7/1/2011
Captain Eric Petterson arrived at Lankford Bay Marina at 1100 to check out
Acadame and prepare for the students. At
1330 Tom Veltry arrived, followed by Serban Nicoleascu.
After brief orientations to the boat and unpacking, everyone went to
dinner at Waterman’s in Rock Hall. At
2200 Frank Crumb arrived. At this
point a brief discussion of the week’s activities was held and students
began planning meals and menus before retiring for the night.
7/2/2011
The morning brought an early shopping run to the local grocery store for
provisions. Following this
activity we began thorough reviews of the boat’s systems.
Plumbing, electronics, engine, ground tackle, running rigging and sails
were reviewed. In the process we
cleaned the boat’s knotmeter transducer and raw water strainers.
The dock departure process was discussed, including standing turns and
power maneuvers. Weather
forecasts were obtained and an itinerary for the class was tentatively agreed
to (weather dependent). The
navigation techniques to be used were reviewed, including how to obtain
positions using LOPs and dead reckoning.
From this, the afternoon’s navigation was planned to guide us to our
first night’s anchorage in the Corsica River.
Other lessons discussed included “rules of the road”, harness usage
and safety, weather forecast sources, and anchoring techniques and procedures.
Finally at 1510 we departed in calm conditions and motored to the
anchorage. The anchor was down
and set at 1655, after which dinghy operation procedures were discussed.
Daily student assignments were made of “Capatin”, “Navigator”
and “Engineer/Bosun”, and the responsibilities of each of these roles was
discussed. The next day’s navigation to the Magothy River was completed by
the assigned navigator. Total
distance logged for the day was 7.0 nm.
7/3/2011
During the night a thunderstorm made itself known, so all were able to
experience first-hand the security of an anchor well set with proper scope as
the wind gusted in the storm. Acadame
held her position perfectly! An
early morning departure had been planned by the navigator due to possible
afternoon storms so we raised anchor at 0710.
Winds were again very light so we motored out of the Corsica and into
the Chester River, finally setting sail as we rounded the southern bend of the
river. From here we had a
pleasant sail across the bay in SW 5-10.
After reaching the mouth of the Magothy we were able to practice an MOB
“quick stop” maneuver, as well as reefing procedures for the sails.
Finally we reached the anchorage at the north end of Gibson Island and
had the anchor down at 1310. Lessons
for this afternoon included knots and general 104 knowledge reviews.
Students took the dinghy for brief exploratory tours of the anchorage
area. Total distance logged was
28.1 nm.
7/4/2011
The anchor was up the next morning at 0900 and we were underway.
Winds for the day were forecast to be very light; the weatherman turned
out to be correct. Therefore we
motored down the Chesapeake in 0-5 knot winds, making our way to the West
River. Here we pulled up to a
fuel dock for a pump-out of the holding tank, and then progressed to the Rhode
River for our overnight anchorage where we had the anchor set at 1415.
After anchoring we held an instruction session on the operation of the
diesel engine and how to do basic diesel engine maintenance.
Total mileage for this day was 24.8 nm.
7/5/2011
At 0805 the anchor was up and we were underway again, but again in almost
calm air. We motored out of the
anchorage to the main body of the bay and motored across the bay to Bloody
Point. In the process, the
navigator of the day conducted exercises of our “set” caused by the south
flowing current in the bay. The
results matched very well to the predictions prepared the night before from
the current tables. As we turned
onto the Miles River for the last run of our route to St. Michaels, the wind
picked up nicely and we had a very nice sail for the last several miles.
We arrived at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in a slip at 1315.
After a brief rest and showers, the students took their 104 written
tests and all passed. A
celebratory dinner was held at the Crab Claw Restaurant.
Total miles for the day were 23.2.
After dinner the route back to Lankford Bay was planned
through Kent Narrows, an area of shallow water which requires planning for the
passage based on tides and currents. A
0730 departure time was chosen to optimize the tidal conditions.
7/6/2011
During the morning’s engine check by the engineer of the day, water was
discovered beneath the engine. This
problem was eventually traced to a cracked hose in the raw water cooling
system. With no local sources of
replacement hose available, a temporary repair was finally constructed to
allow us to depart, but somewhat behind schedule.
We pulled out of the slip at 0835 which allowed us to arrive at Kent
Narrows only an hour past our target time, so the passage was still without
difficulty. This was a great
lesson as to why one must conduct daily engine checks.
After passing through Kent Narrows we set sail in the Chester River
back to Lankford Bay, and had the best sailing of the class.
Upon arrival at the marina we managed to get in some more time with
docking practice as well as practice picking up moorings.
At 1515 we pulled into the slip. Mileage
for the day was 24.2, bringing the class total to 107.3 nautical miles.
Captain Eric Petterson
Aboard IP-32 ACADAME
Rock Hall, MD
