Took a nice 9 mile sail out of Valentine Creek, down Round Bay, around St. Helena Island and back home. Breeze was classic Round Bay -- light and variable. Started out mostly E by N, then was S with some E, then back to N with some E. 6 knots then 2 knots then 4 knots, all the time with gusts to 10. Started about 11, when it was mid-fifties; got up to 60 by the time I returned at 2 pm. Got some nice 4.5 knot runs in, but spent more of the time at 3 knots. Not a cloud in the sky. 3 big boats out when I started (46' Bavaria, 40' Catalina, 37' Jenneau), then I was by myself. Had not rounded St. Helena in this boat, and it is always tricky to get through the wind shadow section, but I made it around, eventually. With leaves turning on the trees, it was a beautiful day on the water! Afterwards, since too many birds had been pooping on my boat I gave it a deep clean for a good hour afterwards, finally getting most of it off.
Century Club: Richard Turman
Nice ride, checking out the boat. Wild to ravel through Round Bay after all the Racing Marks have been removed!
Took Lark out for 90 minutes starting at 5 pm on a Friday. Fabulous evening!
Took friends and their two daughters out on Round Bay for some powerboat playing around and lessons. Great time.
Then took Lark out by myself sailing; beautiful day!
Spent a wonderful and educational 3 hours with Tom Guay of the Severn River Association on SRA's SeaGirl to test water quality at 10 sites on the lower Severn River, as part of a data series SRA has been keeping for 6 years at these sites. On the way back, got to drive past Pride of Baltimore, which had arrived in Annapolis to attend the upcoming Sailboat Show!
Had a great evening out single-handing my sailboat. Shocking, though, how early the sun goes down. Went out 4:45-6 pm, coming just in around sunset, to try to get the boat put away before it got too dark. Had a nice 3 mile journey averaging 2.6 knots. Gotta love fall sunset sailing!
Was in Indiana all weekend, but got home from BWI at 6:15, and was out getting the boat ready to go by 6:30. Sunset is 6:40, but breeze was still up, from the SE, ranging from 8 to 16. Had some great upwind runs to 5.4 knots, and then 5.5 kits downwind. Beautiful!
We were all excited to have a Wednesday without rain, since we've been so soggy the past few weeks, but with no rain came very little wind. 3-4 knots at the start, filling in to 4 or 5 as we went along. Ghosted along from Mark V, where we started, upwind toward mark B. We banged the left and then came down to the mark, rounded, and put up the spin. Went high, then came down. Quite a night! Sad to pull into the dock at get the boat put away by 8 pm and it had been full dark for quite a while.
Ran a course around 5 marks; headed all they way down to Sherwood Forest and then back along the Eastern shore of Round Bay. Good chat with one of our Wednesday racining competitors who happened to be out on his powerboat. Beautiful evening!
Decent wind and no rain was nice, for a chance. One crew had not been on the boat for a year, and another was on for the first time, so we had some learning. We also started 30 seconds late by misunderstanding that the first fleet and the second fleet had already started. Course was A to N and back, and had a decent time with the spin. Upwind, we also did well, but fell into a hole at the turning mark and got bollixed up with 3 other boats and lost lots and lots of time. Finsihed 7th out of 11, sadly.