|
2023 DELMARVA Reports |
Home
|
Friday, September 29... Student crew arrived 1500: Hector Sanz, Mike McKay, Annette and Bill Cain. Tom conducted a below deck inspection including multi-function plotter, 12 V and 110 AC volt electrical panels and switches, battery selector panel, fire extinguishers, engine, galley personal gear storage lockers, etc. Dinner at Bay Wolf Restaurant. Student crew stayed ashore. Saturday, September 30…. The student crew arrived on board 0830. Captain Tom conducted on deck walk-through inspection including Helm station, cockpit instruments, starboard lazarette, type one PFD try on, engine start and shut down, portside lazarette, MOB gear, preventer, sail ties, reefing ties, sheets and furling lines, whisker pole and rigging, life raft, mainsail sheet traveler, vang, deck fill caps for water, fuel and waste pump out, dodger, bimini, etc. Students took turns directing sail handling procedures following instructions in the training plan. Hector on main sail. Annette on reefing main sail. Bill on lowering the main sail and shaking out reef. Mike on furling head sail. After lunch the student crew worked on navigation preparations for first day of cruise to Swan Creek using paper charts and following procedures described in training plan for logbook entries and Garmin plotter waypoint entries. Student crew assigned as follows for pre-departure inspection procedure #3 per training plan: Mike as navigator, Hector as boatswain, Bill as engineer, and Annette as emergency coordinator. Conducted procedure #3 inspections with guidance from Tom and Brian. At 1600 Hector began as student skipper for 24 hours. Wrapped up workday at 1700. Dinner at Harbor Shack for Brian, Mike and Tom at bar since it was very busy there with a private party. Other crew members declined dinner. Brian slept over on his boat. Student crew slept ashore. Sunday, October 1... Crew arrived onboard at 0830. Student crew conducted training plan procedure #4 pre-departure inspections and activities including water tank filling, securing shore power and stowing shore power cord, securing dock water hose and stowing it onboard, removing sail cover, activating electronics, etc. Underway at 1000 hours. Conducted compass calibration runs in close-by area north of our slip; Tom at helm, Brian as lookout, Mike set up radar plotting sheet on forward deck and marked for each sun observation including eight observations at 45-degree intervals of the steering compass. Calibration results and the deviation table closely paralled results from calibration runs during earlier cruises. Conducted speedo calibration between beacon "LC" and green buoy #1. Annette completed the calibration calculations and results closely correlate with the calibrations that we have done in the past. This calibration factor of 0.85 means that the speed and distances indicated on the speed and distance display should be multiplied by the factor of 0.85 to determine the corrected speed or distance. Motored out the Chester River past the LC channel junction beacon and raised mainsail. Practiced reefing mainsail, controlled gybe, unfurling genoa and staysail, sailing close-hauled, tacking and gybing. Then headed under motor power toward our destination for this evening while Tom prepared sandwiches for lunch and Brian worked with crewmembers individually on navigation bearings, LOPs, fixes, and running fixes. Arrived at Swan Creek at 1600 hours and took mooring #3 as previously arranged for with the Swan Creek Marina. Dinner onboard of chicken stew followed by crew preparations of the navigation plan for tomorrow's cruise to the C&D Canal and Summit North Marina. Berth assignments were Annette and Bill in forward V-berth, Hector on the camping mattress in main salon, Brian on starboard bunk in main salon, Mike on portside berth in main salon, and Tom in quarter berth. Monday, October 2... All crew up at 0630. Underway at 0700 after pre-departure checks per procedure #4. Student Skipper is Hector. Student crew will serve one-hour tricks on the helm in the following order: Hector, Mike, Annette and Bill, and one-hour tricks as on-watch Navigator in the following order: Mike, Annette, Bill and Hector. All crew will tend to their own breakfast and clean up their own mess. Weather was clear and comfortably warm with winds below 10 knots from the northeast. Proceeded out of Swan Creek under engine power, out past Red “6” light at the end of the breakwater to our portside and past Green “5” can buoy to our starboard side. A few crab traps noted but not many. Turned to starboard on course to cross Swan Creek bar past the first range light tower then turned toward Chesapeake channel buoy number R“12” west of Swan Point. Once at the main channel, we turn north up the bay following our way points, which are located outside of the main channel, and leaving the red buoys to our portside. Some areas have shoals to our starboard close to our route and we had to be extra cautious of these areas. Since the winds were light, we proceeded under motor power; Brian continued to conduct visual bearing and LOP training for each student who is off watch, so this was a rotating school class on applied navigation while underway as opposed to lessons taught in a stationary classroom. At 1530 we entered the C&D canal and called Summit North Marina on cell phone to arrange for diesel, waste pumpout and an overnight slip. Arrived Summit North at 1645 and proceeded to the fuel dock where we parallel docked using the docking bridal. Dockhand was impressed with this method, which he had not seen previously. Pumped out the waste holding tank and topped up diesel tank. Undocked by turning the bow out by backing on a forward leading spring from the port stern quarter. Marina assigned us to slip C16 where we docked stern in again using docking bridal on the portside dock cleat at the end of finger pier; needed to shorten up the forward leading spring from midship to match the length of the slip. All crew went to dinner at the Grain restaurant here at the marina, after which we returned to the boat to prepare the navigation plan for our forthcoming cruise down Delaware bay, offshore into the Atlantic and down the coast to Cape Charles, a distance of about 200 miles which will take about a day and a half to complete. Crew sacked out early with plans to arise by 0630 and get underway by 0700. Tuesday, October 3... Crew up at 0630; plan to get underway by 0700, but we were greeted by heavy fog, and Captain called for a one-hour delay in departure. During that time Brian reviewed navigation concepts with students while Tom cooked cheese omelets for breakfast. By 0800 the fog was still heavy, so we delayed departure for another hour to 0900. By then the fog had thinned considerably and visibility was good with still some slight mist. We now went on the 24-hour watch schedule of 6 hours on watch and 6 hours off watch as follows: Hector and Annette from 01 to 07 hours and 13 to 19 hours. Mike and Bill from 07 to 13 hours and 19 to 01 hours. First mate Brian will be serving his watches from 22 to 04 hours and 10 to 16 hours, and Captain Tom will be serving 04 to 10 hours and 16 to 22 hours, and these watches will straddle the student watches by three hours either side of change over. As we departed the marina, Hector was at the helm and Michael was the on-watch navigator. Departed the marina at 0915, turned east and under the Conrail bridge, which was up to the mid-level, and motored at 2400 RPM eastward down the canal to its exit into the Delaware River. Reached Delaware River at 1000 hours and once past the end of the breakwater turned southeast toward our first waypoint when some confusion arose due to the helmsman changeover from Hector to Michael occurring at the same time, but this was straightened out after a few minutes, and we were again on-track down Delaware River towards the bay. On Delaware Bay there was still some very slight mist in the air, but this cleared up gradually during the remainder of the day and by mid-afternoon it was completely clear. Throughout today wind persisted at less than 10 knots directly on our nose requiring that we continue motoring which we did at 2400 RPM. Initially the current in Delaware Bay was against us but by early afternoon it had turned to an Ebb current, and we reached Brown Shoal Light by 1700 hours. The USCG Local Notices to Mariners (LNM) reported that Brown Shoal Light was out, but the structure was in place and appeared to be in good shape as we turned toward the Cape Henlopen waypoint at green buoy “5” at the west corner of the pilot area as twilight approached. Once there, we reset our course to the next waypoint about 35 miles to the south-southeast near the entrance/exit of the ship traffic lanes and continued to motor as darkness fell with clear skies and bright stars. Dinner was Dinty Moore beef stew, augmented with the addition of frozen vegetables, was a welcome treat as we faced the overnight darkness for the next twelve hours. Winds remained light, and we continued motoring along while practicing due diligence with nighttime navigation, watch keeping and boat management. Wednesday, October 4… Weather remained bright and clear overnight and all day today with some wind but not enough to sail effectively. We continued on to our waypoint northeast of Cape Charles but modified the preplanned course per Hector's suggestion to shortcut between Nautilus Bank and Fisherman's Island saving about 5 miles along our route. In late afternoon we arrived at the red and green pair of buoys numbers "10" and "11" just south of the Fisherman’s Island bridge and turned north to pass under the bridge in the fading twilight. At 2000 hours we arrived at the Cape Charles Town channel entrance marked by green buoy “1CC” and turned into the channel. Prior to this we had pre-planned our route through the entrance channel and were well-versed in the various navigational aids and other lights that surround the channel. Bill was at the helm. Hector on the navigation plotter below deck tracking our route in. We had good info on all the NavAids except for the recent addition of the WR “4” quick red buoy. After turning the corner into the final leg, we got off track a bit and inadvertently turned into the commercial dock area, coming close to ramming a multi-pile bollard, but avoiding the collision by a quick high speed reverse gear in response to Brian sounding the alarm. After that we turned around and went further in and came alongside a T-head dock but one of the locals said that a larger vessel was due in to take that spot, so we turned around and backed into a nearby slip again using the docking bridle. We were helped by a former student of the MDSchool, Jesse Schumaker, who had his Island Packet 380 docked in the next slip over. A pleasant surprise! After tying up and connecting shore power some of the crew went out in search of a restaurant and bar to decompress from our two-day cruise. Thursday, October 5 dawned bright and clear. After showers at the marina the crew set to work preparing navigation for the overnight trip up the bay to Annapolis and Captain Tom cooked cheese omelets for the crew while they labored away with the navigation preps. By noon, after completing nav preps and pre-departure checks, we departed slip and headed for the fuel dock where we took on diesel and pumped out the holding tank. After settling up with the marina, we were underway by 1230. Our route out the Cape Charles channel looked totally different in daylight as compared with our nighttime entry and it was a pleasure to see what we had missed in the dark. Weather forecast for today is for winds from the east of about 10 knots, so we took the mainsail cover off and were ready for a pleasant reach up the bay. After a few hours the winds did fill in and we enjoyed a smooth beam reach for most of the afternoon. Friday, October 6… We had an uneventful overnight passage up the bay and decided to skip Annapolis due to the ongoing powerboat show and the weather forecast for Saturday calling for 25 to 30 knot winds as a strong cold front came through the area. Passed under the Annapolis Bay Bridge in the auxiliary channel on the red side. After passing Red “14” buoy in Chester River, Brian taught and demonstrated man overboard recovery drills using the MOB dummy. Following this, Tom directed whisker pole deployment with Brian on foredeck, Hector on starboard side of mast controlling the pole lines, Annette on port side of mast controlling the pole car downhaul line, Bill on windward side deck controlling the pole after-guyline, Michael in cockpit maintaining helm and traffic watch. We smoothly and successfully raised the pole and deployed the genoa using the training plan written procedures, then furled the genoa and derigged the whisker pole. Continued on to Lankford Bay Marina where we pumped out the waste holding tank with Brian doing the honors with the pumpout hose as he is an expert in that skill. Proceeded to our slip and backed in using a Waterman’s spring on portside. Secured boat in slip and connected the shore power electrical. Did not fill the water tank since Navigator has no more cruises scheduled this year and we will soon be winterizing her for haulout. Brian and Tom signed the MDSchool certificates for the DMVA cruise and we held a certificate presentation ceremony at the dock taking pictures of all before their departure. Hector, Bill and Annette gathered their gear and departed. Hector wanted to make it to his brother’s birthday party tomorrow Saturday. Annette and Bill drove south to their home in Yorktown. Michael plans to stay onboard overnight and depart in the morning for the airport. Michael and Tom and Brian went to dinner at Brian's favorite place, the Blue Heron Oyster House.
Captain
Tom Tursi
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Web site design by F. Hayden Designs, Inc.