Century Club: Tom Dean

The forecast was for good winds from the North/NorthWest and they were right on! Was a bit chilly - mid 50's when I left the slip, but partly sunny with a rising barometer so I was hoping for the best! Headed out a little before 11am. Had a tough out of the slip... dropped a few lines in the water and the anchor got snagged on one - but made it out - but had to turn around as my stern was headed in the wrong direction (damn prop walk...)

Got the sails up quickly and headed down Langford Creek into the Chester. Decided to head up the  Chester today - with the favorable winds for that kind of sail - and really had a nice beam reach heading up past the Corsica and past Conquest Beach. Saw a beautiful small schooner sailing down the river towards me (pics attached) and found that my newly installed AIS is working as it should - warning me of two possible collisions! Didn't get too warm - 61 by the end of the sail,  it s lovely day out on the water for sure. Got back in to the slip about 4 - and then headed up to Worton for s shorekeepers event- which was very educational and interesting!

The forecast was for very little wind - and truly there was very little wind - certainly not enough to go out and sail, so I went about the chore of waxing the hull using the paddle board. Took about three hours - a tough job on the paddle board - one hand holding yourself close to the boat, the other hand applying and wiping off the wax.  The wind was picking up at 2:30 when I was finishing up and I briefly considered heading out for a quick 1 hour sail... but instead decided, since the paddle board was blown up and ready to go - to instead explore Davis Creek a bit.

Got ready and headed out away from Lankford Bay Marina to the far shore where the wind was a bit blocked by the trees and began exploring,  Found a few little coves that I didn't know existed - one which might be nice in a real strong blow from the northwest... it seemed to have enough depth for Bubbles (3.75 foot draft). Saw a beaver swimming. It was a nice way to stretch out all the muscles used when waxing the boat,  explored for about an hour and a half - very lovely back in the creek!

Cool day - Lower 50's with winds out of the North West - the forecast said 5-10, but it seemed much more like just 5 or less knots of wind. Barometer was 30.19 and steady. Since I have been sailing since February - I had noticed that the wind instruments didn't really seem all that accurate, so I decided to investigate a bit and found that I had the ability to calibrate the wind instruments! So, I took Bubbles out of the slip, and under power took her out into Langford Creek. I put her into the wind and made some adjustments to the wind indicator... discovered that it was off about 14 degrees (which explains why I could sail 30 degrees to the wind on a starboard tack, but only 50 degrees on a port tack!). Adjusted at several speeds - for accuracy. After that, I adjusted the speed indicator as it was showing that Bubbles was doing 8 knots at times (sorta impossible for a sailboat with only 25 feet water length!). Did that at several speeds and also discovered that I could reset it to speed over ground since the new AIS system incorporates GPS which is linked to the sea talk NG network. After finishing, headed back to the marina and put Bubbles down for the evening!

Got to the marina a bit late - had some things to do in the morning first, but when we got there - nice and sunny, 65 degrees with a nice wind from the WNW I didn't think it warranted a small craft advisory - winds less than 10 knots - but later in the afternoon there was plenty of reason for the small craft advisory.. Pulled out of the slip a little after 1pm and headed off with the 1st mate at the helm. Got the sails up pretty quickly as the winds were very favorable for sailing right down Langford Creek. Had a real nice run - averaging about 5 knots - on a close reach all the way down to the  buoys outside of Queenstown. At first had a reef in the front sail - just to make it comfortable, but the winds started to die off, so we let out the full Genoa, which helped with speed.  Noticed a strong front - turned out to be a cold front - moving in to the area with some dark clouds, so we decided to head back, still under full sail. The front passed, got a bit chillier and nothing else - until, the winds picked up significantly! We were starting to see gust of about 20 knots and sustained right about 14. We reefed in the headsail - and I thought about going out on deck to reef the main, but instead we just depowered it and had a nice quick run all the way back to the marina - averaging over 5 knots once the winds hit! Got back in the slip about 6pm - so unfortunately, we missed the Upper Chesapeake Sailing meet up at Elk River Brewing ☹️.

A nice day out on the water - and the great thing was that we, as a crew, managed the weather nicely without the first mate getting paralyzed with fear - something that wouldn't have been possible a year ago!