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August 9, 2010
Captain Eric Petterson was on board to welcome students to CELESTIAL
at the Osprey Point Marina in Rock Hall. Students Jim Samuels, Peter
Girling, Yda Schreuder, and Richard Sloan all arrived between 1600 and
1700. After appropriate introductions and a brief orientation to CELESTIAL
we began preparing for the week’s adventure. First was to review class
objectives, itinerary, standing orders, watch schedules and daily roles
and responsibilities. Captain Eric also passed out various checklists, one
of which listed all the work items that must be accomplished prior to
getting underway. Everyone then jumped into one of the most difficult
assignments of the week, which was to plan daily menus and meals, most of
which would have to be prepared and served while underway. An enjoyable
dinner ashore was taken at Waterman’s restaurant in Rock Hall.
August 10, 2010
After breakfast at the Rock Hall Snack Bar we all went shopping at the
Bayside grocery store in Rock Hall. Once back on board, and after all the
food items were stowed away, the students began an intensive review of all
boat systems, both below decks and above. In addition to the mainsail,
staysail and genoa of CELESTIAL, this review included a test
setting of the storm trysail and the spinnaker. Captain Eric made daily
student assignments of captain, navigator, engineer, and bosun/emergency
coordinator, giving each student time to act in the various roles of
staffing a sailboat for offshore sailing. Eric also assigned names to the
watch schedules. Other instructional items included reviews of
rules-of-the-road, weather radio station planning, man-overboard
techniques, and sail trim.
Finally we took a
break for dinner, which was an excellent meal prepared on board. After
galley clean-up was complete, Captain Eric led a planning session on the
navigation techniques to be used for the week, which included pre-planning
of courses and distances to various aids-to-navigation, supplemented by
LOP’s for fixes and dead reckoning. With Eric’s direction, the
navigator for the first day’s journey completed the navigation plan, and
our very our busy day of preparation was complete.
August 11, 2010
We left the slip at
0730 and motored north up Chesapeake Bay towards the C&D canal. Winds
were from the north at 5-10 knots, but dropped soon after departing to 5
or less. As we passed Still Pond in the northern end of the bay, we
stopped for lunch and a little anchoring practice. After lunch we also
conducted some "standing turn" exercises under power. As we
continued north, the winds backed to the northwest and increased to 5-10
so we were able to sail from 1400 to 1500 before the winds dropped off
again. We arrived at Summit North Marina, which is just off the C&D
canal, at 1820. Dinner was again prepared and served on board. After
dinner the navigation planning was begun for the entire passage down the
Delmarva coast to our next destination, which was Hampton, VA.
August 12, 13 &
14, 2010
After completing the
navigation plan and completing our offshore pre-departure checklist, we
pulled away from the dock at 1215 confident that all was in order for our
coming offshore and overnight sails. The forecast wind was to be from the
east at 10-15 with gusts to 20, so with a southeasterly course we were
hoping for some close-hauled sailing or motor-sailing. It was cloudy with
very little wind and a bit of light rain, but as we turned into the
Delaware Bay the winds began increasing dramatically and coming from the
southeast… right onto the bow of the boat. Furthermore when the current
was against the wind, the seas became very steep, making the passage down
Delaware Bay a difficult and somewhat uncomfortable trip. These conditions
continued until we neared the mouth of the Delaware when the winds finally
began to back somewhat to the east at the same time that our course turned
slightly to the south! We began sailing!! We passed Cape Henlopen around
2400 sailing nicely close-hauled in 15-20 knot winds from the east. As the
winds continued to increase and our course turned to the south, we found
ourselves sailing a vigorous, but comfortable beam reach. As the winds
reached 20-25 we reefed the main, furled the genoa completely, and
deployed the staysail. Under these sails the sailing was still quite
comfortable in spite of the 6-8 foot seas.
As the day of
Friday, August 13 progressed the winds began to drop, but not before we
were faced with another challenge. We experienced the loss of a clevis pin
from one of the mainsheet blocks, allowing the boom to swing wildly. After
a few minutes we were able to get the boom under control, install a
replacement shackle for the mainsheet block, and restore order to the
mainsail and rigging. However in the process of this repair, an unrelated
block pulled off the staysail boom. Finally we regained control of the
staysail boom, but this gear failure made the staysail unusable until a
better repair could be made. So finally we completely furled the staysail
and sailed under a reefed genoa and reefed mainsail. Friday the 13th
lived up to its reputation, but we demonstrated that even gear failure can
be repaired offshore with proper preparation of spare parts and a calm and
paced approach to solving the problem.
As we continued
south and neared the mouth of the Chesapeake the winds continued to drop,
finally reaching 10-15, but still from the east. Around 2400 we began to
reach the area of the mouth of the Chesapeake, with all of its multitudes
of lighted buoys, lighthouses and city lights. As we began making our way
through the myriad numbers of lights and buoys our navigator was put to a
significant test, tracking our progress and identifying the various
aids-to-navigation. With everyone’s assistance and attentive sightings,
we made our way through the bay entrance and past several large ships,
both at anchor and underway. Finally the sun began to rise as we neared
Old Point Comfort and turned towards Hampton, where we arrived and were
tied up in our slip at Downtown Hampton Public Piers at 0745.
After CELESTIAL
was safely tied in place, the first orders of business were showers,
followed by breakfast, followed by naps. The afternoon was then filled
with planning the navigation to Annapolis, and with a review/instruction
of ASA106 knowledge skills held by Captain Eric. Dinner ashore was only
steps away at a restaurant named "Oyster Alley".
August 15 & 16,
2010
CELESTIAL
departed her slip at 0905 on our journey north to Annapolis. After
clearing the harbor we set sail in southeast winds of 5-10. Then at 1120
we rigged the spinnaker and sailed until 1430 when it was doused as winds
increased to 12-15 and the sky began to darken. We continued on with main
and genoa, giving us opportunities to practice setting a preventer and
executing an s-gybe. As we crossed the Potomac River area just north of
Smith Point, the weather forecast began to call for gusty winds (up to
25), so we furled the main and sailed only under the genoa for ease of
control during the night. The sail remained quite comfortable, and the
forecasted gusty winds never developed. Finally at 0930 we arrived in
Annapolis and picked up a mooring, having sailed the entire length of the
bay from Hampton.
After the obligatory
showers and naps, some students took their ASA106 tests. All passed. A
celebratory dinner ashore was enjoyed by all at Galway Bay Irish
restaurant.
August 17, 2010
Left our mooring in
Annapolis and motored over to the Annapolis City Marina for fuel and a
pump-out. After this chore was completed, we pulled away at 0840 and
motored to Rock Hall in winds from the north-northeast of 5 knots. We
arrived back at our starting point for this journey at Osprey Point Marina
at 1200. After packing and boat clean-up we said goodbye and marveled once
again on the great experiences of this voyage. |
