Sunny with a high in the upper 60s winds variable mostly out of the north west very light few little gust here and there. Decided to do some work on the boat, putting some shelving into the hanging lockers Which took a little bit of time but after I finished since there wasn’t enough wind to go sailing, I decided to take a little kayak ride went out Davis Creek and went up the west fork of Langford Creek for a little bit. Then headed over and circled Cacaway Island Scaring a few of the Canadian geese, who honked madly at me. One of them thought I was chasing him and he kept flying off, but in the same direction I was going. He got really agitated. Made a nice circle around Cacaway Island, and then headed back for the marina. There was one boat practicing their docking and so I had to avoid them as I was coming in and they weren’t real sure what they were doing. Got safely back into my slip hoist of the kayak up onto the boat because the next couple days looks pretty light wind also. A really nice hour and a half kayaking the area!
Century Club: Tom Dean
Caraway Island
Cacaeay island
Cacaway island
Caraway sign
Looking in at Lankford Bay Marina
Making good way
Need to work on trimming - telltales not flying.
Port side going out langford creek
Port side going out Langford Creek
Mr. Potato head was having a difficult day!
Beautiful day - upper 60's and getting into the mid 70's before I got off the water! Winds out of the south 5-10... a few gusts and/or stronger winds later. Mostly Sunny. Got to the marina early and almost immediately set out! Actually beat the sailing school boat out of the slip - and they had been preparing before I even arrived at the marina! AIS picked up the two sailboats that had drifted past us as we anchored at Cacaway on May 7th - the seagull and another.
The wind was out of the WNW between 5 and 10 knots...and Bubbles was just chugging right along. Was really working on getting the sails adjusted correctly and I seem to do pretty well through a close reach. Still not consistant on a beam reach... and I am not even sure if the main telltales are supposed to stream when on a broad reach - something I have to check out! Was able to sail pretty close to the wind - have to get the centerboard back into action to see if I can do better... now that the wind instruments are aligned and calibrated correctly!
Got down near the buoys off of Eastern Neck Island before the wind started ti peter out a bit. Ended up doing some long tacks across the basin heading back north. Seemed to be losing ground on the starboard tacks - then had some wind shifting and the starboard tacks were working well! After 4 or 5 tacks got on a port tack to head back up the river to Langford creek - and the winds picked up... substantially - and I got to the point where I really had to reef the headsail - way too much canvas out! However, the strong winds let me sail a bit closer and I made it into the mouth of Langford creek before I had to turn on the engine for the ride back to Lankford Bay Marina. It was getting late, and I would have needed to do a bunch of tacks in a small area to have any chance of sailing back up. Gave me a chance to tie up and cover almost everything (while bubbles manned the conn) while motoring back to the marina. An educational day and a fun day!
Heading to cacaway
Jennie, the Gennaker in action. (Sorry, sideways??)
A fairly nice day with some nice winds from the south when I left the Marina at 10:30. Got the sails up after the first day mark in Langford Creek - although I did keep the engine on for a while (2nd daymark in the creek) as I was heading mostly into the wind going down the creek. Did some nice back in forth in the basin as I was waiting on a call from the 1st mate to join me. About 1 pm or so, the wind started falling off, so I grabbed the Gennaker, dropped the sails (without turning on the engine) and started running to pick up the first made at the marina (Lankford Bay). It was a slow ride as the wind ranged between 1.5 and 4 knots, but finally got there, doused the sail, turned on the engine and picked up the 1st mate. We decided to go anchor for a while at Cacaway Island, and then the 1st mate took us back in as the air started to cool for the night. A rather lovely day!
Davis creek
Davis creek
Clear water/murky water line
Looking towards mouth of Davis creek
Lankford Bsy Marina
Pretty little sunset to cap off the day!
Well, the forecast was for light - very light winds - and except for a few gusts that almost lured me out... the experts were correct. After attending to a few details, I decided to really fully explore 'Davis creek by paddle board. Headed down the creek towards the mouth. Really a beautiful area - lots of wildlife and beautiful homes. Fought a few gusts, but for the most part it was really fairly tame. Didn't get all the way to the beginning of the creek - but darn close. Near the beginning saw something I never had before - a very definite line in the water where heavily sedimented water - almost milky in color began and ran up to the beginning of the creek(see pictures). Didn't see anything to explain it - a few houses, but they had been there a while. Guess this is where the lack of clarity in the bay starts! Wish I had been sailing, but at least I was on the water!
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!
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!
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!