Expected to be gusty - small craft advisory out and it was gusty! Winds out of the west everywhere from 8 to 18 knots. Left the marina about 11:30 and got the sails up quickly for a nice run down Langford creek and out into the Chester. Stayed on a starboard tack all the way down to where eastern neck island juts out into the Chester. Decided to heave to when I tacked so I could eat a bit of lunch. One of the Maryland sailing school boats had hove to up the river a ways - but I guess we were both moving forward a bit - as, if I had not taken evasive action, we would have collided. Was kind of weird since we were meeting and they were windward - figured they should have taken the action (being s sailing school and all) but no harm, and I continued my sail back up the Chester which seemed to be a bit more of a slog. I did reef the headsail on the way out, but ended up reefing the main once into the Chester - especially after seeing some of the sailing school boats being knocked down a bit ( they were under full sail for the most part...) all in all a chilly, but fun and informative sail!
Century Club: Tom Dean
Looking north west on Davis Creek
Lankford Bay Marina
All shiny!
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!
Looking down
Lankford Bay Marina
Lankford Bay Marina
Looking down
Got to the marina early knowing that I had to climb the mast. Winds were light - at 10 in the morning and out of the South - South East pretty much under 5 knots - with a few gusts. Mostly Cloudy, but some sun. Temperature - upper 50's to lower 60's,
Well, first climbed the mast as I had to replace the Davis WindTrak...one of the colored fins was missing - or at least wasn't where it was supposed to be. Got everything set, tools in a bag attached to my belt, new windtrak tied to a rope which was also tied to my "top climber" and up I went. When I got to the top, I pulled out the wrench to remove the old windtrak, but found that the nut was a different size than the new one (go figure), so instead, I unscrewed the adjustment screw, pulled out the old and replaced it with the new. Carefully aligned it (as I noticed that the metal bar it is connected to is not on the centerline of the boat!). Lowered myself back down and prepared to take Bubbles out to check out all of the adjustments under sail.
Headed out about 12:30, got the sails up quickly and the engine was off before leaving Langford Creek and heading into the Chester. The adjustments made were dead on - or at least a lot closer than they had been. Could sail well at 40 degrees to the wind on both tacks, the Davis windtrak and the raymarine wind instruments/display are now in sync. Speed was a lot more accurate too! Light winds - no more the 9 knots of true wind, so I left out the full genoa, After getting out into the Chester, went on a beam reach towards the Corsica and then back towards the west side of the river and then back again to Piney Point before turning into the wind, pulling in the Genoa, dropping the Main and putting up the Gennaker.
Started out slow back to the marina, but it picked up once back in Langford Creek. Storms were starting to come across from Baltimore, with gusts expected to be about 30 knots, so I started the engine and dropped the Gennaker a bit earlier than I had planned. Got back into the slip about 4:30 - before the rains came, A fun day - been a while since I have been up the mast!
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!
barometer 30.06 falling. Sunny with just a few puffy clouds. Wind 3 - 12 knots, mostly from northwest, but there were some real strange shifts! Headed out of Lankford Bay Marina about 11:30. It was still cool - about 52 degrees. Winds in Davis creek and Langford creek were strong, but out in the Chester they would fade in and out, shift suddenly - was on a starboard tack close reach one second and then had an unplanned jibe! Got out a bit and started a run up the Chester and the wind kept shifting between a close haul, close reach, beam reach, and broad reach. It kept me busy - as well as the autopilot - which of course, was oversteering like crazy! Played around for a while, didn't quite make it up to Conquest beach, before I turned and headed back. Wind was once again very strong along the creeks - glad I kept the headsail reefed! Back in slip at 3:00 - a nice 3 1/2 hour sail!
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!
Well, the forecast was actually right - the winds were just too light - 5 knots or less - to go for a sail. Instead got out the paddle board and used it to. Lean the hull, then went off into Davis creek to explore all the way down... places I just couldn't get to with Bubbles. Very calm, almost glass-like. At first stayed kneeling, but knowing the water temperature was about 70, I took a chance with my balance.and stood up fairly quickly after starting out. I need to do this more often in the summer when the winds are just too light to sail. Fun time!
Got to the marina early - while it was still a chilly 53 degrees, so I decided that I had time to tighten the rudder stuffing box (leaking a wee bit) before shoving off. Got that done in short order and then got the boat ready for sailing - and was out of the slip by 10am. Barometer was holding at 30.09. Not a cloud in the sky when I took off, with temperatures in the upper 50's. Clouds - high upper level ones started coming in as the day progressed.
Got the sails up quickly - had to dodge a crab boat setting some kind of traps on Langford Creek. Winds started out strong, so I had the Genoa reefed, but the winds grew lighter as the day wore on. Not only did the wind die off, but it was once again quite swirly - mostly out of the southwest - but some more westerly breezes too - especially the gusts. Was running pretty much close hauled and some close reach so I could keep speed up in some light breezes - down to 3 and 4 knots at times. Bubbles did well - trying to stay matched in speed with the breeze - but it was slow - and a bit of a slog going into the wind. Made it down a little past Piney Neck - when I decided to turn back. I decided that the light air Gennaker (Jenny) was the sail to use, so I rolled in the Genoa, dropped the main and raised the asymmetrical spinnaker. Took off like a shot - was doing a good 5+ knots all the way back to the marina. A nice day - only one pops on my part. Trying to douse the gennaker - I forgot to uncleat the dousing line.... couldn't figure out why it wouldn't douse... until I did. Oh, well, something new not to forget next time!
Sunny, temperature in the Mid 60's, Barometer 29.86 and falling. Headed out after checking the batteries - making sure they were all in good condition and had water - and found the conditions to be quite squirrelly. There was a small craft advisory out... and conditions were not that bad - the waves were manageable, however, the winds were really swirling... it felt like they were shifting constantly between south, south west, west, and northwest. Made the sailing quite unpredictable, difficult, and demanding. Was constantly altering the sail shapes (reefed head sail and main sail) and as soon as I would get it right, the winds would shift again. Decided, instead of fighting the winds in the Chester, I would head back up Langford Creek and go into the West Fork to make my life a bit easier - and it is pretty up there. So I headed up and sailed back and forth for a while before heading in. A difficult, but fun day - and certainly a day where I learned a bit more about Bubbles and my abilities to sail her.
This was the day to finish up the transom - cleaning off and adding our bubble decals. First mate (with some help from the captain) got to work and had the new decals up in short order! Ate lunch in the slip - and even though the wind was only 3 knots, we were determined to go out. We headed out and found the wind even in the creek was at about 3 knots - and using the binoculars to scan the horizon, it seemed that the water in the Chester was flat, so the first mate who was at the helm, decided to turn towards Cacaway Island where we would anchor for a bit. There was another boat out there also, but we stayed our distance. Once we were anchored, we did some chores and then I noticed that the wind was starting to pick up. Kept an eye on that as I continued to mull about and eventually it seemed we had a sustained 8 knot wind - so we put up the main, tried to sail off the anchor (but the first mate was having issues with that) so we turned on the engine to get the anchor up and then sailed - close hauled - down to the mouth of Langford Creek, before dropping the main and running back up the creek to our home port - Lankford Crreek marina. Had a nice 1-1/2 hour sail that was unexpected! Winds out of the south - temps in the mid 70's.