2023 Chesapeake Bay Cruise

 

25-OCT-2023:  The crew reported aboard at 0845 and after a round of introductions, began the day’s instruction with a review of the course curriculum, an inspection of SCHOLARSHIP’s systems and an inventory of her equipment in preparation for their cruise on the Chesapeake.  With all confirmed to be in order, our crew joined the crew of ACADAME in the school classroom for a viewing of our YouTube Navigation Preparations for an Advanced Coastal Cruise.  Captain Brian then led the crew through a step-by-step demonstration on the use of the navigation triangle, parallel rulers, and dividers to plot courses for the following two days.  He reviewed the utility of the USCG Light List, Coast Pilot, Local Notice to Mariners and how to reference each publication to find relevant information along the planned route.  Once the crew had the rhythm down for researching and plotting, Captain Brian made a run to the local grocery store to finish shopping for provisions.  On his return we packed away the food, additional equipment needed for the cruise and set off into Rock Hall for dinner at the Blue Heron Oyster House.  Joined by some members of ACADAME's crew, we closed down the house  enjoying interesting conversation about past journeys, tales of sailing and Chris’s witty jokes.   

26-OCT-2023:  The crew mustered aboard at 0900 to a beautiful Fall day with temperatures in the mid 60’s, but little wind.  Captain Brian reviewed the step-by-step process of performing a check of all ship’s systems and function of the sailing hardware.  We cast off lines from Langford Bay Marina at 1100 bound for Annapolis and motored down the Chester River with the crew taking turns performing cross bear LOPs and running fixes.  After rounding Loves Point, we discussed considerations for entering and leaving foreign ports, medical emergencies, Rules of the Road, watch keeping and maintenance of ship’s systems as we transited down the Bay and navigated under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.  Following the planned route, SCHOLARSHIP passed the R"2" buoy into Severn River, steered through the channel into Back Creek and successfully docked in their reserved slip at Horn Point Marina.  The crew freshened up for a night on the town and set off on a quest for fresh scallops.  The storied Boatyard Grill in Eastport delivered with a steaming pile of Cape Hatteras sea scallops over a mound of linguine drenched in jet black squid ink.  All were impressed, Chris was delighted! 

27-OCT-2023:  The crew arose at 0700 and was treated to a fantastic view of sunrise from the Horn Point Marina seawall.  The marina is host of Oscar’s Coffee, which is run out of a small trailer in the parking lot serving fresh, made-by-the-cup coffee.  Oscar’s was conducting a survey that morning, serving tastes of their homemade personal-size pies in exchange for customers opinions on which was best.  There was no consensus among the crew on this point and since the Captain is always right; pumpkin pie was declared the winner.  We cast off her lines at 0900 and the crew motored up Back Creek to practice picking up and departing from a mooring buoy.  The crew took turns at each position, with all having a chance at the helm on approach and departure, capturing the pendent and rigging a mooring bridle.  Following the drills, we departed Back Creek and chartered their first waypoint on our route to Tilghman Island, MD.  It was another beautiful day with temperatures in the mid 60’s and winds from the South at 5-10 knots.

Once in the Severn River, we set mainsail and genoa and rounded Tolly Point Shoal on a starboard beam reach into the Chesapeake Bay.  On rounding the point, we began tacking to windward, plotting a course to pass Thomas Point Lighthouse close aboard to starboard.  We encountered our sister ship ACADAME in a crossing situation, with both vessels on starboard tack and ACADAME upwind.  The crew discussed the Rules of Road governing sailing vessels and correctly determined that SCHOLARSHIP was the stand on vessel.  SCHOLARSHIP held her course, and as expected, ACADAME tacked to give way and passed to SCHOLARSHIP’s stern, both crews giving a friendly wave hello.  Shortly after passing Thomas Point, the winds calmed causing us to motor-sail to arrive at Tilghman Island before sunset.   

As we proceeded down the bay, we discussed emergency procedures and the crew correctly responded to a simulated flooding and fire situations, performed more cross bearing and running fixes, and successfully demonstrated the use of a danger bearing on the turn south of Poplar Island toward Knapps Narrows.  Paying close attention to depth, the crew successfully navigated into the Narrows and tied up alongside the dock at Knapps Narrows Marina where we had reserved a space for the evening.  After a long day of sailing, the crew relaxed as they admired an incredible sunset and then ventured off to explore the small island town.   

We settled on the Marker 5 restaurant for dinner, which was celebrating their closing day for the season and was hopping with the locals.  The crew found an excellent spot along the Knapps narrows seawall overlooking the Tilghman Island Drawbridge and became lost in interesting conversation deep into the evening.  The night was capped off with a round of Castoroides, enormous chocolate cherry brownies named after the prehistoric bear-sized giant beavers that inhabited this island in the Pleistocene era – yum! 

28-OCT-2023:  Reveille came too early at 0700.  Ron compensated for the grogginess with a delicious scrambled egg breakfast as the rest of the crew plotted a course to round Poplar Island into the Chesapeake, up Eastern Bay and down the Miles River to St. Michael’s, MD.  Also, due to the popularity of the marina’s dock with the local waterfowl, SCHOLARSHIP was in desperate need of a washdown before getting underway.  With the course plotted out and a clean deck the crew made a visit to the marina’s small general store before casting off lines at 0930.  It was another beautiful warm fall day, with no wind to speak of.   

We navigated SCHOLARSHIP to open water south of Poplar Island, set the mainsail and genoa, and conducted man overboard drills with all hands successfully performing a single-hand recovery of the sodden Ichabod mannequin.  We then continued on our chartered course to St. Michaels, motor-sailing under full mainsail.  On the way, we discussed the joys of boat maintenance, contending with medical emergencies at sea, adjusting sail trim for varying wind conditions and various anchoring techniques.  Putting their anchoring discussions into practice, the crew found a spot in the crowded St. Michael’s South Anchorage and successfully set the anchor in 17 feet of water, hailed the local water taxi on the VHF radio, and ventured off for an evening of reverie ashore.

St. Michaels was buzzing with energy and fantastical characters with the town’s Oysterfest in full swing, a local adult Halloween-themed town-wide scavenger hunt and the presence of a 17th century Portuguese pirate ship docked at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  The crew had a blast exploring the over-the-top decorations adorning the town, watching the antics of the costumed partygoers from a dockside table at Foxy’s Harbor Grill while enjoying dinner and an assortment of Foxy’s cheesecakes.  Consensus of crew was that the cherry-flavored cake was the tastiest, reminding them of the delicious beaver brownies from the night before.  The return ride to SCHOLARSHIP demonstrated the difficulty of locating your boat at night in a crowded anchorage where all mast top anchor lights look the same.  Luckly, the captain of the water taxi remembered the crew of SCHOLARSHIP from the ride ashore and picked her out from the other dark shapes in the cove with no problem at all.  The crew then settled in for a peaceful night at anchor.   

29-OCT-2023:  The crew awoke to cool crisp morning, a fantastic sunrise and a promising wind building in the east.  Prior to departure, Captain Brian demonstrated rigging, deploying and recovering a Bahamian moor anchor combination.  Due to the narrow channel up the Miles and the planned transit through Kent Narrows, SCHOLARSHIP navigated up the river under motor alone.  Chris impressed the crew by deftly contending with an enormous deadhead log floating just beneath the surface, prompting discussions on the emergency procedures for dealing with flooding aboard and a simulated drill to contend with an unexpected parting of the backstay.  Ernest successfully piloted the boat through the Kent Narrows bridges and the shallow snaking turns in the entrance to the Chester River. 

Once in the Chester, we set the mainsail and genoa and were able to spend a brief moment cruising under sail alone until rounding the bend to the North where the winds again died to a standstill.  We furled the genoa and proceeded to home port motor sailing under a full mainsail.  We finished the final leg of our journey with discussion on weather at sea, navigational aids, Rules of Road and sail trim.  On entering Langford Creek, the crew secured the mainsail, filled up with diesel at the Lanford Bay Marina fuel dock and completed the final checklists to close up SCHOLARSHIP for the end of the cruise.  Those that needed to take the ASA104 exam successfully completed the test and the crew said their farewells with hopes to cross paths again in the future.