We are coming to the end of another cruising year for TMCA. 2020 will be remembered as the year we stepped back, stayed away and otherwise kept our distance from one another. It was the year of public health and personal responsibility. In spite of the social restrictions theCOVID-19 pandemic placed on everyone, our Club endured and was still able to have a productive year of boating, learning, friendship and fun.

Our social events were limited to the Galveston Mardi Gras cruise and parade and just one dock party. During those early months, some of us practiced our own version of social distancing with some extended duration cruises around Galveston Bay and along the upper Texas coast. As the year progressed, we continued our cruise schedule with what turned out to be a very enjoyable and relaxing, laid-back, limited social activity cruises. 

Our monthly meetings and our education presentations were put on hold for most of year. When we did meet, we learned more about boat surveys, medicine at sea and dinghy maintenance and repair. We also had a special boat handling skills demonstration complete with a man (in) and his boat. 

While our calendar of events may have slowed this year, the Board continued to work hard to make the Club even better. My college civics instructor said of a city development, “if it’s not growing, it’s dying. We took that same approach with our Club. 

As I look back over my two years as Commodore, I’m extremely proud of our accomplishments. I’m honored to have represented an outstanding, engaging, and knowledgeable membership both young and not so young.  In that time, we developed a new tagline for the Club: “Boating, Learning, Friendship & Fun”. We created operations handbooks for the Board and for the membership that captured years of hand-me-down instructions and lessons learned. We captured all this information and much more and stored in the cloud for continued access and retention. We updated the Bylaws and executed a new, more expanded insurance policy for the Club. The pandemic did not slow your Board down. 

The state of the Texas Mariners Cruising Association is great because each of you have made it great. Please welcome in the 2021 Board as they take over the reigns and continue the journey. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the December 19th Commodores Ball. 

Stay safe & boat smart.

Bryan Austin

TMCA Commodore, 2020