18 April 2011 | Alexandria, VA
11 May 2010
31 July 2009
26 April 2009
24 January 2009 | Cadle Creek
27 December 2008 | Chesapeake Bay
09 November 2008
13 October 2008
30 September 2008
13 July 2008 | Warehouse Creek
30 May 2008 | St. Mary's River
26 May 2008 | Rhode River & Chesapeake Bay
24 May 2008 | Chesapeake Bay
04 May 2008 | Chesapeake Bay
29 April 2008

Anchoring on the Wye River.

21 July 2007 | Chesapeake Bay and Wye River
This past weekend sailed on my longest trip thus far and I was single handling. I was joining Dave and Debbi sailing across the bay, into Eastern Bay, down the Miles River, into the Wye River, and into some nice creek. This was quite an accomplishment for me. Yes, it would have been nice to have some company on the long sail, but it's hard to get my friends' schedules to work out, especially for an entire weekend.

Here is Dave and Debbi sailing their C-250:
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Here is a photo they took of me:
7-21-07 downwind

It was a beautiful day for sailing.
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Red, white and blue:
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Here is some nice large, classic yacht. Reminds me of what I saw a lot of in Ft. Lauderdale, although there were even much larger yachts down there of course.
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I actually lost my hat as we were sailing into the Wye River. A large gust came up and off went my hat. The neck strap didn't help this time. I proceeded to retrieve it, but lost track of it during my tack and in the waves. I searched for a bit with no luck. That is definitely why having someone be a spotter in a man overboard situation is so important.

We made it to a nice creek with a few other boats, primarily sailboats. Dave set his anchor and I rafted beside them. We had a good time hanging out and had some hamburgers on the grill. We then motored around in the dinghy just as the sun was going down. Here are some photos:
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Before turning in for the night, I checked out the weather online. They were forecasting 20+ knot winds for Sunday. It was so dead calm on the creek; we were sure our anchor should be fine. So we get some sleep. Well, I wake up around 4am with the wind howling outside. It was surprisingly chilly actually, which made sleeping comfortable. I placed some bungies on my rigging to prevent the annoying slapping against the mast the night before. Well, it wasn't enough, so I climbed out of the cabin and tied off the rigging a bit better. I also noticed my boat did not feel right. You really learn how your boat naturally feels after a while. I checked my depth meter and found it reading around 6'. My depth is 5', but I could tell we were aground. I pulled out my GPS and sure enough, our anchor dragged quite a bit. I woke Dave up and he came out. With his spot light I could see the shoreline was a lot closer. I used my engine and motored our boats forward while Dave reset his anchor. The entire process, from first waking up to making sure the anchor was holding took almost an hour. We could already see the sun beginning to rise. I went back to sleep for a couple more hours. We did not expect winds to be so high (high teens, gusts around 20 knots) in this protected anchorage. It turned out the wind was shooting right down the creek.

We got up, had some breakfast, and then motored around in the dinghy again to get some photos in daylight.
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We departed around 10am. With the high winds being reported on the bay, I raised my main with a reef while on the protected Wye River. It is always better to start out safe then worry about it later. Well, after motor sailing for an hour out the Wye River into the Miles River, we finally encountered some steady winds. I shut off the Honda and started cruising my way home. Dave was not far behind, but I was getting further ahead as we sailed into Eastern Bay. About halfway through Eastern Bay, I noticed Dave was gaining on me and he no longer had his main reefed. I realized the conditions were actually mild and I could use some more canvas, so I took out my reef as well to pick up speed. Dave passed me while in the process of raising my main, but the race was on! He kept his lead out to Bloody Point into the Chesapeake, but this is where things all changed! The winds were really picking up and so were the waves. I set the Go To function on my GPS to take me to the green channel marker of the West River and I had to pull all the sails in tightly close hauled. I quickly passed Dave and Debbi as I sailed on with my full main and a few wraps of my genoa furled. It was awesome! I was having so much fun! I got a little wet splashing through the waves. I propped my feet on the leeward combing and just leaned back while cruising along. Surprisingly I had almost no weather helm at all. I could steer with my finger tips, compared to at times when you have to have two hands fighting the tiller. I've always wanted to get photos and videos in these conditions, but usually my hands are too full. I had no problem this time:
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I was able to sail close hauled on a single tack which took me just north of the green marker of the shoal. I then fell off the wind and continued my way to the Rhode River on a beam reach. I got back just before 4pm and packed everything up. It was about 4:45pm when Dave and Debbi passed my marina. I stopped by on my way out. They had to tack back and forth to get up to the green marker, the C-250 doesn't point as well into the wind. My C-25 is also heavier, faster, and more comfortable in those rougher conditions. I had such a great time sailing across the bay.

Here is my GPS plotted chart of my weekend cruise. The GPS read a total of 51.42 nautical miles for the trip.
chart 7-21-07
Comments
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