May 11th Back Home

Zahniser's is really a great marina.  Facilities are fantastic and the people are so nice.  We came in after hours last night and this was on our spot.

When we were crossing the Potomac, we blew out a connector on one of the pulleys on the travler.  Luckily we were able to rig something up using a block from the genaker.  We got parts this morning and fixed it properly.

As we left Solomons, the sail jammed coming out of the roller furler.  We anchored and I went up the mast to get it unjammed with help from Steve on the lines.

On the way out of Solomons there were lots of boats heading out for a day of sailing. Not sure where they all were yesterday when it was blowing 25.  The Steve sailed a nice line getting as much north as he could and staying fast so we beat them out of the Patuxent.

We also saw three tug boats that were testing out major water cannons as we came out.

Later we figured out why as a huge liquid natural gas freighter came up right in front of us.  The tugs met the freighter and pushed it into the big LNG facility on the western shore of the bay just bellow Calvert Cliffs.  The tugs must need to test their water hoses in case there is a fire around all the natural gas.

It was a bad day for going northwest as the wind was fluky and directly out of the northwest.  We sailed for a few hours in the morning and had one fast hour of sailing in gusty 18 knot winds as we came into Deale.  The rest of the day was a motor sail.  Main and motor with folding blade in the overdrive mode worked well.  Here is an interesting French wooden boat we passed on the way up.   We got a nice French wave from them.

All in all a really fantastic trip this year.  Made the longest run we have ever done all the way to Norfolk.  Hit lots of interesting places - Yorktown, Deltaville, Reedville, Solomons Island.  Weather was generally very good.  Giving us north winds to get down to Norfolk and then south winds to head back up the bay.  The total traveled was 329 nautical miles at an average speed of 5.2 knots.  During the 7 days of the trip, we spent 63 hours sailing and the maximum speed was 10.7 knots surfing down the waves.

May 10th Reedville to Solomons Island

The waitress last night told us about the "save the stack" campaign and how this smokestack in Reedville is their Washington Monument.  It was leaning and bricks had been blown off by lightening but it has now been restored.  So, here is the famous Reedville stack that we cruised by this morning.

Today was a tricky sailing day.  We needed to get Northwest to Solomons Island from Reedville and the wind was very strong directly from the Northwest.  The wind really cranked up as we crossed the mouth of the Potomac.  Steady 25 knots gusting stronger and 3-4 foot waves.  I had been a bit concerned about the mouth of the Potomac so we cured that by crossing it 3 times today as we tried to work our way North and West. 

It was really wild sailing.  Serenity did very well.  We rolled the sails a bit and she really took the waves well.  The Steve and Fast Steve both had a great time in the high wind conditions although they show it differently.

It took 12 hours and we traveled many more than the 40 nautical miles that was the direct course but we made it into Solomons Island.  Staying at Zahniser's again.  Great marina.  Went out with some of Fast Steve's friends from when he lived in Solomons.  Had a great time and a really nice dinner.  Tomorrow - back to Deale but it looks like it will be another day of pushing into the wind.

May 9th - Deltaville to Reedville

Deltaville was really nice.  Here is where we stayed with all the canvas out for the rain.  The pool open yesterday so I was the first in the pool for summer 2012.  I went in all the way up to my shins.

The forecast for today was for rain and some big storms coming through.  We had a weather window in the morning so we decided to get North a bit before the storms hit.  Instead of a longer run, we settled on a 20 mile jump to Reedville, VA that would get us up to just below the mouth of the Potomac but get us in before the storms hit.

 

Reedville is the home port for the menhaden fishing fleet.  We saw several of the menhaden boats coming and going as we sailed up today.

 

When we got to Reedville we saw the main menhaden plant as we came up the river.

Reedville is a really nice little bay town.  We say the Reedville marine railway which is a railroad style set of tracks for building / launching boats from 100+ years ago.  We toured Reedville and went to the fishermen museum which had some really interesting old wooden boats.  

The day was finished at the Crazy Crab - one of the best restaurants we have been to on the trip.   We tied up outside the restaurant to ride out the storms and will start early tomorrow for the long run to Solomons Island.

May 8th Yorktown to Deltaville

Today was really great.  I got up early and caught some croakers right off the back of the boat using the fake blood worm bait.  Here is the before picture:

And here is the after picture:

Really good breakfast.  How many other people on the bay got fresh croaker and pancakes for breakfast.

We were a bit worried about how we would do making it out of the York river this morning because it was a downwind run all the way up the river yesterday.  We lucked out and the wind shifted South and was steady at 15 knots plus.  We had a great run down the river and up the bay.  Waves were pretty small and the bay is still so big here that you can't see the other side.

Today we settled on "The Steve" for Steve D and "Fast Steve" for Steve W as both objected to being called "other Steve."  Fast Steve lived up to his name again today with awesome sail trimming and surfing down the waves again at 9+ knots and successfully outrunning a motor trawler for over 1/2 an hour.

The Steve selected the more difficult shortcut out of the York that saved us several miles and had us piling on the sail even when it kick up to 20 knots toward the end of the sail today.

Another milestone today is that I am not the only one who has run the boat aground.  I don't want to say who it was but as a hint it was not Fast Steve.

We are staying at a nice marina tonight in Deltaville.  The restaurants will send someone to pick you up at the marina so we went into town for a good diner at The Galley and picked up some supplies.  Wind out of the south again tomorrow so we will try to make good progress back up the bay before it switches north again tomorrow night.

May 7 Norfolk to Yorktown

Last night we explored Norfolk.  The Steves did most of the cannon ball trail while I crashed. Here both of them in Norfolk after one Wasabi Bloody Mary. 

Dinner on Granby street at Jewish Mother was OK, not great.  The biggest disappointment however was the many, many mermaid statues scattered throughout the city all of which were inaccurately rendered with bikini tops.

Today we backed out of the marina, popped the sails, and cruised out of Norfolk.  First, we sailed right under the guns of the battleship Wisconsin. Then we circled around a bit on the way out to see tugs push a huge coal ship into position at the loading depot.

.

 

We had great sailing today. We tacked up the channel out of Norfolk back and forth in the freighter and warship traffic. The southeast winds today gave us a ripping ride up the bay and into the York river.  We cruise by Yorktown, saw the monument to the victory over the British from the water.  Then we tucked into a nice cove on the other side of the river to anchor for the night.   

  

We got out the dinghy and went ashore.  We tried to walk to Yorktown but on the way decided that Tyndell's Point was much more critical to the historical events of the Revolutionary War and Civil War (just by coincidence it turned out that the earthen works at Tyndell's point were much closer than Yorktown).  Really nice dinner at River Inn at Gloucester Point.

 

 

Tomorrow, North to Deltaville.

May 5th and 6th Deale to Norfolk

Departure was fairly smooth this year.  Looked like the battery was dead again but it turned out that the guys that worked on the engine left the breaker off.

Out of the marina and on the way by 11:00.  Had some medium light winds and got to fly the genakre (big sail 1/2 way between genoa and spinnaker).  Got into some gusty weather as the storms came through.  Took down the genakre and got consistently good speed the rest of the night.  Somehow we skirted the edge of very slow moving storms and were able to get strong wind but no downpours.

We took shifts sailing through the night.  No moon as the clouds were really thick but visibility was actually pretty good.  Little bit of rain during the night and at one point down towards the Rappahannock, the bay is very wide and with the weather we could not see land, lights, other boats or anything.  Very strange when you are used to sailing on the bay and can almost always see something.  It was really work to steer with no reference at all.

Passed the Carnival cruse ship in the middle of the night.  Took a while to figure out what it was because of how it was lit but not moving.  Got into Norfolk by ~9:30 am so the whole trip covered 126 nautical miles, took 22 1/2 hours and we average 5.7 knots.  We were really flying most of the night. Steve prime hit 10.4 knots surfing the waves on the way into Norfolk.  The boat's theoretical hull speed is 7.2 knots.

Norfolk is interesting, lots of cargo traffic.  The new big ship app worked well all night so we generally knew when they were coming. We saw train cars being driven up a few at a time and loaded onto coal ships.

Lots of military ships too.  We think this one is a fuel resupply ship.

Here is where we are staying in Norfolk.  Right at the waterside in downtown. We classed up the place by drying all of our wet gear on the boom.

 

Got some breakfast after getting in (Sat at the table waiting for food as the whole restaurant rocked back and forth). No plans yet for tomorrow.  We will see which way the wind is blowing when we get up.

Spring Trip 2012 - The Plan

It is time again for a new Spring sailing trip!  I traded in my trusty Catalina 310 Helix on a 2011 Catalina 355 named Serenity.  On the crew list this Spring is Steve, as always, and this year we are taking a back up Steve in case of failure of the primary Steve.  Blog posts may get a bit confusing but I am sure a more refined nomenclature will present itself.

The goal this year is to head further South than we have ever been.  Last year we fell just short of Virginia waters.  This year in halfhearted preparation for a future circumnavigation of the Delmarva Peninsula we are going to attempt a full day / night of sailing on the first day out.  We will try to make it from our home port of Deale, MD to Norfolk, VA in a single run.  This will be a trip of 120+ nautical miles and is more than twice as far as we have ever done in a single run.

 
In Norfolk, we hope to dock right in the center of downtown, near the battleship Wisconsin.  After that run, the agenda is open.  Places that have been mentioned include: Jamestown, Yorktown, Deltaville, Readville, Little Bay, and a possible return to Solomons Island.  The current plan is to start Saturday morning and the wind forecast for what it is worth looks good.