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2013 Sailing Season

26K views 247 replies 25 participants last post by  Nicklaus 
#1 ·
Thought I might as well get a head start and designate a thread for all to post in as some are still sailing thorugh January and February. We typically post in a thread where we are going and what we are doing throughout the season and our escapades throughout the season.

We start out on the Ides of March ( March 15) for our first sail of the season.

Our Chesapeake group is one of the molst active on Sailnet with frequent posters and get togethers each month. Our 5th Annual Sailnet Rondezvous will take place June 8 at the Maryland Yacht Club as in years past ( There's a designated thread already). If anyone would like to volunteer to take some other days/ weekends during the season and kind of be the organizer for get togethers it would be helpful and appreciated by all of us. Sometimes we just need an organizer to take the lead herding us "cats" together. It would be great if we also could pull on thogethr down in Solomons this year to capture so others ( hint, hint).

I have been working on a design for a burgee for the "Lions of the Chesapeake" and have some design ideas but if someone has suggestions please let me know. How many woud be willling to purchase ( Looks like about $25 each. If enough want this I will proceed with itThis phrase came out of a sarcastic remark made about a few of us a number of years ago, implying we were not " real sailors" as we sailed in the Chessie. It kindof stuck as our moniker.

Also is anyone willing to take over the database and keep organized the Chesapeake eats/ Restaurant section we have. S/V Auspicious ( Dave ) maintained it for about 5 years and really did a great job with it, and it has helped many a person evaluate the various restaurants we have available. If you havent looked at it its quite extensive.

Heres to a great 2013 sailing Season..let the games begin.(bet Bubble is one of the first to post):eek:

Note to moderators: Could you make this a sticky as you have in the past and take the 2012 sailing season and let it float...Thank you:)

Dave
 
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#36 ·
We got our season off to a nice start this afternoon. Nothing spectacular, just a nice day. You could really feel the cooling effect of the water on the breeze.

 
#37 ·
Weekend two out anchored in Eagles Cove on the Magothy. Rafted up with friends from the club who ave a new too them Tartan 3700. Pretty boat. We sailed own the Bay and into to anchorage in a 10-12 knot with 20 gusts on our "little headsail" doing 6.5 to 7.2 most of the way. Beautiful anchorage with a horse farm with 12 horses anda huge American lflag. Popular in the summer which is why we don't come here as its crowded with people fighting over anchoring to close to each other. We two sailboats are the only ones here tonight.
Gret day for April.

Dave
 
#38 ·
We got the boat out of the slip for the first time yesterday! Unfortunately a part popped off the top of the roller furler when we hoisted the genoa and then we started having halyard wrap and binding issues when we tried to use it. So I need to get the rigger up the mast. On the positive side, we sailed under main only and with the bottom job were making 5 knots most of the time. Still a very nice sailing day and felt good to get back out.

On the projects side, I took out the alcohol stove and have been working on installing a propane stove/system. I should be able to finish up the install today. Sharon couldn't stand the alcohol stove so she's very excited about the upgrade.
 
#40 ·
Glad to see you got out.

We saw 15-20 from the Magothy from the WNW until about 2 then it died down. Was a great day with a few more boats out than Saturday.

Dave
 
#41 ·
Ha, goes to show you how crazy the Bay winds are during the Spring. My breeze was nothing like yours.

I sailed into a gaggle of other boats all with the same idea of going to Annapolis. From the mouth of the West River, to TPL the breeze was incredibly fickle. Anywhere from 0-12 knots, with 90 degree shifts. We were tacking like mad, poking along at 1-3 knots until we got to a windline at TPL.

From there, the wind was from the SE at about 7-8 knots all the way into Annapolis, and back home again until I got near the mouth of the West River. Then, the breeze just died. The water was glass, so I flaked the sails and motored the rest of the way home.

I really need to figure out how to fly my symmetric spinnaker single-handed.
 
#43 ·
#46 ·
Bubblehead, if you figure out that single handed symmetrical flying, I'd like some tips! I've done it... but it was ugly and the winds were VERY light... I doubt I'd try it in anything over 5 knots.
This was the result:


Dousing was, um, interesting.
 
#48 ·
We took out our brand new 1966Pearson Wanderer last week for the first sail of the season. Wednesday the 18th had very light air in the morning, so we motored from Point Lookout to St Mary 's City. We had planned to do a little boat work, but noticed some ripples while eating lunch and decided to try a sail. Ended up having a great shakedown sail and all systems worked welll.

Thursday brought forecast winds to twenty so we headed upriver with a double reef. Had a great sail up to Piney Point then turned around and beat hard to windward in three maybe four foot waves. It was a yeehaw kind of sail, but we were getting cold, tired, and wet so we fired up the yanmar to finish the trip home. Getting into our slip was another adventure.

Our boat, Margie Lou, performed great and Mindy and I did ok for a couple of old folks. We look forward to getting out on the water again next week.
 
#49 ·
Yesterday, "Tardis" and I sailed her newly purchased Pearson 30 from the head of the Magothy River, to her permanent slip in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

I was merely crew/engineer. She was skipper and driver.

Many thanks to T37Chef for his insights into Baltimore, which helped with the trip planning, and helped relieve some of my anxiety, as I have never sailed north of the Bay Bridge before.
 
#54 ·
Looks like we are headed out going south this AM . Light winds grrr. I think we may head to Whitehall or Mill Creeks as we rarely get there in the summer as its busy and protected ( hot) up inside the creeks.

I have some water balloons so Jeff/ Jaronson watch out:) :gunner
 
#55 ·
We are anchored way up Whitehall Creek past the marina in an absolutely beucholic setting. Pars of ducks and geese everywhere like we stumbled into an aviary sex clinic or mating ground.

Lazy spring afternoon. Having some grilled fresh swordfish steaks with fresh line and mangos with a salad for dinner. I've been forced by recent events to change some of my eating habits to eliminate starches so no rice tonight, bummer.

Winds tomorrow expected to be on the quarter sailing home at 15-20 knotts.

Dave
 
#56 ·
We motored down to Broad Creek on the Magothy yesterday afternoon and anchored fairly close to the little island there. We saw a lot of goose, osprey, and blue heron activity. There were a couple of other boats but it was still very serene. Last night the new propane stove made its debut and it was amazing. Now it's possible to do some real cooking aboard without pulling our hair out. This morning the wind was up by 9 AM. We beat out of the Magothy and then sailed on a broad reach out into the bay and jibed into the river. It was an amazing sailing day, especially before the cloud cover started to roll in around noon.

I also have to say the soda blasting and bottom job I did over the winter/spring is proving to be worth every penny. The speeds we were seeing all weekend under motor and sail were remarkable compared to before even when freshly repainted. The boat just feels lighter and more sprightly now.
 
#57 ·
We motored down to Broad Creek on the Magothy yesterday afternoon and anchored fairly close to the little island there. We saw a lot of goose, osprey, and blue heron activity. There were a couple of other boats but it was still very serene. Last night the new propane stove made its debut and it was amazing. Now it's possible to do some real cooking aboard without pulling our hair out. This morning the wind was up by 9 AM. We beat out of the Magothy and then sailed on a broad reach out into the bay and jibed into the river. It was an amazing sailing day, especially before the cloud cover started to roll in around noon.

I also have to say the soda blasting and bottom job I did over the winter/spring is proving to be worth every penny. The speeds we were seeing all weekend under motor and sail were remarkable compared to before even when freshly repainted. The boat just feels lighter and more sprightly now.
Sorry we missed you guys. Glad all that work on the bottom showed big results./ Cant wait till the diver gives Haleakulas " bottom " a wipe.

Having propane is a great idea. See you and Sharon soon.

Dave
 
#58 ·
I caught that 15-20 on the way home from the Spring Show in Annapolis on Sunday.
It turned into an apparent wind 28 at times. A really good shake down sail (not a break down). I'm happy to say my me and my Irwin 38 CC will be having a good summer.
 
#59 ·
Sorry I didn't take pictures. I will next time for you. She is looking good Chuck and will serve you well. Especially in wind like yesterday. Verty comfortable ride. Ill bet you amazed at the difference the weight ( power feeling of the hull) is making as you cruise in heavy winds vs. skipping across the water.

We were hauling the main pretty well headed up to the Patapso from the bridge doing well in excess of 7 knots with just little handkerchief of a 120 as the headsail and the centerboard down.

I think next weekend its time to go back to "Big Bertha" the 150. The diver should be going under Haleakula this week so that's usually good for at least 1/2 knott.

Dave
 
#60 ·
My grass skirt was waving at nearby boats. I kept full sail up (even past 20kts) to see how she handled it.
Dropped a few items off the settee here and there, but pretty stiff at 20 degrees.

The full jib caused a touch too much weather helm - lift made her constantly try to point up, so much than in a real puff Resolute_ZS had full rudder on to keep her from rounding up. I should have bled off some, but I wanted to see what it would do and was having too much of a lazy sail to do the trim in/trim out deal in fluky wind.

It won't take too long for me to loose all my bad catamaran sailing habits and get back to mono hull.
 
#62 ·
Looks like we are headed over to the Corsica River and branch of the Chester River on the eastern shore. Couple of boats headed over from the club so it looks like some extended cocktail hour. Winds are 5-12 right now expected to lighten, but the forecast is hard to predict in the spring correctly. They have already upped tomorrow to 10-15. Should be a lice broad reach home tomorrow.

Dave
 
#63 ·
The weatherman is surely doing drugs. The forecast was backwards for the weekend.

We sailed over to the Corsica with two other boats in the club and saw only 7-12 till we hit the Chester River. From their we saw a steady 18 with gusts to 25 all the way up to the Corsica.

After passing the old Russian embassy summer house we tucked into a nice cove right before Wash Point which has a great bluff of 40ft which offered good protection from the gusty east winds. The wind died and we raft the three boast, a Bavaria 36, a Hunter 38 and our 35. We used our ROCNA as the anchor as both other Captains felt more confident with it.

Had a nice cocktail party/ hors devours and then had dinner on board the Hunter and watched the sunset. Great quiet peaceful spot.

Wind picked up again at 7 AM. Hung out with the Baviaria ( Hunter left at 10.) and we took off.

On our way back down the Chester we saw Clay/ Leslie ( Tango) headed at us and we passed waving. Looking good

We sailed back across the Bay in lightening wind till we finally motor sailed the last 10 miles.

Corsica is a beautiful place to go which is quiet and peaceful.
 
#64 · (Edited)
The weatherman is surely doing drugs. The forecast was backwards for the weekend...
I joked to Ulladh that because of sequestration, NOAA is playing back reruns from prior years. :laugher Their forecasts this weekend certainly seemed to be the opposite of what actually happened.

On Saturday we both ended up in heavy seas that pushed our boats to the limits. We sailed down to Miah Maull Shoal in the forecast 5-10 kt breeze, I had shaken out the prior day's reef because it seemed so benign, things really died for about an hour and then WHAM, it kicked up like crazy with big following seas. I was able to get the main completely down and sailed downwind on genoa alone. I'm glad I was clipped in as the boat heaved like crazy. For over 2 hours I had to have both hands on the wheel at all times. My mouth was totally dry and I couldn't even grab the water bottle. Out of the hundreds of waves, I misjudged one and broached with water over the gunwale (less than a gallon). I pulled the wheel with all my might to recover, and got out of it before the next wave could roll me. Judging by the traffic on Ch 16 and the belated small craft advisories (which were not present that morning), it seemed like the Chesapeake and the Delaware Bays had similar stinky conditions that afternoon.

After my steering chain jumped a link in a brief 20kt blow last year, I did some stuff to reinforce the steering system bracket down below. It held this time without a single jumped link, so I'm glad I reinforced it! Otherwise I am sure my steering sysem would have failed and I would have been in deep doo-doo with my little emergency tiller.
 
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#67 · (Edited)
Here's some video from my 4-day cruise down into Cohansey River and Delaware Bay, this past weekend along with Ulladh. Not particularly interesting video, but it's all I was able to get. I couldn't get my camera out quick enough to catch the eagle I saw, and I couldn't get my camera out at all while singlehanding in the most "interesting" conditions:



Here are a few stills:










 
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#68 ·
We had planned on taking a overnight to Swan Creek, but decided to just do the chore list instead.

From what you folks encountered I'm glad we didn't go. I'm looking for a fairly easy first of the season sail for me and the Admiral. I've already enjoyed a 20-28 (true/apparent) ride on the shake down cruise, don't need that for the fun cruise.
 
#69 ·
We had two great day sails this weekend. Winds did pick up to a max of 18 out in the Bay when we started heading back in. Had a quick run back to the West River. Sunday wasn't nearly as windy for us and once we headed into the South River to explore a little, the wind died completely. It of course decided to get me into a mess of crab pots before puttering out.

Wrote up a more detailed description on the blog HERE.
 
#70 ·
I posted in more detail over on the Delaware River May 2013 thread.

Our Cinco de Mayo sail was a good and challenging way to warm up for the sailing season. The dash back to Cohansey on Saturday was another reminder that my boat is a better sailor than I am.
 
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