2020 Chesapeake Bay Cruise

 

On September 9, we gathered for our 104 class aboard ACADAME, one of our IP32s, at Langford Bay Marina.  The captain and instructor was Frank Mummert, with Steve, Chris, Trisha and Ryan as the crew of students.  Our goal was to complete yet another circumnavigation of Kent Island and I am happy to report we were successful, despite the many (simulated) perils along the way.

We spent most of the first day preparing our navigation plan, stowing our gear and groceries and operating in the waters around the marina.  We had to ensure that everyone in the crew had the ability to handle the boat, both as the captain for a maneuver and as the crew.  This was especially important because our students were all coming to the boat with different levels of experience and training, so being able to successfully blend into a working team required careful preparation.  That evening, we enjoyed a delicious pasta and zucchini dinner, while answering last minute needs and questions. 

 

Before the sun was up the next morning, we were.  Captain Frank's standing orders were that we be ready to get underway by 0730, which meant people were rolling out of their beds by 5:30, an hour before the sun peeked over the horizon.  Trisha was our first Captain for the day and she led the crew through the first of many checklists for the evolutions we would complete.  As we left the marina, she and Frank decided that one last pump out would not be amiss, especially since we had five people on board and we would not touch land again for over 32 hours.

Just to make things interesting, Mother Nature gave us the opportunity to check out our foul weather gear.  The rain came in sheets at times, but by ten o'clock, we were starting to see breaks in the clouds and by the time we passed north of the Kent Island Narrows, the sun was shining again, although we still didn't have much wind.  It was at that point that Chris reported "I smell smoke." 

Luckily for our little boat, it was just Frank, running the first of many drills on the crew.  Trisha and the crew leaped into action and quickly discovered that the source of the "fire" was an overheated breaker in the 12 volt electrical panel.  A little fire fighting and some repair work got everything back to "ship-shape" and Trisha did a three bearing fix to determine our location.  After she developed her bearing and new course, we were off again for Annapolis.

As we came into Annapolis and headed for the mooring field, the sky had clouded over again and we were hearing thunder from the west.  The rain that commenced just after we picked up mooring ball 40 and paid the Harbormaster didn't dampen our enthusiasm for the dinner that arrived from below.  We dined in the cockpit and watched boats come and go.  We discussed taking a water taxi into town, but nobody wanted to leave our snug harbor.  As we dropped off to bed that evening, we could still hear the sounds of Annapolis, going on around us.  Don't these people know that the sun has gone down and it is time for some shut-eye?

Once again, we were up long before the sun, as Steve took over the duties of Student Skipper for the day and we headed out of Annapolis, followed by YP-700, a training vessel for the midshipmen of the US Navy.  We found it interesting that they were out on 9/11, but we listened to their radio calls as they did a full day of drills and evolutions.  We, too, had a full day as the wind scooted us down the Bay, passing our big sister, NAVIGATOR, on her way home from a DELMARVA circumnavigation cruise.  Just as we rounded the Bloody Point Bar light and headed up into the Eastern Bay, Steve noticed that the bilge pump had been running excessively for a while.  He and Trisha started investigating while Ryan and Chris continued to sail the boat and it didn't take them too long to discover the leak that Frank had deviously started as another training drill. 

We continued on around Rich Neck and into the eastern Eastern Bay, where a shoal guards the mouth of the Wye and Miles Rivers.  Now, most boaters, when they approach this shoal, take the easy and well-marked path to the south, but Frank, wanting to press his crew's navigational and boat handling abilities, directed Acadame around the north end.  This requires finding the narrow opening between two sets of shoals and accurately piloting the boat into the Wye River.  Steve and his crew had more than a couple moments of bated breath, but after successfully managing the tricky maneuver, were doubly proud of themselves.  

We continued on to Saint Michaels, where we stopped for the night at the Saint Michaels Marina after pumping out.  As always, the marina, respecting the quality of our school and our students, gave us a tricky location in which to dock, admitting that they keep the easy ones for people that aren't as well trained as our students.  Steve and his crew proved up to the task and we were soon docked stern in, enjoying showers, cold drinks and good food.

Our departure was delayed slightly the next morning, because we needed to arrive at the Kent Island Narrows bridge at appropriate conditions of tide and current.  This didn't really mean people slept in; we were still all up by 0600.  However, since we didn't need to leave until 0900, it gave us an opportunity for another set of showers and some excellent coffee from the Blue Crab restaurant in town.  

During the night, the wind had come up significantly and as Ryan took over his Student Skipper duties, he observed that, while the forecast may have been for 5 to 10 knots, gusting to 20, it seemed like the current 20 knot gust had lasted for about two hours.  Still, we didn't let it deter us and we were underway, passing back through the cut at the northern end of the guardian shoal and setting a reef in the main, with a jib for the head sail as we headed north to Prospect Bay.  The day was a comfortable temperature, despite the breeze and we were having a fine sail, when Steve fell down the companionway, broke his leg and suffered a concussion!

Relax - it was another drill from Frank, our "disaster master."  Ryan soon had the Coast Guard alerted (simulated) and we were figuring out how to handle Steve's injuries with the gear we had on board, when Frank called off the drill and Ryan performed his own three bearing fix to get us back on track.  As we headed north to the Narrows, we began to wonder if we were perhaps going the wrong direction in some sort of aquatic Indianapolis 500.  Boats of all sizes, shapes and, most importantly, speeds were passing us, headed south.  It took us a while to figure it out, but finally it dawned on us that this was Saturday, a beautiful day and one of the last good weekends of the sailing season.  In addition, the annual snowbird migration of boats going south has started and we passed many large sail and power boats, headed out for warmer climes. 

We got to the Kent Island Narrows Bridge at 1245 and practiced our close boat handling skills as we waited for the bridge to open at 1300.  Since we had a slight following current, we were allowed to proceed first when the opening occurred and we were able to pass the five boats lined up on the other side, waiting to go through.  As we left the Island Narrows area and took the channel back into the Chester, we passed three more large boats, heading in.  It really made us consider turning around and heading south ourselves, but we knew we needed to get the boat back, eventually.....

After passing through the Narrows, we headed back to red 6 in the Chester River and took a few minutes to celebrate our successful circumnavigation.  We weren't done yet with the class, but we had achieved one of our big goals.  We reset the sails, shaking out the reefs in the far more comfortable waters of the Chester and headed north to Comegys Bight.  

The cruising guide we had didn't say much about the Bight, noting that the authors had never stayed there because they liked the Corsica River anchorages better.  However, with the wind continuing to come out of the east, the Corsica would have acted like a funnel, shooting the wind at us if we anchored in our "normal" spot.  Comegys Bight, on the other hand, was well-protected from over 270 degrees, including all of the directions from which we might expect wind.  Of course, Frank, always pushing us to go the extra mile, had us set a two anchor forked moor, adjusting for wind and current.  As dinner was served once again in the cockpit, we watched the sun go down in the west and the stars come out.  We thought about waiting for the moon as well, but a quick check of our navigational data told us it wouldn't come up until after 9:00 PM, far too late for our tired bodies.

Chris was Student Skipper for our last morning and she laid awake most of the night, planning and plotting.  She had the crew up and rolling by 0530 again and the first anchor was off the bottom by 0700, followed by its twin at 0715.  As we headed back down the Chester River to perform some Crew Overboard training, the engine overheat alarm started screaming.  By now, the crew knew where to look and they found Frank with his hand on the button.  Still, Chris and her crew treated it as a true casualty, troubleshooting the problem, while preparing the boat to continue sailing.  The winds had gotten significantly lighter overnight, but there was still enough to ghost the boat along as Chris scanned the shoreline - still shrouded in mists mostly - trying to find some good solid marks to do a two-bearing fix.  When she finally got her position set, she established a new course and we continued on to the area south of the LC daymark, which bifurcates the Chester River from the Lankford Creek.  

This area is our usual "classroom" and Frank put it to good use for Crew Overboard training, setting and dousing sails while our pumpkin-headed crew mate fell over, again and again.  Eventually, the crew threatened to clap him in irons and Frank found it necessary to put him back in the lazarette, for his own good.  Chris found her next navigational mark easily, as her familiarity with this area was much greater and the haze had mostly lifted and we headed back to Langford Bay Marina, to pump out once again, fuel up and cleaned the boat up, turning it over to the next group of students who would brave the dangerous waters around Kent Island.