A Bit of a Breeze

Chart for Bay area outside Rock Hall

Last weekend (10-12-12) we sailed up to Rock Hall, Md. to attend a festival of some sort.  Beer, food and music for the most part.  We departed Herrington Harbour North around 1100 on Friday morning with clear skies and 18 to 20 knot winds out of the NW.  Running close hauled we were aiming for a straight shot up the Bay and through the Bay Bridge but we were fighting the wind the whole way, pointing up every time the wind veered a little to the west.  As we got into the cluster of large ships anchored outside of Annapolis the wind got funky on us, dropped to 10 knots and clocked around the compass.  We were unable to clear the bow of an anchored tanker so we fell off, steered downwind, and went around the back side of her.  When we came out of the tanker's shadow on the other side the wind blasted us at 35 knots out of the N.  We were under full main and full genoa and it didn't take long to decide to reduce sail, furling the genoa to about 60%.  Approaching the southern span of the Bay Bridge we had to tack several times to get between the #28 - 29 pylons (clearance 119', Bridge clearance info) and once again the wind got squirrelly on us.  I guess the bridge creates a barrier to the wind even though it looks like it's full of holes.

After we cleared the Bay Bridge we were immediately slammed with a constant 40 knot wind out of the north, gusting to over 45 knots.  We rolled up the rest of the genoa, reduced the main to about 60% and brought out the staysail at 100%.  This gave us a nicely balanced helm and the boat was only heeled over about 15 to 20 degrees.  We were able to make about 8 knots (SOG, speed over ground) but about every 7 or 8 waves we'd get hit by two big ones in a row and our forward momentum would get knocked back to about 3 knots.  Some of the waves were so big we'd take green water over the bow and we'd have rivers of water running around the cockpit coaming and pouring off the leeward side.  With the wind and the waves coming out of the north we were on a course of about 050 but we were also getting pushed towards the shoreline of Kent Island.  Check out this video we shot (click here).  In an effort to get closer up into the wind I adjusted the main to flatten it out a bit.  I leaned out over the leeward rail to get a better view of the sail and saw my knife (anniversary gift, coolest knife ever) fall from my belt and bounce into the Bay.  At the same time I saw our boat hook float by.  Sheesh (or words to that effect).  Every time we got hit with a big wave we'd lose ground and it eventually became clear that we weren't going to clear Love Point.  If we came about we'd probably stall out and I didn't want to take any chances of being driven closer to shore so we started up the engine and drove further out towards the middle of the Bay on course 020, just enough off the waves to prevent being pounded too badly.

Once we got out to the middle I felt like we had enough room to safely clear the shallows off Love Point.  We killed the engine and resumed our course of 050.  About half way in to Rock Hall we heard a loud crash from down below.  Cheri went down and found that my French coffee press had taken flight and exploded against the cabinets.  Glass was everywhere.  Looking around she also found that our large container (2 gallons) of water had been punctured and had drained itself onto the aft bunk.  Nice mess. I really thought we had done a better job of securing things before we left.  The wild ride continued as we rounded GC #3 outside of Rock Hall.  We secured the sails and ran in the rest of the way under power.  The wind didn't begin to let up until we were inside the entrance to Swan Creek and even then it was still blowing 30 - 35 knots.  We came into Osprey Point Marina and had a terrible time pointing up into the wind to get into a slip.  The Dockmaster was yelling "This slip here.  Oh.  How 'bout that one? Oh.  Maybe that one.  Oh.  Take anything you can get into except that one there."  We ended up backing into the wind and with the help of about 5 or 6 folks on the dock we got into a slip.  We were totally exhausted at this point.

So, perhaps you're wondering why we continued to run under sail instead of using the engine.  There are several good reasons.  First of all, under sail the boat is pressed into the water by the force of the wind and the sails and the weight of the keel hold it steady making the ride much more stable.  Without the sails up she'll bob all over the place and that makes for a very uncomfortable ride.  Second, we probably sail faster than the engine could take us in those conditions.  After passing under the bridge we followed a large catamaran that was headed in the same direction.  Before long the skipper decided he'd had enough and secured his sails and ran under power.  That cat was all over the place, having a very rough ride, and we blew past it with just the power of the wind.  'Nuff said on that.  Third, fuel consumption was an issue for us.  We were under a quarter tank when we left Herrington that morning and I wasn't sure how long it would last.  I didn't want to run the engine for hours and not have enough fuel to get into the marina.  Of course, a quarter tank on our boat is 40 gallons and that would probably last for 3 months or more.  It's the same fuel we had in there last March for Pete's sake.  But it's always better to err on the safe side and sailing is way better than running under power anyway.