It is hard to believe I bought my Sapphire Breeze a year ago tomorrow. This past year I have learned so much and shared many great memories. It is funny to think back to my very first sail with Brian on January 29 last year. I remember I felt pretty confident in my abilities then, but once I got out there I found out it was very different than I imagined. Experience first hand cannot compare to simply reading books. We were lucky and made it back to the dock safely after having the headsail tear up, run aground, and engine difficulties all on my first attempt to sail. My sailing knowledge and confidence in my abilities has increased substantially since then. I am also very lucky that it turns out that I do enjoy sailing and that it has become my passion since I barely experienced sailing before buying my own sailboat. I had enjoyed a couple mild rides on sailboats beforehand, but we never heeled much and they were calm days or evenings. I was nervous at first with the heeling action, but once I became more attuned to my boat, I became much more comfortable.

So how about an anniversary sail in the beginning of January? We had a near record breaking day in terms of warm weather. The temperature was in the low 70s, partly cloudy at times and winds ranging from 10-15 knots. Sounds like a perfect day for sailing to me! Dave joined me for the sail and he definitely enjoyed it since his boat is on the hard for the winter.

We departed port around 11 am, motored out the creek and set the sails a few minutes later on the Rhode River. On the way out the river, I saw Roee's C-25. As we passed, I asked if he was onboard, but he wasn't coming out until early in the afternoon. We sailed out the main channel into the Chesapeake and took a south east heading towards Eastern Bay.

Here is Dave enjoying this sail in January:

Here I am, not the greatest picture:

This is looking west from where we came, the shoreline near the West River way out there. Check out the darker sky. Rain was not in the forecast and the clouds were quickly blowing east.

Now looking east, check out the blue sky and how light and vibrant it is.

Dave's GPS showed us cruising in the 5 knot range most of the entire trip. It was a great day for sailing. I forgot which marker it was out in the bay that we rounded to head back, but it was south of Bloody Point Lighthouse.

On our way back to the West River, there was this tug pulling this huge barge. It was interesting and I am curious as to what it was especially with all those ventilation shafts.


We saw it coming towards us as we were crossing the channel so we actually changed our heading and slowed down, waiting for it to pass us. You definitely don't want to be caught in front of one of them.

Here is our course from Dave's GPS:

Here is a close up of the end of the sail.

We were sailing close hauled the entire time and the winds shifted from the Rhode River as we turned into it. We tacked back and fourth a few times to make our way upwind. We sailed almost to the red marker inside Cadle Creek. I liked the challenge seeing how far we could make it to my marina, but the wind almost died completely in the creek and I did not want to drift into the marker piling or run aground just outside of the narrow channel. We stowed the sails, fired up the outboard, and cranked up the keel. My marina was just a couple hundred yards away. I pulled into my slip perfectly and we concluded another successful sail on a beautiful day in January.