Christmas Sailing
One of the joys of sailing in the Chesapeake Bay Area is that there are few times during the year when you can’t sail. Hence, sailing on Christmas Day has been something I’ve done almost as long as I’ve owned a boat. This year, I was a day off. Christmas Day, high gusts were expected. Since my passengers were going to be my young granddaughters, I chose to wait a day.
I’ve missed this. Between my husband’s cancer, engine issues, and wonky weather, I’ve sailed this year less than any year except last.
Winds are perfect, about 10-12 it’s. Temperature, with wind chill, is chilly, but not unbearable. I’m listening to my podcasts, which I never seem to have the time to catch up with. But they’re just background noise; I’m not paying really close attention.
I’ve brought some of my instruments along, but haven’t broken them out yet. Problem is that this chilly weather will make it hard to keep them in tune.
So I listen to my podcasts, the engine, the water lapping against the boat. And sometimes I turn off everything electomechanical and just listen to the water.
It’s calming. I’m hoping I will leave, as I have so many times before, better to handle the stresses onshore.
My First Raft-Up: Part Deux
A sailboat, a cabin cruiser and a power boat met in a bar….
Well, not really. But they did get together for Labor Day weekend to raft up in Mobjack Bay. This is part 2 of our story.
As you recall from part 1, I did a lot of maneuvering after I got the anchor down, trying to get the sailboat parked next to the cabin cruiser, which was already anchored. So getting the anchor up took a lot of time, because there was a lot more line laid out than was really necessary. In fact, I’m glad there wasn’t much current or winds while were were there. Because it seems were were just relying on the cruiser’s anchor. The good thing? That anchor had set well, so it took a bit to get it up.
After we got the anchor up, we started following the cruiser, who had a destination in mind. From the East River, our current anchorage, to the Severn, our new anchorage, it was almost straight across the bay. We kept behind the cruiser about 2/3rds the way across. Then they got ahead of us. No problem. We had a good idea where they were going to be – we thought. This time, though, we had Jodi’s husband marked on Google Maps. So we found the cruiser.
This time, we set the anchor and let out enough line to put us able to swing towards the cruiser. And I just floated over. Piece of cake!
I later did check for other ways of doing this. Other people suggested that you just needed to have one boat anchored. Still others suggested that you get rafted up, then send someone out on a dinghy with your anchor and set it. I’ll have to try one of those next time.
Rafting up was easy. What I did have a problem with was the kayak. I’d towed it behind us on the way over, rather than deflate then re-inflate it. But maneuvering to get us rafted up, I got the line wrapped around the rudder. So I put on my swimsuit and jumped in the water. Luckily, I have long legs and could reach with my feet to the other side of the keel. I pulled, then used my toes to pull the line from between the keel and the boat, pulled some more, and kept this up until I had the line untangled. Next time, I’ll pull the kayak in tight before starting to anchor.
After we got all set up, Maria said she was running low on ice. In addition, the power boat needed more gas. So we found the number for the nearby marina, called to make sure they’d still be open, then headed over to Severn Yachting Center. The owner met us, got us the gas we needed then took us over to the office to pay for it and get the ice.
There was a pool right outside the office. Maria, Steve and Jodi took a quick dip an said it was wonderful. We talked to the guy about what repair services he had available since it seemed everyone was still behind in repair work, even this late in the season. Sounded like he had a pretty well-rounded crew. But he, too, said he had about a 2 week waiting list. We might just have to check him out sometime!
That night was rough. We must not have pulled the boats as tightly together as we had the night before, because I kept feeling the banging of fenders throughout the night. I moved from the V-Berth into the aft bed and I could finally get some sleep!
In the morning, the fridge, again, was not working. Seems we again had run the battery down. Doing some diagnostics and getting that fixed was put on my list of ‘to do’ items.
What was working was the hot water! I had a marvelous shower. And the nice thing about this quick trip is that I could have a leisurely one and not worry about water shortage.
After showering and providing the ‘neighbors’ with hot water for tea and coffee, I packed up and got ready to head back. Once I was done, Steve jumped aboard to help with the anchor. Jodi started up the power boat and followed. Once the anchor was up, Jodi pulled up beside the swim platform and Steve jumped over.
I debated taking the ‘shortcut’ back. The shortcut allows you to get from Mobjack to the York River without going around all the shallows between the two. But the channel is quite shallow and I didn’t want to take the chance of getting stuck. So I put up the mainsail and motorsailed back.
The trip back was uneventful until I reached the power plant that marks the channel to Wormley Creek Marina. There, I saw a huge number of dolphins! It’s always fun to see a dolphin when sailing. But it must be baby season because there were more than a dozen of the creatures having a good ole’ time!
My First Raft-Up
This Labor Day weekend, I participated in my first raft up. We were a strange group: one sailboat, one cabin cruise, one small speedboat, and a kayak. We came over in the sailboat and cruiser. The speedboat was our ‘dinghy’. I was hoping, in the future, to use the kayak as my dinghy. I wanted to see how it would work out.
I met the others in the York River. Jodi wanted to come with me, since I was planning on sailing. So we tried to figure out how to get her from the cruiser over to my sailboat. I suggested she get on their raft and I could ‘rescue’ her. So Jodi hopped on the raft, I circled so I could get close enough to throw her a line. She grabbed it and I pulled her to the swim platform where she jumped aboard.
The cruiser towed the powerboat, and was able to use a ‘shortcut’ to reach our destination on the East River, off the Mobjack Bay. I sailed around the long way and am glad I did. The winds were great the the temperature was perfect. Interesting though: we arrived only about an hour after the cruiser.
We had a hard time finding the cruiser when we arrived. We’d been given the wrong mile marker to look for. But they brought the powerboat out to find us and guide us in.
I read an article online telling how to raft up so I’d have some idea what to do. So I arrived and, as the article said, I motored past the cruiser, dropped my anchor, the reversed to set the anchor and sidle up to the cruiser. Well, the anchor set. But I was on the wrong side for reversing and sidling. I kept going the wrong direction. So I tried going forward and doing it again, all the time my anchor is down and Jodi is letting out line. Well, I don’t know how much line we let out, but we finally did end up next to the cruiser.
Mistake one: letting out all the line. The next night I just drifted back and we had no problem sidling up to the other boat.
What did go right? Well, luckily our free boards were close enough that the fenders were not an issue. And we didn’t have problems stepping from one to the other. We did pull the sterns in, not the bows, as etiquette prescribed, since we are good friends. I’m not sure how we would have handled bow to bow, since the cruiser’s bow is higher than mine. And my lifelines in the front are difficult to detach, so walking across would have been problematic.
Another thing that went right is that Maria, the owner of the cruiser had done this before and knew to pull the lines in tight. That proved quite helpful when the powerboats in the vicinity sped on by, causing waves. Our boats weren’t banging hard against the fenders.
The temperatures were perfect that night. The company was great, and the food and drinks were delicious.
The next morning, I was up at 6 am. Everyone on the other boat was still asleep. I had brought yogurt and fruit for my breakfat. So I reached into the fridge and, lo and behold, the fridge wasn’t cooling. The ice in the tray had melted. I looked at the battery gauge and it showed less than 10 volts on the charge. The lights were still working. But the higher amp items, like the fridge were not.
I did have issues with the batteries the day before. After we’d been sailing for a few hours, the lights on the console began to flicker. I’d seen this before and knew that the batteries were running low. So I turned on the engine to charge the batteries back up.
I’d had this issue in the not too distant past. After finally becoming frustrated enough, I pulled out the battery meter and found one of the house batteries was dead. I’d replaced it and no more problems. Did my current issue mean the second house battery was now dead? Guess I’ll need to take a look.
So now, I finished my breakfast then tried to turn the engine on. No clicks. Was it the starter battery that was the problem?
More on the electrical set up on my boat. I don’t have a switch; I have 3 handles. I have not done anything with those handles. But a conversation with Maria from pointed to the fact that I should disengage the starter battery when anchoring to ensure I had a charge to start the engine later. I filed away that useful but of info.
Again, I’d seen this before. I’d thought maybe I was out of fuel. And, indeed, the next day when I put in fresh diesel, it started right away. But when I later tried filling the tank, the 20 gallon tank only took 6 gallons. So no answer there.
A fellow boater at the marine had suggested tapping on the solenoid, that it might have a loose connection. So I talked with Jodi, a whiz at electronics, and asked her to show me where the solenoid was. She figured that out, we tapped it, and the engine started. Batteries charged again, I was in good shape.
Maria and Jodi noticed the tea I’d also make myself and asked if I could heat them some water, too. They had an electric stove on the cruiser, which required getting the generator started to work. I had a propane stove that was much easier to light and use. So I heated water for them, as well as for Maria’s husband, CT.
After this very leisurely morning, air blew up my kayak. I have a Sea Eagle kayak that ai love. It’s quite sturdy for a blow up kayak, and it takes up a small enough space when deflated that I can transport it in the back of my car.
I got it inflated and was disappointed to see I’d not included the skeg. Ah well! Paddling would be harder. But it proved not to be. This is rated for 3 people, but 2 adults fit in in comfortably. I sat in the front so I could also play with the sail. And I had no problems steering it. I did, however, order a new skeg when I got home.
Later, I put the kayak away and we took the power boat to try going into the nearby town of Matthews.
We had talked before about taking the kayak over. I’m glad we didn’t: it proved to be further than we had anticipated. We went during high tide, since we were told it wouldn’t be passable otherwise. As we approached the town, however, it was too shallow for the power boat and we started kicking up mud. Jodi, who was being pulled in a raft, helped turn us around and move to deeper water, and we headed back. Mission to accomplished. But we did get a nice view of the rest of the river.
We played for a bit more when we got back, then decided it was time to start moving to our next destination, in the Severn River, on the other side of the bay.
More on day 2 and the rest of the trip in the next post.
[Top]Deconstructing the Race
We corrected to 4th on last week’s race and 4-1/5 minutes behind the guy ahead of us. We coulda’ been a contender. It was an interesting race.
We were behind the crowd after rounding the first mark. We flew double headsails towards the second and reached that mark with the rest of the crowd. We were port; they were starboard. But we were ahead enough of the other boats I thought the mark distance rules applied and we went around first. One boat called me on it. I wasn’t sure I’d done right. So when we were the starboard boat, I ‘kindly’ got out of everyone’s way and lost time.
Ah well!
Then everyone headed towards the channel and we kept to the more shallow water. They lost wind and the tide was against them, too, so we caught up again. Then the wind changed. Winds were taking us across the river, then switched and we were moving more southerly. The other boats made the correction for the mark better than we did and made up their time.
But it was exciting!
Not only that, the temperature was perfect and, except for that mess at the end, the winds were great, too.
[Top]Depth Problems
Last week was a beautiful sail. The fog never did roll in enough to make visibility questionable for the race course.
We did, however, have to deal with depth gauge issues and two large freighters being pushed and pulled by tugs. One freighter/tug passed us, and it was looking like we’d have time to cross over the channel before the second one was upon us. All of the sudden, the depth meter started showing it shallow underneath us. It went quickly from 30-something feet to 6-8′. The maps didn’t show any shoaling there, but we tacked, just to be safe. Then, of course, we had to wait for the other ship to go past before we crossed the channel.
Then there was the mark we were heading to: Godwin Thoroughfare. It’s shallow around it, and gets very shallow near shore. So when we were showing 6′ of water, we tacked to try for a closer approach. This time, we again showed it shallow, but we were closer to the mark, so we took it around, without any problem. Guess the earlier tack, in this case wasn’t warranted.
I talked with someone at work about our first problem. He said that when there was alot of turbulence from big ships, it could change the density of the water and play havoc with depth sounders. So my question to the more experienced on this list: is that true? Have you ever seen that?
On the second point, I did find that the depth near the shore around the Godwin Thoroughfare mark does get down to 3′ quite quickly. So I’m still glad we made the extra tack.
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