This was one of our first 104 classes this year, so we were still in a break-in period. However, the loss of one of the students to a family emergency made the class more of a cruise, since the two remaining students, Diane and Dan, were old hands at sailing with Captain Frank and we were able to concentrate on the skills that most interested them. The weather for this class was highly variable, as is often the case in May, and the result was a collection of sailing experiences.
ACADAME left Lankford Bay Marina under cloudy, rainy skies, after a late morning departure to put in the first reef at the dock. The winds were strong and gusty from the East and the boat tripped along, sailing beautifully under single-reefed main and jib. At times in the Chester River, we saw over 7 knots indicted on the knotmeter and the intermittent puffs of rain kept captain and crew alert.
As we came around the south end of the Eastern Neck wildlife refuge, we gybed over and went from a beam reef on the starboard tack to an easy broad reach on the port. Once past the red 6 buoy in the Chester, we hardened back up to a close reach and continued flying toward our destination, the mooring field in Swan Creek Marina. After dousing the sails outside the Rock Hall Harbor channel, we continued up to the Swan Creek Marina Mooring Field, where we passed our sister ship, Scholarship, on mooring ball 1 and picked up ball 3 for ourselves. We settled in for a rainy evening, but the weather started clearing and by sundown, all was well..
Morning found us dropping the mooring ball just after dawn, with Dan on the wheel and Diane on the bow, calling the shots. We were soon out of the marina and headed south, with the now puffy northern breeze just ruffling the surface. We were soon out in the Bay proper and headed for the Love Point safe water mark, where we turned south for the Eastern Channel of the Bay Bridge right on schedule. We were soon under the bridge and headed for the Red Buoy #88, and on down to the Bloody Point Bar Light.
Rounding the southern point of Kent Island, we found no more wind than before, so we continued to motor up into Eastern Bay. We rounded the tip of Tilghman Point and cut across to the Wye River, where we used a navigational technique of following the fathom line to work around the point and into the Wye River proper.
We headed south out of the Wye and into the Miles, where we turned west to get into the Saint Michaels Marina area. We stopped for fuel and to pump out, then shifted over to our slip, #35, where we moored stern in, starboard side to. A few hours later, we greeted Scholarship as she took the slip next to us and the two crews enjoyed a delicious dinner at the Blu Miles restaurant.
After a hearty breakfast the next morning at the Blue Crab restaurant, we proceeded to get underway. Unfortunately, the weather had turned very variable and the sky would be blue and sunny for an hour, squally and rainy the next.
We stopped in the Eastern Bay for navigation training and did some three bearing fixes for the practice. Diane had never done these and her skill quickly improved as she performed the tasks. After we had successfully determined our location, we plotted a new course for our next waypoint and we were underway and making way again.
We succeeded in passing through the Kent Narrows bridge on the noon opening and Dan kept the boat in the channel as a wicked 2 knot current tried to push us out. We were able to stop at the Red 6 buoy in the Chester River, to celebrate our successful circumnavigation of Kent Island in pleasant weather, but we were soon under the rain and cold wind of another squall.
We decided to continue on to Comegy’s Bight, just off the north side of the Chester River, where we dropped an upstream and downstream anchor for a Bahamian moor. The chilly breezes still blew across the water as we enjoyed our dinner, but we were hunkered down and warm below before the sun dipped below the horizon.
Morning dawned cloudy and with little more breeze. We pulled the anchors and started motoring back to Langford Bay Marina, where we pumped out and returned to our slip. Both Dan and Diane had stretched their skills and felt they were a much better team for their efforts.
