I brought Mily out for her first sail on Sunday. Before we left in the morning, I checked the weather on a couple sites. Looking out my windows it didn't look too good being very overcast. There was a chance of thunderstorms in the morning, but then around noon and through the rest of the day it was supposed to be partly cloudy. Winds were expected to be around 15 knots in the morning and increase to 20-25 knots in the afternoon with 2-3 foot seas and a small craft advisory.

I picked up Mily around 9:30am and we got to the boat around 11am. Once we got to the boat and were getting everything ready, I tuned in to the weather report on the VHF. They were saying a chance of isolated thunderstorms and winds increasing this afternoon. Cadle Creek was pretty calm, but it is very well protected and can be a completely different story on the river and bay. I planned that I would most likely reef my main sail upon raising it in the river. We were all set to go and left the marina. As we entered came into the creek we could already feel the breeze picking up, then we got closer to the Rhode River and it was really picking up. It was a south eastern wind, so we motored directly down the Rhode channel into the wind. I had Mily take the helm as I raised the main with a reef. Once we got to the West River, I shut off and raised the outboard. I fell off the wind a bit to catch my main sail, but we were barely moving. I wanted to take it easy with this being Mily's first time sailing and with all the wind I didn't want to be heeling over too much. She was nervous at first with every slight heel, with even just a few degrees. Once I convinced her it was completely safe, she started to get used to it. I opened the headsail and we picked up speed considerably with a bit more heel. We sailed out the main channel to the Chesapeake on one starboard tack. It was a great day for sailing and the wind direction was almost as perfect as it gets. We passed the green channel marker as we entered the bay and sailed about a mile further. It was about 12:30pm and the wind and waves were increasing. We had been averaging probably around 5-5.5 knots going out, sometimes increasing to over 6 knots when surfing down waves. We had the waves coming at us to the side and slightly astern which made a slight work out with the tiller. The waves were about 3' and I figured since they said the winds were going to increase in the afternoon, I didn't want it to get much worse so I decided to turn around. We could then sail down the West River to spend more time in more sheltered water. As soon as we tacked back towards the river, we were sailing hull speed, 6.5-7 knots all the way down the channel on a single port tack. It was still a smooth ride with the waves coming from the side and slightly from the bow. Every once in a while we had a mild splash that gave a refreshing mist spray.

Here is one photo when we were cruising along. With both sails reefed, I was able to sustain a comfortable level of heel and still keep our speed at 6.5+ knots.

Looking back at the bay:

We made it back down into the West River in about 30 minutes and the wind and waves decreased a bit since we were more sheltered. We were still able to keep our speed up in the 6 knot range easily though. We sailed down into the West River to where the channel begins to narrow then turned back to the Rhode River.

Once we got to the Rhode River, we were going to have a directly downwind heading so I tried to just pull in my main and let the genoa pull us along, but the main was still getting in the way. Mily took the helm as I carefully lowered and secured the main sail. We then cruised with the genoa pulling us along around 4-4.5 knots downwind. Earlier when we first left, Roee called me to see what my plans were for possibly meeting up. He found my website and contacted me since he has a C-25 just down the river. When he called he mentioned he may go anchor out in the cove, so I thought I would sail down there and also show Mily the islands. Roee didn't take the boat out so we headed back to Cadle Creek shortly after. We were able to sail out of the cove, but with only my genoa open, I couldn't sail close to the wind and it was coming directly down the river. I furled the headsail and fired up my outboard. As I was approaching the creek, I had Mily take the helm as I raised the keel. I told her to aim between the green and red marker. This was the first time I had approached the creek from the west and I then realized we were going to pass the green marker quite a ways on the left! Oops! Good thing I raised the keel because we were in 5' of water and I immediately turned to starboard to head for deeper water and pass the green marker on the right. I know it is "Red, Return, Right", in that you keep the red marker on your right as you return to your channel. I was thrown off for a minute or two since we were coming from the west and the green marker is so close to the opposite shore line. We made it back to my slip with no problems and never touched the bottom.

We tied her to the slip and then had a little lunch. I flushed my outboard which is working well, but I still plan to replace the impeller soon. We packed everything up and went down the road to meet Roee. His marina was confusing to get to, just as much as mine can be as well. We met Roee and his wife, a very nice young couple. It is nice to meet some other people in my age range that enjoy sailing. He has a nice C-25 which I have seen out sailing before. I enjoyed seeing another C-25 in person and seeing the differences such as his traditional interior compared to my dinette interior and his tall rig versus my standard. We will definitely be meeting up again and get our boats out together sometime.

That was about it for the weekend. Oh, I cannot wait until next weekend, which is THREE days with Monday being Memorial Day! I hope to get in lots of sailing then!