Only two skippers showed up, so only two (J/22) boats competed. I had Kelly and John on my crew. It was neck and neck for a while, then we shot ahead near Canton and maintained the lead out to the R6 buoy and back to Canton. At that point, the wind died, and both boats were in danger of not making it back to the docks before sunset. The other boat gave up on the wind first and started rocking and eventually paddling. A few minutes later, as they caught up to us, we started doing the same things. We eventually found paddling to a be a bit more effective, brining us up from 1 knot to 2 knots, which was enough to get us back to the docks just before sunset.
Century Club: Richard Eggert
Friday, June 6, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Our crew
The competition, paddling away
Sunday, June 1, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
I couldn't make it to the Sunday open house event due to my child's birthday party, but I privately reserved a boat for first thing in the morning before the event, and Bhavani and I got in some practice sailing out to Canton and doing various drills.
Saturday, May 31, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
The morning Access-Ability event was cancelled at the last minute due to high winds. Bhavani and I had planned to sail afterwards in the afternoon, as she had a desire to get more experience in high winds, but moved our plans up to 11:30 due to the cancelled event. I recruited Kelly to join us. I had mostly rigged up the boat by the time both of them arrived close to 12, and we departed shortly thereafter.
I had seen earlier that there was a "chance of thunderstorms" in the forecast in the afternoon, but had assumed that was most likely in the late afternoon. Once we reached Fell's Point, I decided to check the weather again before we got too far from the docks. I saw that NWS had issued a "Special Weather Statement", and opened it to find that a line of thunderstorms bringing "potentially damaging hail" was west of Baltimore heading east at 40 knots. We turned around and made our way back toward the DSC docks, but to our dismay, the sugar barge at the Domino Sugar refinery went underway just as we approached, forcing us to navigate around it, costing valuable time. We could see the storm approaching, and tacked toward the docks as fast as we could, but heavy rains started as we got within about 100 yards of the docks. We lowered our jib for docking, but then got hit with strong gusts up to 30 knots, which, in addition to tossing us around quite a bit, caused the jib to start riding back up the forestay. Bhavani got up to try to tie it down, but just as she did so, we started getting pelted with hailstones, so I told her not to worry about the jib. We fought our way back to DSC docks, and some people who were there for a cruising mentoring session helped us secure the boat, and we all took cover under the BMI pavilion just as the storm was beginning to subside.
We changed our soaked shirts and waited until the storm had fully passed by, then headed out again. The wind had become considerably stronger than it had been before the storm. At one point, we lost control of the jib, which wrapped around the forestay. I attempted to untangle it, but was unable to, so we lowered it and tied it to the forestay. We practiced sailing around Canton for a bit, then headed back to DSC.
Monday, May 19, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Overhead view from drone
Sailing away from sunset
I reserved a J/22 from Downtown Sailing Center in Baltimore on Monday night from 5-8pm. Crew was Stephen Kind, who was on his first sail of the year, and Kelly Coyne. Winds around the dock and Northwest Harbor and were 10-15 knots. Winds out past Fort McHenry were 15-20 knots. One of Kelly's friends from work had a drone up and took some pictures of us on our way out and on our way back in.
I was on helm for the departure, and handed off to Stephen near Canton. Stephen was rusty but eventually got the hang of it, though I did manage to scrape my knuckle during one of his jibes and got to use my first aid kit for the first time. We easily made 9-10 knots out past the fort, with Stephen handing off to Kelly about halfway through. Kelly performed superbly, and was quite comfortable with the amount of heeling we were doing in the strong wind, unlike in some of her early sails. With about an hour and a half until sunset, we started back toward Canton, and Kelly handed off to me when we got near where the naval ships are parked. We took a quick spin around the Canton turning basin, then I demonstrated heaving-to for them while a sugar barge was pushed through the channel toward the Domino Sugar refinery. Once the barge was clear, we continued back into Northwest Harbor and toward the DSC docks.
The Women on the Water event was just wrapping up, so we circled around a bit until most of them were docked, then we dropped the jib and prepared to dock. We had an upwind docking and a tight area to maneuver, with pilings to the east side of our dock, so I brought us in just to the west of the pilings, then turned hard into our slip. We came in a little hot, but Stephen managed to step off and stop the boat without much difficulty, and one of the participants in the WoW event handed me the stern line.
Thursday, April 17, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
The crew
Baltimore skyline at sunset
The April 16 DSC Wednesday Member Sail was cancelled due to high winds, so on Thursday, Hunter, Bhavani, Robert, Ben, and I piled into a Sonar and went for a trip around Northwest Harbor while the Thursday Night Racing was going on. Winds were light but fairly steady. The TNR racers looked a bit sad, but were made it out past Fell's Point and got back to the dock just before sunset.
Wednesday, April 9, 2025 to Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Winds were supposed to be light, but we ended up getting 10-15 knots instead a nice trip out to Fort McHenry and back before sunset in cool but not too cold weather.
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
The forecast was for gusts up to 20 knots, but the actual wind conditions were quiet steady in the 10-15 knots range. We headed out a bit after 11am, and made it to the bridge with no issue. However, as we re-entered Northwest Harbor, we got hit with the 20-knot gusts that had been predicted. Bhavani was on the helm at the time and panicked, resulting in excessive heel that flooded the cockpit with water. I took over and fought our way back through the gusts to the dock.
Sunday, March 9, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Hunter and I made it most of the way to the Key Bridge and back in cold but comfortable conditions in a J/22.
Saturday, February 1, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
With strong winds and cold conditions, we reefed the mainsail of our J/22 for a very fun frostbite race around Baltimore Harbor.
Friday, January 3, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Sea like glass
Temperature was around 40F, but Robert and I decided to get 2025 off to a good start by sailing out to Fort McHenry and back. Winds were extremely light for the first half of the trip, taking us nearly 2 hours to make it to Canton. However, they picked up considerably after that, and we made it out to Fort McHenry and back to the docks in about hour after that, arriving just as the rain and sleet did.