06/08/2008

My youngest brother Andy and his girlfriend Brooke came out for a fun day sail.




Meeting up with Dave and Daren on the bay:

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05/30/2008, St. Mary's River

Back on May 30th and 31st I helped my friend Trevor launch his Merit 25 for the first time. He keeps it docked down near the St. Mary's River. His boat is FAST! We were easily going 6-8 over ground according to my GPS on Saturday with winds that were probably in the mid teens. Here are some photos from the weekend:

Sleek looking boat ready to head to the boat ramp:








Flying his spinnaker for the first time on Sunday:








A large skipjack on his creek:


Saturday's course:


Sunday's course:

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05/26/2008, Rhode River & Chesapeake Bay

For Memorial Day weekend, the plan was to sail over to Warehouse Creek on Kent Island along with Dave on his C-250 and Daren with his family on his C-25. Winds were forecasted on the light side, 5-10 knots, so we motored our way out into the bay to make some time. Once we got into the bay, we attempted to sail, but we were mostly hobby horsing with sails luffing. We weren't making any progress across the bay and motoring for 5-6 hours isn't fun. We decided we would head back to the Rhode River, drop the hook and raft up. It seemed like a lot of people had the same idea at the same time. I was leading a pack of several boats towards the anchorage.
On my way:


I worked on my boat for a little bit while everyone else took out their dinghies for some exploring. I removed the cabinetry from below the galley to work on my fresh water system and replace the galley water pump. Dave and Daren came back and saw the cabinetry sitting in the cockpit and made a funny comment about me taking my boat apart and working on projects. I've had my boat for 2.5 years and still have yet to complete my fresh water system makeover that I began two years ago. I've just been using one of those collapsible 5 gallon jugs which work well.

After putting my boat back together and relaxing for a bit, Daren's daughter Emma joined me for a ride in Dave's dingy for a little exploring and photo shooting.
Our raft up:


Checking out one of the islands with a sandy beach:


That's our raft up about a third from the right side:


From the same spot using my telephoto lens to zoom up on our raft up:















Once back to the boats, Dave grilled up some burgers and Daren and Rita cooked up some delicious pork and rice. We sat back and enjoyed some good beer and food. Then Emma had fun playing hide and seek on our boats, trying to find some tiny places to hide from Daren.

We had a calm night at anchor, although the winds shifted and caused my 5' keel to get tangled over Dave's anchor rode. Using a boat hook and some tugging, we got her free so we all swung correctly.

Sunday we took our time in the morning and then set sail around 10am. There was a small craft advisory, although you could not really tell while in the protected anchorage. Dave and I had an exciting sail across the bay single handling our boats. Daren and his family turned back early. Waves were about 3' but there were some rogue waves approaching 5'! I just watched them come and have the bow go up and come smashing down with water spraying everywhere. There were also quite a few large motor yachts out there coming back from their weekend trips causing some large wakes. It was a fun sail staying mostly in the 5-6 knot range.

Here is my course from the weekend:

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