Century Club: Tom Dean

A chilly day, but a fun day! Temperature when we left the dock was 53 - didn't get much warmer.  Winds were out of the West at 5-10, so a comfortable sail. Barometer was at 29.92. Left the dock right about 11 and got back in about 4 - so a nice long sail. Went down the Chester a bit.. wind stalled, but we had enough to put up the Gennaker and fly her home. A fun day sailing - we even saw another sailor out - in a little lazer - having a ball!!

Got out of the slip at 11:15 and didn't come back in till 3;45! Winds were out of the SW to start blowing 8-16, then the winds backed to just being out of the West. Mostly Cloudy, Temperature was 65-68 degrees and the barometer was 29.76.

Had fun sailing around the Chester River Basin. Saw some working waterman - but not much else going on!!

Got to the marina about 10:30 or so. There was a SCA out and while the winds were strong, didn't look like it was enough to keep me in the slip - so I decided to head on out.  Was out of the slip by 11. The Barometer was 29.93 and falling, Temperature was 54 and it got up to 68 before I got off the water.  Winds were initially out of the WNW at 10-15. They moved to W still 10-15, but dropped off a bit later in the afternoon - only to come back in as I was sailing back up Langford Creek. There was some high cloud cover, but the sun did come out as the clouds rolled off. 

Headed out and down Langford creek after turning around to get the sails up. Rolled in the headsail a bit to get a better balance on the boat - which did help a lot in the higher winds.  There was almost no wind, so I sailed out Langford and down the Chester to the green "11" outside of Eastern Neck Island, where i turned to come back.  The wind had died off a bit, but was still moving along nicely. Eventually, opened up the full Genoa which helped for a bit until the wind died down to less than 5 knots.  Managed to creep along up into Langford creek where the wind kicked back up again giving me a nice sail up the creek and into the marina. Lovely, lovely day!

With good winds expected and warm temperatures above 60 expected - it was a sailing day.  Got to the marina late morning and to ready quickly to leave the dock. Temps were 60, Barometer was 30.26 with cloudy skies and winds light out of the east.  Got the sails up quickly and started sailing on a close reach/beam reach down the creek into the Chester.  Kept heading the same direction and sailed down the Chester towards Kent Narrows.  Got down to Eastern Neck Island and the #11 green can before I thought about turning around and heading back.  During this time, the wind had picked up quite a bit, so I had reefed the genoa - which balanced out the helm nicely. Winds when I started were about 5 knots - and by 1:30 or so, I was dealing with 15 knots with gusts above 20. Probably should have also reefed the main, but didn't.  Had a fast sail back and was back in the slip about 4pm. Lovely March sail!