Temperature on land was in the upper 90's, but was considerably cooler on the water. Crew was Kelly and Michelle. The first half hour was rough, with the wind dying several times as we baked in the heat. Once we reached Canton, it picked up a bit, and it picked up considerably once we reached Fort McHenry. I handed the helm over to Kelly, who tacked toward the Key Bridge, getting us about halfway there before it was time to head back. Michelle handled much of the downwind leg back to Fort McHenry, but lost confidence and handed the helm back over to me. I took us back to Canton, where, Kelly took the helm again and practiced a few MOBs, then handed the helm over to Michelle to take us through Northwest Harbor. Approaching the Inner Harbot, we encountered traffic, so I took over the helm to get us through it, then performed a MOB myself before handing the helm back over to Kelly, who executed one perfectly. I then guided her through performing a downwind docking back into our slip.
Century Club: Richard Eggert
Close hauled near Fort McHenry
Kelly, Michelle, and I headed out in a J/22 in 95-degree heat shortly after noon. As we passed the Domino Sugar refinery, the already light wind died altogether, leaving us floating along at approximately one knot in the searing heat. As we gradually made our way past Fell's Point, the wind gradually picked up, and by the time we reached Canton we were moving along at a decent pace, albeit still someone slowly.
The wind continued to increase as we approached Fort McHenry, and I handed the helm over to Kelly. By the time we reached the fort, we had a steady 10 knots of wind and had cooled down considerably. The Sonar skippered by Alan managed to scoot ahead of us as we tacked our way in the general direction of the Key Brdige. By this point, conditions were quite pleasant, with excellent wind and temperatures below 90.
Around 2pm, we turned downwind, back toward the Fort, and Michelle took over on helm. I tutored her on holding our course steady and occasionally jibing, though as we approached the fort, she lost confidence and had me take over on the helm through the Fort McHenry channel.
As we approached Canton, I gave the helm back over to Kelly, and we performed a couple Quick Stop POB drills. Afterwards, Michelle took over on helm again to make our way back through Northwest Harbor. Approaching the Inner Harbor, we encountered a lot of traffic, so I took over to navigate through it, then performed a POB drill myself before handing the helm back over to Kelly for one last POB drill and docking.
I volunteered to skipper a boat for a sailing event for children in the foster care system being advocated for by CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates). Kelly was my volunteer crew. We were paired with a middle-school-aged boy, Q, and his CASA chaperone, J. Q was fairly quiet but very responsive and enthusiastic, asking many questions. We had partially rigged the (J/22) boat before they arrived, but I had Q help us finish rigging the boat, and included a quick overview of the parts of the boat in the process. I handled the helm during departure, had Q raise the jib, and demonstrated tacking and jibing, and Kelly gave Q a lesson in trimming the jib. Afterwards, I handed the helm over to Q and guided him through the manuevers. We managed to go out further than any of the other boats, making it it halfway between Canton and Fort McHenry before we needed to turn around in order to get back by our scheduled docking time. The wind in the Fort McHenry channel died shortly after we turned around, which put our return at risk, but picked up again as we approached Fell's Point. As we approached the docks, we lowered the jib, then I took over the helm for the docking. Q took care of dropping the mainsail, while Kelly handled stepping off and securing the boat to the dock.
We left the boat rigged, since I had it reserved for the afternoon. After lunch, I met up with Asher and his wife, Sophia, and we headed out. By this time, the wind had picked up considerably, and we made it through the Northwest Harbor and the Fort McHenry channel at a pretty steady 5 knots. Once we reached the Fort, I handed the helm over to Asher, who manned it for the rest of the trip, while his wife managed the traveler and I trimmed the jib. We tacked upwind to the Key Bridge at around 5.5 knots, first making a stop at the star-spangled Key Memorial Buoy, then, after a short detour due to Fort Carrol blocking our wind, looped around the bridge supports. We headed back downwind toward Fort McHenry, then back through the Fort McHenry channel toward Canton and then Northwest Harbor. We dropped the jib, then I guided Asher through the process of a crosswind docking in our slip. We completed the trip in just about 3 1/2 hours.
The weather was quite hot, around 90F, but the increased wind in the afternoon kept it from becoming unbearable.
We had four boats go out tonight for the Fun Race. We were neck and neck all the way out to the R6 buoy, but then the serious racers pulled ahead. We were in fourth at the turn, but pulled ahead of the boat ahead of us shortly afterwards, and maintained our position for the rest of the race.
at the star spangled buoy
Bhavani and I took a J/22 out to the remnants of the Key Bridge, and on the way back, found the star-spangled Francis Scott Key Memorial Buoy, which had just been placed for the season the day before. We made it there and back in about three hours, then I helped Bhavani practice docking for a bit. It was extremely hot, and we were both suffering from heat exhaustion by the time we finished, and I got sunburned.
I signed up as Dockmaster the night before since no one else had. We had a decent turnout, with 21 people showing up. There was a Severe Thunderstorm watch in effect, and there had been a severe thunderstorm roll through about an hour and a half before the sail, but the sky was only partly cloudy, with no significant storms reported, though there were some radar contacts of some concern near the Maryland-West Virginia border, southwest of Baltimore. I advised everyone to stay relatively close to the docks in case the weather turned for the worse.
Kelly and I took out a J/22. I let her man the helm while I monitored the weather. After 15 minutes after departure, I saw that the radar contacts I had noticed earlier had not dissipated as they moved east as I had hoped, so I notified everyone over the radio that a possible storm cell was forming. I checked again about 15 minutes later, and saw that the radar contacts were heading toward Baltimore, so I advised that anyone who had rain gear should don it immediately. 15 minutes after that, I saw that a hail/thunderstorm had been reported in the vicinity near Columbia, MD, and that the storm track was clearly heading toward Baltimore. I notified everyone over the radio of this situation. Around the same time, some people saw distant lightning, and all of the boats made their way toward the docks.
As we were de-rigging, we encounted some light rain, and could hear distant thunder. However, as it turned out, the storm broke up prior to arriving in Baltimore.
At the Key Bridge
Weather was moderately warm with on-and-off light rain and fog. Jim, Andy, and I set out from the DSC docks just after noon, somehow getting our boat rigged and underway before everybody else. Wind was steady around 10 knots, and we progressed out of Northwest Harbor pretty quickly, reaching Fort McHenry before any of the other DSC boats had even reached Canton. The wind direction was ideal, allowing us to head directly toward the remnants of the bridge at a close reach, making around 5 knots the whole way there. We looped around the center bridge support from south to north, then turned back toward the fort at a shallow broad reach making between 5.5 and 6 knots, our speed peaking at 6.3 knots shortly after I took over on the helm. We returned to Northwest Harbor shortly after 3 to find most of the other DSC boats preparing to dock. We waited until the boat that was docking in front of us to finish docking, then performed a downwind/crosswind docking into our slip. We momentarily got stuck in irons while trying to turn away from the wind after dropping our mainsail, but managed to get out of it with a combination of sculling and paddling. The docking was otherwise uneventful, and we were de-rigged and off the docks by 3:45.
Sun through the haze
Our overnight trip to Whitehall Bay was postponed due to lack of wind as well as thunderstorms in the forecast, so I agreed to help Bhavani and Anne practice docking in the afternoon when the wind picked up. We spent about 2.5 hours practicing upwind and downwind docking over and over, then rigged up our jib and headed out for about an hour of POB practice before heading back and de-rigging.
We initially had 6 boats signed up for the race, and my crew consisted of Kelly and Stephen.There was a possibility of thunderstorms, so one of the skippers bailed out right away. Another skipper took a boat out and practiced for a bit before bailing out shortly before the race for unknown reasons. This left 4 boats left to compete. One of them retired 5 minutes into the race for some reason, and then there were three. Both of the other two skippers were apparently unfamiliar with the course and missed the first mark, and continued onward despite my implorations over the radio. They continued completely off course, then turned around for reasons that are unclear, since their messages over the radio were unintelligible to me. This left our boat as the only one to complete the course, which we accomplished in very good time. As we approached the finish, light rain started, so after docking and de-rigging we headed to Little Havana for drinks until the rain passed.
The moon never appeared, and the wind died shortly before sunset, but we managed to get out to just short of the (remains of) the Key Bridge and back. Skipper was Sam Z. Crew were me, Sheila Z, and Robert C. We were out on the water for about 3 hours, plus time to rig and de-rig.