Kaimusailing

The dinghy I've been using belongs to the owner of a derelict Searunner 40, and I thanked him for letting me use it after we took it, without asking, across the bay and back on our sail to Rock Hall. He said we could use it whenever we wanted. He wouldn't sell it. It had a pine board for a seat, which had been left under the upturned dinghy for years and now was rotten and falling apart. I stopped by Home Depot and picked up a pine 1X12 and cut a new seat for his dinghy.
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I would still need a dinghy on this next voyage, because although Trillium is small and could probably sidle up to dock in almost any port, there are times when you need a small beachable boat to access land when there are no docks. An example would be when picking up a mooring and needing to go ashore.
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I looked every day on Craig's List for canoes and kayaks, but every time I made an inquiry the reply was that it had just sold. I finally went to local store and bought a 10 foot kayak at Dick's Sporting Goods. I didn't expect much from this little kayak, it was the cheapest I could find, but when I threw it in the water and got in and paddled around, it was stable, it paddled easily, and went along at a good rate. I would rather build a kayak, I have all those books, but time has run out and I needed one right away.
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I found out the kayak was not the best way to transport things to the boat. There is no room. Getting aboard the boat from the kayak is very touchy. I have to do a yoga asana to get into position to climb aboard. The boarding ladder must be in place. The kayak is the right size for this boat, it fits forward between the cabin and lifeline stanchions.
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Meanwhile I continued to use the borrowed dinghy to provision the boat. I bought 5 of everything, pasta, rice, sauces, canned meat, beans, and a big jug of 2 stroke outboard motor oil. Then I took Trillium to the end of the inlet, anchored there, slept aboard, and prepared to start the voyage from there. There was a tropical depression, Hermine, that was coming up the coast, now at Cape Hatteras, and several wiser persons suggested that I not go yet, wait for the storm to pass. It would be North winds, perfect to send us down the bay, but the intensity was in question. The forecasts said that due to the storm's variability, the forecast would also be variable.
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I left early in the morning on a Saturday and found that the Yachtwin motor, as strong as it is, could not deal with the North wind hitting us dead on as we tried to leave the inlet. The entrance to Bodkin Inlet is North and South. The engine died when the waves caused the boat to hobby horse so much that the engine was inundated. It dried out after a while and was running again. This time I tip toed out. The forecast was 15 to 25 with gusts to 30 and I would say that it was accurate.
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When I bent on the jib before weighing anchor, I started with the working jib and a gust hit me. I put the working jib away and got out the "Hurricane Storm Jib". It was a very heavily made sail of about 80 square feet. Now, motoring to the last green day marker and making the right turn toward the bay and toward Annapolis, South, I was supposed to put up the jib, but I chickened out and just continued motoring. We were moving along with about 6 knots over the ground. The motor normally propels the boat at about 5 knots. We now had an ebb tide and whatever motivation the strong North wind was giving us.
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We reached the bay bridge near Annapolis very quickly and I put up the jib and killed the motor. The bridge helped block some of the wind and the wave action was less. We were now moving along quite well and I followed the shipping channel buoys which ticked off one after the other. My destination was Crisfield where Kaptain Kris and Cornelia Marie had bought a weekend house. Crisfield is protected from the bay by barrier islands and shoals which form a continuous barrier with only one or two channels that cross them. In searching for one of those channels I found us near Trippe Bay, which is not on the way to Crisfield. I had to carefully navigate out of that area.
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Then I found the channel called Hooper Strait in which I had to reach across to the East, then a bit North to clear the last of the shoal that lies to the South. I was using the motor now to make up for the lack of a mainsail. The wind was strong enough to make turning into it nearly impossible, even with the engine. I found by turning the outboard motor I could head up enough. We were not making much headway and the wave action in this strait was bad enough to dunk the engine a few times. Then it quit, it had had enough water dumped over it. There was nothing to worry about, just sail out the way we came in.
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It was much easier sailing out. I went Southwest across the bay and passed the mouth of the Potomac River. This was of course in the middle of the night. I was looking for a sheltered port where I could anchor. Had I been more familiar with this coast, I could have dropped in at Reedville or Stingray Point. Instead I doubled back toward the Potomac and it began to grow light. I ran the engine and worked up the South bank of the Potomac and found Yeocomico River, a small cove where we could anchor. The anchor went down in 10 - 15 feet of water. It looked like a nice area. A fellow was out windsurfing. Storm winds bring out the windsurfers. He sailed over and we talked about better places to anchor, local facilities, and windsurfing. In spite of the anchorage being bombarded by waves, I was too tired to care and went to sleep. After about 4 hours I was awake and looking around, thought we had dragged anchor. A quick look at the GPS location on the electronic chart showed we hadn't moved.
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I found out that Trillium is a very bouncy boat and twitchy. You have to man the helm. It would help if we had a helm tamer, a device that lashes down the helm. A tiller autopilot would be ideal, but they are not easy to come by. Also I found out that the Yachtwin is like any outboard motor and is exposed to boarding waves.
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The picture is from Yeocomico River looking North to the Potomac.