2020 DELMARVA Reports

This was a highly unusual 106 class, in that we had not one, but two high energy storms pass through our cruising area during the week.  Because of this, we ended up having to totally revamp our cruise.  Fortunately, the changes, while significant, did not hinder the students' learning.

We started on Friday evening, when our four students, Ivan, Ralph, Roger and Steve, showed up to stow their gear and get acclimated to the boat.  Captain Frank Mummert and Mate Steve Nash had already prepped the boat and stored the provisions for the class, so it only required a trip to a local restaurant to get everyone up to speed.  

The next morning started at 0900, with a session of boat familiarization, both inside and out.  The crew found all of the required gear, inventoried the navigational charts, reviewed the food stores and walked through a session of sail handling to get everyone working as a team.  In the afternoon, the crew sat down to prep the navigation plan for the expected trip to the C&D canal and then down to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.  At the end of the day, the crew was given some free time to grab any last minute gear they needed and to have a last meal off the boat for the next week.

Early the next morning, the crew, under the leadership of Ivan, the Skipper of the Day, prepped the boat for the day of departure.  Systems were checked, power cord and hose were stowed aboard and the navigation plan for the day was reviewed.  Since the boat had not been used excessively since the last class, Frank decided to proceed without stopping to pump out, but with full fuel and water tanks.  

Underway, the crew performed a calibration run for the knotmeter and practiced Crew Overboard recovery in the Chester River, before sailing up to the Swan Creek Channel.  Dousing the sails near the entrance to Rock Hall Harbor, Ivan led the crew into Swan Creek and picked up the pre-arranged mooring ball at Swan Creek Marina.  After doing some more of the navigation planning and enjoying a hearty meal, the crew settled down for the evening, knowing that the next morning would come early.

Before the sun was up, Ralph, the new Skipper for the Day, had the crew up and prepping for the underway.  Dropping the mooring ball just as the sun peeked over the horizon, Navigator was soon off and driving down the Swan Creek Channel, fighting into the waves and wind.  Shortly after making the turn out into the Bay, Ralph had the crew set the mainsail with a preventer rigged, then unfurled a jib-sized headsail.  

The initial wind, 15 knots from behind, hurried the boat along its path.  However, as the day progressed, the lessening wind required the unfurling of the full headsail.  As we made our way up the channels to the head of the Chesapeake Bay, the crew practiced taking running fixes, two and three bearing fixes and danger bearings.  Finally, the wind was dead astern and the headsail was furled in, as keeping the boat on a true downwind course without moving the headsail back and forth became harder and harder. 

Around 1600, we dropped the sails altogether and started motoring into the C&D canal.  With the current against us, we couldn’t make great headway and it was almost dark as we finally arrived at Summit North Marina.  Having been told to take any available berth, we tucked into the C Dock T-head and tied up for the night.  Just after getting secured, the leading batch of rain from the first of our passing storms dumped buckets of water on the crew and, with the local restaurant closed, we ordered pizzas and salads to be delivered.

Reviewing the weather forecast for the next day, which called for 35 to 40 knot winds in the Delaware Bay and offshore, we decided to hunker down for a second day and not leave until Wednesday morning.  The crew continued to work on the navigation plan and did the 106 exam, but Captain Frank, in consultation with Captain Tom Tursi and Mate Steve, made the sad decision to scrap the offshore portion of the trip and focus on night sailing in the Chesapeake Bay.

The key to this decision was the uncertainty of the weather forecast for the end of the week.  Once again, a storm was predicted and it was expected to hit the mouth of the Chesapeake early Friday morning.  While it might have been possible to make it through that area before the storm passed, prudent sailors always expect storms to start earlier and end later than predicted.

Faced with this decision, the crew revised their navigation plan and plotted a trip to Cape Charles City down the Chesapeake Bay.  Frank decided to run this program as long as possible, but to ensure the boat was safely anchored before the storm hit.  Skipper of the Day Roger got the crew underway early on Wednesday, after a quick pump out at Summit North.

Back down the bay Navigator flew.  The winds that had come out of the south on the way up had clocked around due to the storm and the boat was now being pushed down the Bay.  Sailing with and against the tide, the crew sailed and, very infrequently, motor-sailed down the plotted track.  The boat was back in the Rock Hall area around nightfall and passed under the Annapolis Bridge and past Annapolis in the dark of the early evening.  

We continued on through the dark and morning found us just north of the confluence of the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River.  Continuing our path found us about five miles south of the Great Wicomico River by 1300 and Frank made the decision to turn back and go into an anchorage he was familiar with in the river.  Skirting past Reedville, the crew brought the boat to anchor off Sandy Point and tucked in, protected around the compass by the surrounding land.  We were, interestingly, the second boat into the anchorage and the other boat was known to our Skipper of the Day.

At about 1700, the wind began to rise as forecast and by midnight, the winds were gusting above 30 knots, even in the protected anchorage.  At 0230, the anchor started to slowly drag and Frank had the crew set anchor watches, one hour at a time, and included himself and the mate in the rotation.  At 0430, a particularly long slide moved the boat about 200 feet and Frank had the engine started, in order to be prepared if the boat slid again.  However, by 0700, the boat had settled its anchor in good and tight and it held the rest of the day, requiring some hard effort by the engine to finally break it out when we did get underway again.  During the night, the highest observed wind gust was 39.2 knots!

With the coming of the dawn, the crew settled down to a breakfast of pancakes and discussed the plan for the day.  Since the storm had come in earlier than predicted, Frank was hoping that it would pass north just as rapidly and the crew, while resting up from the night, prepared the boat for another overnight passage back up the Bay.  As expected, the wind began to decrease at about 1330 and by 1500, the wind and sea state in the anchorage was well below 10 knots and the wind had veered 90 degrees to be coming, once again, out of the south.

Knowing that the conditions might be far different in the Bay than what was observed in the protected anchorage, the crew cautiously stuck their noses out, but the Bay, while still boisterous from the recent passage, was well within the control limits for a solid seaboat like Navigator.  As Skipper of the Day, Steve ran the crew through setting the main, rigging a preventer and putting out a reduced headsail for the run north.

Initially, the sailing was magnificent, but after a couple of hours, a band of rain clouds passed in front of the boat and the downdraft winds from that system stalled out the winds from behind and we were forced to furl the headsail and motor-sail on the main once again.  Fortunately, this condition only lasted a few hours and long before midnight, we were rolling along under mainsail and jib.  The wind had come back up to 15 knots, with gusts to 20 and we were rocketing back up the Bay with fair winds and following sails.

By dawn, we were back near Annapolis and just as the sun peeked over the horizon, we passed under the Bay Bridge and set our path for the Chester River again.  Coming into the river changed our wind direction from on the stern to on the bow and the crew went through multiple configurations of the main and headsail, tacking back and forth across the wind and fighting the now outgoing tide.  Finally bowing to the inevitable, the engine was started and the boat was forced through a one mile turn, until the sails were once again pushing the boat along and up the river.

Just before entering the Lankford Creek, Steve led the crew through striking the sails one last time - a sad event for all concerned since it meant not only the end of this cruise, but of the whole 2021 season for Navigator.  After stopping off for a last pump out and fueling, Navigator returned to her slip and settled in for the long, cold winter.  The crew enjoyed one last photo opportunity before going back to their own lives, exhausted and exhilarated from all they had learned and experienced.