Ahhh, September Sailing

September is one of my favorite months.  While I have mixed feelings about the month because fall is starting to set in which means cold weather approaching, it also provides some of the best sailing weather.  Warm days, cool nights, decent wind, usually NO thunderstorms like July and August on the Bay.  And it reminds me of my days in college and right after graduation when I'd often find myself sitting down by the sailing center looking out over the river as the sun set.

So with that background information here's what Carol and I did last week.  While we have daysailed a lot and even overnighted on our boat and others we had not taken a lengthy trip just cruising.  In fact, other than a week I spent in the Spanish Virgins with some sailing buddies I had never cruised before; it's always been racing or a delivery.  So with a week's worth of vacation and a great weather forecast....off we went.

Friday the 13th was the first day of our cruise.  (Yes we set out on a Friday and on the 13th; talk about tempting fate!)  We sailed down to our friend's Rick and Lori's house outside Annapolis and tied up on their mooring ball and had CRABS!  Rick catches them and puts them in his floating box till he gets enough for  a real meal.  Saturday the four of us took off in the NASS Race to Oxford with 130 some other boats.

Just a few of the spinnakers flying down the Bay.  Wharf Rat is the blue spinny at the far left and WIDOWMAKER is the white spin w/ the spider.  Two Naval Acad. boats w/ their blue and gold spins.




This was our first venture into spinnaker racing in PHRF B.  Needless to say we did not place well but we had a great time, flew the Red, White and Blue spinny and even did a gybe and takedown flawlessly; somewhat of a surprise given that we were shorthanded and the ladies were not schooled in spinnaker 101.

 Carol on the wheel, Rick trimming and Dave contemplating!



Here's a pic that our friends at SPINSHEET took of us unbeknownst to us.

So we get to Oxford, raft up w/ our friends on WHARF RAT and WIDOWMAKER, two boats I've previous served as bowman on for offshore and Chesapeake racing.  Fun time had by all!  And unlike some past Oxford races the party on shore was pretty tame.
Sunday we set sail heading south.  This was our only day in 9 days of cruising where we had to beat to windward.  Reedville was out of the question so we put into Solomon's and anchored out for the night.

Monday we took off under gray skies, the only day all week that looked sorta ominous.  Felt a dozen or so raindrops but never got wet.  Being as the wind was almost right on our arse and we couldn't keep the jib or the asym full going DDW, we finally went w/ just the main.  Even then we were almost never below 6.5 knots SOG since we caught the ebb tide.
Part of the reason for our visit to Reedville was to look as some property.  Neat lot, lots of shoreline but not so neat house.  We did tie up to their dock for the night so that was cool.  I also discovered the source of the water in the bilge that had been bugging me for the past week; the packing gland needed tightening and so Tuesday morning we put into Jennings Boatyard and Charlie fixed the problem right away.  (My wrenches just weren't big enough)  Or maybe I wasn't muscled enough...

Anyway, that issue dealt w/ off we went heading to Deltaville.   Now Deltaville was, and somewhat still is a HUGE Boatbuilding town.  Several marinas and yards and a mix of power and sail boats.  We sprung for the nightly docking fee at Deltaville Marina and borrowed their one speed bikes to ride into town.  First stop West Marine b/c you always need something there and then off to dinner at The Galley.  Or at least that was the plan.  We hadn't ridden very far when first Carol's chain popped off the rear wheel, then mine.  And thus started the dance; we'd pedal a ways, a chain would pop off, we'd coast to a stop, hop off, put it back on and pedal some more.  Oy Vey.

Wednesday we hooked up w/ a realtor and went looking at property; saw some neat houses, but they really didn't FLOAT OUR BOAT so to speak.  To say nothing of the fact DIANTHUS wouldn't have floated in the shallow water either!  Finally we shoved off about 2:30 and started sailing.  Sorta.  The wind was light but steady and as evening approached we were moving along nicely if slowly.  Carol made yet another tasty meal as evidenced below.

The moon came up and it was such a nice night I decided to keep on sailing right past the Great Wicomico river and Reedville.

Carol caught some Zzzzzzs for a few hours and then joined me after midnight.  We eventually made our way back to the Solomon's and anchored out just down from where we had a few days earlier.  And fell into our bunk at 5:15am!
After catching a few hours sleep and pumping out our new holding tank which was almost full, and a quick trip to the Calvert Marine Museum and West Marine (see the pattern here?) as well as smoothies from Roy Rogers, we stopped in to see Clark @ Quantum sails to discuss how I can spend lots of Boat Units.  

Departing Solomons Thur afternoon we cleared Drum Point and headed north.  Being daring, and since the wind was too far aft to fly the asym we put up the RWB spinny.  By ourselves.  Made nice time up the Bay and saw another gorgeous sunset and moonrise.  And just the two of us did a takedown w/o even getting the kite wet! 

Thursday night we anchored outside the entrance to Herrington Harbour South in Rose Haven, an area I knew very well from sailing there w/ my sailing club over the past years.   And just the spot to anchor out and watch the HHS 4th of July fireworks.  Slept in, and then had the bright idea to motor into the marina, borrow the key to the head that our friend George keeps on his boat and freshen up w/ a shower.  Sure felt good!
Eventually we headed north to Annapolis w/ the idea of catching up w/ friends but they were busy.  Called Rick and Lori to have them meet us in town but they had a better idea; come on back to theire house and have more crabs!  Plus two other couples were coming that we knew.  Cool! More the merrier.  So back we went for more crabs. 

Saturday was blustery and we had a short sail back to our marina so we just used the jib and made decent time.   Final tally was 310 miles over 9 days and about 14 hours on the engine, most of which was going in and out of anchorages.  All told we probably only motor-sailed about 3-4 hours the entire week.

Carol and I both agreed w/ needed another week.  But alas, work awaited me on Sunday; for Carol on Monday.  

RACING:

Oh the highs and lows.  Earlier this year (see previous posts on Excuses) I raced and sailed too long a course thus costing myself a few places in the Wednesday night race.  Over the course of July and into August I was much better, even beating out a faster boat on corrected time. In fact I did well enough that I won the 3rd series of Wednesday night races.  July and August sailing is usually pretty crappy; hot, little or no wind but the Wednesday night races have generally been pretty nice.

Two weeks ago was the MARYLAND YACHT CLUB CHALLENGE.  MYC is just down the creek from my marina and they ran a pursuit style race where everyone starts at different times based on your handicap rating for the length of the course.  Slow boats start first, fastest boat last; the idea being that theoretically everyone would finish together.
Rick and Lori were crewing for me and while the skipper almost blew the start and was 10 seconds late for our start time we sailed a good race and held off a late charge upwind and a dying, shifting breeze to take the gun for the NonSpin class.  Only we didn't get the "gun".  The RC didn't realize we were the first NS boat to finish and gave the gun to Caribbean Magic!  


Regardless, that Friday night was the dinner and I got a nice shelf ornament.  We even got a nice write-up in the Capital Gazette.



Then Saturday was the Boatyard Bar and Grill Regatta to benefit CRAB.  72 boats were entered in the various classes and SPIN/NONSPIN.   With George, Bob and Shawn as crew we had a splendid day on the water and finished a respectable 14/42.  Sailed back that evening and rode the flood tide from the Bay Bridge all the way to Sparrows Point.  Beautiful evening, moon rising over the Eastern Shore and a fast ride.
65 miles total for the day.  Phewww!

PROJECTS

Winter projects.  Well, the fact that it's the end of August and I'm just now posting this should tell you that I've either been A) REALLY busy  or B) really lazy  or C) both.  Actually, now it's already September but I started this post in August.  See, I told you I was busy!

So when DIANTHUS was built it wasn't a problem to have a thru hull that threads onto a ball valve.  However that does not meet ABYC  standards and I really didn't feel comfortable w/ this arrangement so I removed the three in the V-Berth and replaced them w/ brand new GROCO thru hulls and ball valves mounted on a G10 fiberglass disc I epoxied into place to spread the load.  Looks like THIS:

Now I'm in the process of putting in a holding tank to replace the bladder the boat came with.


And to make it easier to access the sink drain seacock and offshore flush valve I cut an access door that I am in the process of trimming out and putting a door on.

Meanwhile I bought new VPC halyards and spliced them myself.  

Did the same on some spin sheets too. Like so:

The yard put on a MISEA Led Tricolor/anchor light which will use a lot less battery power and is wayyyy more visible.  I also had them wire up the engine hour meter I installed as well as the battery monitor.  When you only have 190 Ah's of juice you need to keep an eye on how much you use!

Come spring time Carol and I compounded and waxed the hull one nice April Saturday.

Life wasn't all work and no play.  We did find time to go to Rob Floyd's Annual Sock Burning Party which takes place around the Vernal Equinox.

This is a particularly "Annapolis" like tradition.  Time to burn those smelly socks you were forced to wear all winter b/c it was COLD and now that spring has sprung you can go back to being sockless.
Of course some of us always wear socks.  Just the way I am.