2016 Chesapeake Bay Cruise

Day 1 - The crew - Hankin, Fred and Mark - spent the morning with boat familiarization, provisioning and navigational planning.  Unfortunately, all day long the winds were in the 20 to 25 knot range, with gusts to 40 knots.  By the time we were ready to depart, the tide had gone out to the point that the boat was occasionally touching the bottom, in the slip.  The crew made the decision that they would rather be in the slip, wishing they were at anchor, rather than the reverse.  With the captain's concurrence, we stayed in port overnight. 

Day 2 - Sun up found the crew awake, fed and ready to go, so by 0800, we were underway.  With the winds still strong out of the north, we had a great downwind run with the mainsail reefed to the first reef point and the headsail reefed down to a jib.  After a fast run down to Kent Narrows area, we furled the sails and motored through the Kent Narrows Bridge.  On the south side of the bridge, sails again went up, this time to the full and we practiced gybing drills in the somewhat lighter air, before turning up wind into Crab Alley Bay and anchoring for the night on a forked anchor relationship. 

Day 3 - Again, we were up before the sun and as it started to break over the horizon, we pulled both anchors under sail and drifted off.  During the night, the wind had dropped to a light 5 to 10 knots and we continued down wind out into the Eastern Bay.  We spent the forenoon and early afternoon performing Crew Overboard drills, as well as fire, loss of engine and flooding drills.  With the wind dropping to zero, we motor-sailed into the channel leading to Saint Michael's, until finally we moored stern to at the Saint Michael's Marina and went ashore for showers and dinner in town. 

Day 4 - We slept in at the dock, getting underway after 0800 and finally getting sails set about 0900.  By now, the wind had died almost completely and we ghosted up the Eastern Bay, with the motor helping us along and the quirky currents making the navigational challenges even more interesting.  In Prospect Bay, we dropped sails and transited once again through the Kent Narrows Bridge.  On the other side of the bridge, the wind had come up to the point that we were once again able to set a full main and genoa, sailing upwind through the Chester River and toward our anchorage for the night.  Halfway up the River, the holding tank began to show indications that it was full.  This caused a change in our careful navigation plan and we headed for Langford Bay Marina and the pump out station there.  By the time we had gotten in and pumped out, dusk was approaching so the the crew voted to spend the night on a convenient flat dock.  

Day 5 - Again, we started out early, shifting out to the LBM mooring field to do some mooring ball work before planning to head out for COB under power drills and more anchoring.  Unfortunately, while performing our mooring ball work, we had a casualty to the engine controls, requiring a return to the dock and a slightly early end to our adventures.  Once tied up, we cleaned up the boat and reviewed some additional casualty response information, including how to deal with leaks, through hull problems and propane leaks. 

Captain Frank Mummert
S/V Scholarship, IP32
October 13, 2016