Made it to the marina and got underway at 1155 hrs.
Wx: Intermittant rain, cloudy, 50 degrees, winds calm in Whitehall Creek, gusts to 3 kn.
Here's what we packed:
- one extra O/B (3.5 HP 4 stroke)
- second extra O/B (electrin MinnKota and group 27 battery)
- three sets of foulies
- lunch, snacks
- one celebratory beer per person upon arrival
- a few miles of extra dock lines
- misc extra crap
My amazing younger kid sacrificed a productive Sunday to help the Old Man on this adventure: 13.2 nm up to the boat's new home on Blackhole Creek. I had no illusuions about RAINBOW's bottom...I did not get a chance to even touch most of the port hull below the water line. So I knew we'd be slow.
In Whitehall Creek, with the motor at about 85% max rev, we were at 5 - 5.35 kn with a little bit of the ebb still running and pushing us south. It's a bit of a haul to clear the shoals south of Hackett's Pt., and turning north toward the bridge, we got knocked by about a knot of adverse current. Our speed dropped into the high 3's.
Ugh.
I was telling my daughter how a friend of mine and I used to joke about how the wind changed once you were north of the bridges. And sure enough, the tolerable cloudiness and light north breeze turned into steady rain and drizzle and an uptick of the breeze into the 10-12 range.
It was a bit miserable.
Plus, our boatspeed dropped to 3.5 kn in the 1.5 kn ebb we saw zipping past the bridge pilings. I will simply never trust the tide tables again. Been tricked and fooled and mocked too many times. But after 15 -20 miniutes of suck, the skies lightened and the ebb reduced and soon enough, we were at Mountain Pt. and into the Magothy,
Almost there!
By 1500 hrs we were in the slip and exploring dock line options (still not happy and need another fender for sure)
Anyway, we made it. I wonder if it's ever a good idea to do a shakedown cruise on a gray day in February. Huge thanks to the kid who was a trooper for the entire long and tiring day.
