Lucky Strikes

This past weekend, 5-13, we went sailing.  I mean all weekend.  On Friday (the 13th!!!) we had our good friends, Anthony and Luzma, join us for a day-sail.  They showed up around 1130 with dishes of Peruvian food that Luzma had put together so we sat down for an early dinner.  We hadn't seen these guys since last October so there was a lot of catching up to do.  Around 1400 we cast off and headed out across the Bay, getting as far as R84A at the mouth of Eastern Bay.  The wind was out of the SE at 15 to 20 kts, beautiful day.  Anthony manned the helm for most of the way and we returned home by 1900.  Good company, easy chit-chat, nice day for a sail.

The next day, Saturday, started out with heavy overcast skies and temps in the 60's.  Cheri's nephew, Brian, and his wife, Katie, and their two year old daughter Kaitlyn joined us for a two day sail up to Osprey Point Marina in Rock Hall and back again.  There's a really nice B+B there as well as a 5 star restaurant.  Brian's parents had reserved a room for them at the B+B to celebrate their three year anniversary and we had volunteered to take care of Kaitlyn on the boat.  Yikes!

We got the boat loaded up and headed out around 1100 in the middle of a torrential downpour with lightning flashing overhead.  We had reservations for dinner at 1900 so we didn't really have time to wait it out.  The rain continued until we cleared G83A just outside of Herring Bay.  The sail up to Rock Hall took all of 7 hours with light winds out of the SE for most of the trip.  We pulled into Osprey Point Marina at 1810 with little time to spare in getting ready for dinner.  Cheri pushed our reservations back to 1945 so we'd all have a chance to get settled in.

Dinner was fantastic, a true gourmet delight.  We checked out the kids' room before turning in for the night.  They had two rooms overlooking the marina, a closet and a flushing toilet.  Pretty swank!  Back at the boat the three of us sat up and watched Finding Nemo.  For the rest of the weekend Kaitlyn was searching the Bay for Nemo.  The next morning, after a quick breakfast we headed out for the return trip to HHN.  Winds were 15 kts out of the SSE which gave us a challenge all the way home, requiring tacking all the way down the Bay.  The voyage started with our departure from Osprey Point.  Motoring out of Swan Creek I misread the channel markers and turned at the wrong place and ran aground.  Hitting the side of the dredged channel was like running into a brick wall, almost knocked Cheri overboard.  I backed down hard, dragged the keel out of the mud and continued down the creek like nothing had ever happened.  We ran down to GC#3 (green can #3) under power because the wind was right on our nose.  Once we turned out into the Bay we unfurled the sails and cruised out in light but steady winds at 5 to 6 knots.  Unable to pass straight under the Bay Bridge because the wind was blowing from directly behind it we began a series of tacking maneuvers that would last throughout most of the day.  We tacked four times approaching the Bay Bridge and probably six more times just trying to get down to Thomas Point Light.  Grrr.  Every time I tried to overcompensate to get us additional room to maneuver the wind would shift just enough to throw everything off and we'd end up having to tack again to clear an obstacle. There were about six tankers parked out in the mooring field outside of Annapolis and on our final tack around Thomas Point we were interrupted by four loud blasts from behind us.  One of the tankers was getting underway and we were directly in front of him.  We made a quick turn to port and circled around behind him before continuing on our way.

At this point the wind was still coming directly out of where we wanted to go and a quick glance at my watch revealed that we had wasted the better part of the day tacking all over the place.  It was 1700 and we were still about three hours from home as the crow flies.  We fired up the engine and headed for Herring Bay at 7 kts.  The weather was perfect, mid 70's, clear skies, and we had removed part of the cockpit enclosure to get some fresh air blowing through.  As the day wore on everyone stretched out and took a nap.  Well, everyone but the guy at the helm.

After we passed West River the wind shifted around to the SE and we were able to break out the sails and shut off the engine.  The wind picked up to about 25 kts and we were having a great sail home, heeled over and crashing into the waves.  That's what I'm talkin' about!  This was when I noticed a really humongous cumulonimbus cloud building up to the south of us and some pretty dark grey, almost blue/black, areas directly below it.  I woke everyone up and suggested we get the enclosure back in place because it looked like we might get some rain.  We were able to sail for about an hour more before finally giving in to the need to get home quickly and once again fired up the engine and put the sails away.  At this point it was about 1915.  We were still over an hour from our slip, it was getting pretty late, and the kids had a 90 minute drive home once we got in.

We'd gotten about halfway across Herring Bay when some fairly large rain drops began to pelt the boat.  We were headed straight for Herrington Harbour South which we always do when coming in because they have a really huge white tent set up in the marina that you can see from a hundred miles away.  Now though, as I watched that tent it disappeared behind a wall of rain.  Not two minutes later we were blasted by this tremendous force of wind that came screaming through the bare rigging and spun the boat 90 degrees in a matter of seconds.  There were bolts of lightning hitting all around us (I saw four strike the water) and I couldn't help but think about that 59' tall aluminum mast sticking up in front of us.  I suggested to Cheri that she might get the fire extinguishers out, make 'em handy just in case.  By now the rain was coming down so hard we couldn't see anything beyond the boat and the wind was still howling.  The last thing I saw before the rain hit was the #1 marker out at the entrance to the Bay so I knew vaguely where we were.  I didn't want to drift in too close to shore and we had shallow water on three sides of us so I eyeballed the compass and steered around for 090 to get us headed towards that #1 marker and deeper water.  I kept the engine at 2000 rpm's which was enough to make some headway against the wind and felt like we'd be OK as long as we didn't get hit by lightning.  Said my prayers for help with that.

After a few minutes (seemed like an eternity) the rain slackened and the wind died down.  The sun peaked out from under the clouds just as it began to settle down behind the trees on the western shore.  To the south of us was another wall of rain approaching so I decided to take the break in weather and head for home.  I set our course for R2 where we make our turn for Herrington Harbour North.  As the rain started up again I asked Brian and Cheri to search ahead for the channel marker.  Brian was the first to see it and pointed the way home.  We motored home on a compass course and passed through the harbor entrance just as the marker lights came on.  It was pretty near dark by the time we got into the slip.

The whole weekend was really great.  We visited with some friends we hadn't seen in a while.  We really enjoyed our time with Brian and Katie.  We got to play with Kaitlyn.  I think what'll really mark this trip though is that incredible storm at the end of the day.  Wow!