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29 April 2008

Um... Where are we?

09 July 2006 | Chesapeake Bay
This Sunday was mostly a very good day; although I do learn something new almost every time I go out! Ok, so my brother Chris joined me and we had a beam reach all the way up to Thomas Point. We then tacked back south and were close hauled and had to tack several times as we headed back to port. Since the previous weekend when I went to Thomas Point and found myself a bit too far west of the channel to the West River, I decided we would tack east of Thomas Point, and then sail south. There was a storm warning and they said storms may start around 2pm, which it was now around 2:30. The waves were getting bigger, it was quite windy with white caps, and I ended up reefing both sails while we were out there. The sky was still blue with some puffy white clouds. We were getting tired of being on the water, plus we had plans to go to a concert. I decided to just fire up the outboard, roll up the headsail and head home around 3pm, my battery could use the charge anyways. Well, we motor/sailed too far south directly into the wind! I was watching the shore line for landmarks that I recognized and the only thing I can figure out is I must have thought the West River channel was the South River. Since we were tacking several times close hauled prior to starting the engine, I must have slightly lost orientation with our heading and thought we hadn't made it that far when in fact we sailed down a ways past the green marker. What caught my attention were a lot of pilings near the shore in the distance. I never saw those before but do remember seeing those on the chart south of the West River entrance. I sure am glad I remembered to bring my runner's GPS. I was able to get my coordinates from the GPS and cross reference them on the charts to pin point my location. Sure enough, I found us pretty much just east of the shallow shoal that extends out on the eastern side of our channel. I actually forgot how to read the degrees and minutes on the chart, but after a couple minutes I figured out how simple it is. The whole time we were heading back, I was watching for the markers, especially the green entrance marker. Since I was making sure I stayed far from shore to avoid being west of the channel, I was too far east this time! It added about an hour detour, but we made it back and never saw any storms. Another thing that really had me puzzled was that we were sailing in what seemed like far from shore and it was all 7' of water. I was looking at my charts where I thought we were east of the South River and it should have been 20-30 feet. That is what first got my attention. Now I realize I think we were sailing through that shallow point and high tide was around that time. Yes, I need to get a chart plotter! Hopefully by next sailing season I will buy one, until then I will just try to keep my day sails in familiar waters and not have this happen.

Yesterday was also Chris's only second time sailing, but first time at the helm. Here he is:
P1000019-1

He stayed at the helm for the majority of the day, did very well and really learned how the boat feels. We were healing a lot, a few times with the rail being maybe 6" from the water. At first we had both sails fully open for a while. Then the wind picked up a bit, so I reefed the genoa; then it was really getting windy so I reefed the main as well. Overall, a good day sailing and I learned some lessons. I didn't get any projects done except mounting my spinnaker pole on the stanchions and it seems like it works well so far. I forgot to snap a picture of how I mounted it, but I'll do that next time. I bought a pole mount that clamps onto one stanchion, then on the bow pulpit I mounted an eyelet and used carbineer clip to hold the other end of the pole. I also found a new problem, or an old problem that is back actually... the starter on the outboard stopped working again! Arrgghh. I didn't have much time to trouble shoot it, but my battery voltage was around 12.6 V if I recall. Another strange thing is after motoring for well over an hour; the voltage did not go up. I'm pretty sure the voltage was 12.6V before the sail also. I'll need to do more trouble shooting next time.

So we made it back to my place just after 6, had some dinner and my two other younger brothers joined us to see the concert (Toad the Wet Sprocket and Big Head Todd, mid 90s rock bands).

I also got a new camera on Saturday. In my previous post I mentioned the CCD chip on my last camera (Nikon Coolpix 5400) was going out. My friends at Costco told me to simply return it and get a new camera. So, I did a lot of research and decided to spend a few extra bucks and buy a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 with a 12x optical Leica lens. This camera is awesome! It takes excellent photos and even very good videos (even has widescreen in 848x480 resolution). Here is a link to the video I took:
Video


Google down grades the quality, but it's still alright.
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Vessel Name: Sapphire Breeze
Vessel Make/Model: 1982 Catalina 25 SK/SR
Hailing Port: Mayo, MD
Crew: Justin
Extra: This site is all about my experiences with my first boat; from restoring it, to my sailing adventures. I enjoy hearing from my readers, so feel free to send me an email. I'm also interested in meeting new people in the area, especially people in my age range since I hardly know any that sail.

Who: Justin
Port: Mayo, MD