Memorial Day

chef2sail · #1 (**permalink**) 06-01-2010

Great Weekend,

Picked our boat up in Rock Hall (Harbor Haven) where we had a new Harken Furler and Radar Pole installed. Saturday we sailed up the Chester. The MYC of which we belong was hunkering down at Langford Bay Marina, but we opted to anchor somewhere else as there were most PB in our club going there. After tacking up to the Corsica (we passed a few of our friends along the way) we looked in the entrance and saw about 40 Tartans and realized their rondevous was there so we opted for Greys Inn Creek. Really nice place we like. Peacefull and quiet evening on Memorial Weekend.

Sunday we picked up the anchor and had a hot hot hot sail up to Worton Creek. At Pooles Island we turned on the engine and furled in the jib and motorsailed. My wife had never been in Fairlee Creek and I had warned her about it ( all the PB) but she wanted to see. So with our main up we motored in and when we turned the corner to go in that super narrow opening it was like seeing Sodom and Gomorrah in front of your eyes.

Powerboats packed together. One raft of over 40 ft boats was 15 long. Anchor lines all over the place Lots of skin...some who shouldnt have. Smelly sweating bodies, loud music. It was like a free for all. My wifes mouth was ajar as I carefully turned the boat and headed right out. There were people sitting on beach chairs at the entrance and anyone on here who has been in there knows how close the beach is. Some of these people were taking bets wheteher we would run aground with our sail up there.

We flew over to Worton and stayed outside hoping to catch a hint of breeze or waiting for the sun to dip lower. Again a nice quite night with a fellow sailboater serrenading the anchored fleet with bagpipes for 1/2 hours at sunset.

Monday saw us with a great sail down the bay to our home at Rock Creek. As we entered the creek and took our sails down we passed (Rhythm-Mike and his wife and their Sabre 34- looking good). We got there early at 2 so we could drive back over to Rock hall get our other car and beat the Bay Bridge traffic which we were able to do.

Great Weather weekend and a great sailing weekend.

Dave

mgmhead · #2 (**permalink**) 06-01-2010

Great weekend is right, Dave. I hosted a dinner party for about 20 on Friday night at our marina (couldn't possibly get them all aboard Rhythm). I'm no chef but I make a very passable dryrub babyback rib on my smoker. Add some slaw and beans with good friends, along with liberal consumption of adult beverages and a goodtime was had by all. Saturday we sailed to Rock Creek for a very pleasant and quiet night alone at anchor. On Sunday two boats joined us for a raft up and again great company. Left Rock Creek for a great sail home just in time to see you coming into the Creek. Always a pleasure to see a SailNet boat on the water and your C&C was looking good.

We visited Grays Inn Creek last Memorial Day and found it to be very uncrowded and comfortable. Well, there was that one waterskier that thought he'd spray a neighboring boat but as he cut his turn he fell. Those anchored had plenty of applause for that performance.

Glad to see you on the water and hope everyone had as much sailing (or anchoring) fun as I did.

Fair winds to all... Mike

wwilson · #3 (**permalink**) 06-01-2010

Chef2

Loved Grey's Ck. too. A great place to anchor on the 4th of July (cat's now out of the bag) because you can see the fireworks in Rock Hall without the hassle of finding a place in Rock Hall.

The Chester River is a great place to encounter a boat of about your speed. In 2007 we had a tacking duel with a very pretty (as always) Hinckley 42. We chased her into a frenzy up the river - but she left us stuck on the cross-river tack as she sashayed into Langford Bay Marina with us as her trophy (the bitch).

I'm doing a "bucket list" of the Chesapeake and Fairlee Ck is (was) on it. I'm pretty thick skinned, don't mind vulgarity, or skin, but the place sounds like it's not worth a visit based on your post as well as word-of-mouth that I've had. Dragging 6'2" of lead around that bend may not be worth the rise in blood-pressure for what is in there - huh? We too like anchoring in the bight outside Worton Ck.

Hope the new furler and pole worked out to your satisfaction. Hope to meet the Chesapeake sailors at the rendezvous if we can make it.

Thanks for that post. Love to hear about sailing the Chesapeake.

T37Chef · #4 (**permalink**) 06-01-2010

Hey Dave,

Great post! Sounds like mostly fun

Fairlee is okay on the weekdays and early Spring and late Fall, but I would NEVER go there on a summer holiday weekend

Guessing you never will again either.

Last time (2008 maybe) I was in Fairlee I almost got into fisticuff's with a jackass cause his raft up of about 8 cigarette boats was dragging into us, probably because they had a a fortress anchor holding them and when the tide changed the anchor broke loose? My mistake for choosing a weekend there!

We enjoyed a lazy weekend in Swan Creek, swimming, crabs at Waterman's, and the last ride in our dilapidated dingy and enjoyed a great sail home Monday.

So how is the new radar pole and furler? What model Harken did you go with? A Unit 2 Mk IV perhaps?

Our new Achilles RIB and Tohatsu arrive tomorrow just in time for our trip South...we'll put her to good use and will definitely be keeping it covered

T37Chef · #5 (**permalink**) 06-01-2010

Wilson, everyone has to try Fairlee at least once

Just going through the inlet is something not soon forgotten.

chef2sail · #6 (**permalink**) 06-01-2010

Shaun,,yes we got the unit 2HarkenMK 4. Suprised at the size of the furling line, but the unit is such a breeze after our 18 year old Profurl.

I swear Fairlee look like a scene from the movie Animal House meets Debby Does Dallas. Going through the inlet is very unforgettable. You can reach your telecoping pole to the beach on either side as you pass thorugh and hear the normal language tone conversations of the people sitting there.

The new radar pole looks good. I still have to wire it and put the radar, tv antenna, 2 chartplotter gps as well as the new astern light on top. (some of it i already have done. One of the great features of the Garhauer pole is that you have two clamps on the pole which you can drop two pins into which are on the end of the quick release engine hoist so you can stow it easily in 30 seconds. So many projects and so little time.
7 weeks till we set of to Marthas Vineyard.

Wayne, hope you can get to the Rondevous. Would like to trade stories with you. If not we can meet up some weekend. Have pictures and directions for Barnegat Inlet for you.

Dave

PalmettoSailor · #7 (**permalink**) 06-01-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by chef2sail

Shaun,,yes we got the unit 2HarkenMK 4. Suprised at the size of the furling line, but the unit is such a breeze after our 18 year old Profurl.

Dave

What's the suprise?

We just replaced our 19 y.o. Hood continuous line furler with a Profurl and I find the line for the new furler is smaller than I would like. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to try a larger line or sheathing a section of the exiting line but I need something that fits my hand better.

Otherwise I'm pretty happy with the Profurl for my budget.

smackdaddy · #8 (**permalink**) 06-01-2010

Sounds like a nice time chef. We have a similar Sodom & Gomorrah on our lake called, go figure, Devil's Cove. We sailors just take bets on when the fire and brimstome will start raining down on that portion of our fine lake. Nothing yet. I'll keep you posted.

wwilson · #9 (**permalink**) 06-02-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by smackdaddy

Sounds like a nice time chef. We have a similar Sodom & Gomorrah on our lake called, go figure, Devil's Cove.

Remember not to look smack, we don't want to trade your wry wit for a pillar of salt.

smackdaddy · #10 (**permalink**) 06-02-2010

Heh-heh. Nice.