Saturday I single handed up to Bodkin Creek at the entrance of the Patapsco River towards Baltimore. We had a nice westerly wind which made just about the entire trip on one port tack. It was sunny, around 70F and the winds varied, from less than 10 knots to probably gusting in the mid teens. Dave single handed his C-250 as well and past my marina just as I was releasing my dock lines. Shortly after entering the Chesapeake Bay I noticed my furler was badly tangled. It took me a few minutes on the bow to fix the problem and then I was back underway. I am really glad I noticed it early on while it was calmer. I may fork up the $300 someday for the upgrade CDI furler drum kit to help prevent this from happening again.

So far it was a nice sail coming up towards Annapolis; there were tons of sailboats on the water with regattas taking place.


Here is another huge cargo ship anchored in the bay:


Shortly after, I was passing beneath the bridge:






Next up was Sandy Point Lighthouse:


Then Baltimore Lighthouse:


The winds picked up substantially once I entered the Patapsco River with the winds funneling straight down from the west. Good thing I fixed my furler earlier in the day, because I needed to put a couple wraps around.


I was then cruising along close hauled, heeling 25-30 degrees continuously, when suddenly a huge gust came and instantly put my rail in the water! This occurred when I was near the entrance to Bodkin Creek so I furled my genoa, turned on the engine, lowered the main, and motored down the narrow channel into the creek. I made my way around the bends and found Dave anchored. I pulled along side his C-250 and we tied our raft up. We took out his dinghy and motored around the creek, checking the place out and taking some photos.


Those are our sailboats anchored off the right in the distance:


I like the Westsail 32:


What happened here?




We got back to the boats, enjoyed some beer and fixed some ravioli and garlic bread. A warm dinner sure was nice since it was cooling off overnight to around 50F. Here is Dave and I in his cabin:


I slept so comfortably that night, even more so than at home lately without having to wake up to an alarm. I got up around 8am and had breakfast over on Dave's boat. We then went on another dinghy ride in the morning for some daytime photos before we departed:


I separated from Dave's boat and waited for him to raise his anchor. We then motored out the creek together and were going to have a fun race back home. This Bodkin Creek with the narrow channel to the bay ahead:


The winds were light and we determined that is where Dave's tall rig C-250 has an advantage over my standard rig C-25 swing keel. With his lighter displacement and taller rig, he has the advantage in lighter winds. With my heavier displacement and 5 foot draft, I have the advantage though when the wind and waves increases and I can point higher into the wind. In Sunday's conditions though, Dave was slightly faster.


He took this looking back at me:


I tried to change my strategy by sailing directly downwind for a short time to get further in the bay to find more wind and get a better heading off the wind once I turn back towards the bridge, but that didn't help much. Here is some traffic coming down the channel:




Coming up to the bridge:


Once I came south of the bridge, the winds picked up coming out of the Severn River, but there were times that the wind really dropped off. Dave made a good lead on me so far. Then the fun really began once I got near the South River and made my way into the West River. I was actually gaining up on Dave and if our finish line, the Rhode River was not so close, I probably could have caught him. I had to motor directly into the wind up the Rhode and made my way to my marina. That made for another fun weekend on the water.

Here is my course plotted by my GPS; it was probably my longest sail in my C-25 thus far.