I slept in until 8-8:30am and slept surprisingly well. It was very comfortable even though the temperature really dropped down to around 50F; the mummy bag was very warm. I did wake up around 2 am because my tiller was making too much creaky noise. It was annoying so I got out and tied it more securely against the stern pulpit. I also checked my GPS to make sure my anchor had not dragged at all, which it had not. I then got a good nights rest, got up at 8:30, took my time having breakfast, prepared to set sail, raised my anchor, motored away from all the other boats, then raised my sails and made my way to the Chesapeake. Winds were reported to be 15-18 knots in the morning at Thomas Point Lighthouse which made for some fun sailing.

Sailing out the main channel:


I left my bimini up from the day before, but it was quite a bit cooler today. I was wearing my foul weather gear jacket to stay warm, but the missed the sun's warmth. I went ahead and folded up my bimini and rested it on the stern pulpit. Note that I cannot rest it on the cabin top because of having the legs mounted on the genoa track, outside of the lifelines. It ends up resting on the lifelines, blocking your view forward. Resting on the stern rail does work well until you need access to the outboard, then it is in the way. I simply used a bungie cord to attach it to the boom when docking to have easy access to the outboard. I had not sailed without my bimini since last year. The sun's warmth was welcoming and it was nice to easily see to leeward. That is one thing people may forget to think about when buying a bimini on a mono-hull sailboat. When not sailing, sure you can see 360 degrees around, but once you are sailing and heeling over a good amount, that bimini is now blocking most of your view directly leeward of the cockpit. You have to get use to ducking down further or reaching behind to see, but it is still worth having the bimini of course.

I sailed into Eastern Bay to try to meet up with my friend Dave sailing back from his trip circumnavigating Kent Island, but once I got into Eastern Bay, the winds really died down and came and went sporadically. They were changing directions and at the time I decided to turn back, it was because the wind slowly shifted, forcing me to face back towards the Chesapeake Bay. I then called Dave to let him know I wasn't going to be able to meet up and that I was heading back. It was still a fun trip, with some nice winds at times, but then sometimes the winds almost completely stopped. Once when the wind began to die, I was in the path of a huge barge and tug boat. It was out in the distance and at the speed I was originally going I should have crossed easily. Then the wind almost died and my speed dropped to 1-2 knots! I was watching the barge, still probably a mile away, but I was thinking that wind better come back! Those barges move quickly. I cleared without any problem at all, the wind eventually came back up and I got up to around 4 knots. I watched though as some other sailboat motored in front of him somewhat closely, a lot closer than I ever would have.

One of the highlights of the sail was coming home in the main channel; there were two other sailboats and myself all converging to the entrance. One was around 40 feet and a ketch rig and the other was a 30' sloop. The 30 footer was going a little bit faster than me and took the lead. What surprised me was that I caught up and passed the 40' ketch even with all their sails up! It was cool, how we were all sailing close together, we all respected the rules of navigation just fine, and I slowly passed and left the ketch in my small wake. I rounded the green marker and took a course straight downwind, sailing wing on wing. I then sailed into the Rhode and made it back to my marina shortly after.

Here was my plotted course for the day:


Winds were reported on the Thomas Point Lighthouse webpage to be 15-18 knots in the morning, then slowing to 11-15 knots in the afternoon during my sail. So, most of the time they were great, but there were some odd shifts and times where it died momentarily.