the squadron, so not a bad morning.
The next week was designated as National Safe Boating Week and the squadron was actively participating in that with a “Partner in Command” seminar presented by Steve York on May 19 –thank you Steve. This same weekend was the first excursion to the islands led by Scott Burns. Apparently the rest of the squadron fleet is still having work done to be seaworthy as Scott went solo. Perhaps we’ll have a fleet cruise in June. And then on Tuesday night later that week the squadron and the Harbormaster presented a “Harbor Watch” seminar discussing law enforcement statistics in the marinas and safe boating tips. Then we headed to the beach to shoot off expired flares. We had over 25 people attend this event, so it was a very fun, educational, and social evening.
Don’t blink or another month will go by that is chock full of squadron activities. Don’t miss our June 7th meeting with Mike Pyzel discussing heavy weather experiences and techniques for survival.
Speaking of meetings, you all should join a social media forum called Meetup. This is a Santa Barbara specific website that allows members to post events and the website emails announcements of upcoming events in which the member has indicated interest. I have established a Meetup Group called America’s Boating Club Presents Stories from Local Boaters. Be sure to select that one to get timely announcements of the Fun and Entertainment meetings in the coming months.