Century Club: Bob Ohler

#92 - inch TS Ophelia, family sailing, and early evenings had prevented me from getting out on the kayak recently. I took advantage of a calm Bay and launched off of the beach. I headed south and saw the damage that Ophelia left behind. I made the turn at one of my favorite turnaround spots... the boat dock that juts into the Bay at Breezy Point. It was a great morning to be out there. 

For their first overnight, I knew not to overdo it. We had a strong wind on the nose going up the Pax. Even with only a reefed main and a yankee, we hit 7.9 knots of boat speed going up tge river.  After an hour and half of heeling, I lined up Mill Creek and anchored in one of favorite anchorages... "Boat Shed."  This provided us good protection from the northerly wind, both overnight and the next morning. We got underway around 10:00 a.m. Sunday morning, and with a following breeze, we sailed under the bridge at Solomons and down the river. We got to the dock just before noon, when I promptly made lunch for the three of us. It was a great first overnight for the girls, and each of them had their time at the helm.  There were plenty of "teaching moments" and memories made this weekend!

#87. It was a beautiful Chesapeake morning. I took advantage of it and paddled to the Breezy Point line, under and around tge first boat dock there, and then returned. It was a great morning workout!

We continued our Patuxent River getaway waking up on the anchor in Battle Creek. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and morning before pulling the hook and motoring out to Red 18 where we popped the yankee sail and took our time sailing south, with a following breeze. A couple of hours later, we made the turn and headed into Mill Creek.  As we were discussing where to anchor for the night, I asked Paula to start the engine. Nothing. Apparently we had used too many amp hours without fully recharging the batteries. We found a quick, convenient place to anchor in Mill Creek Bay, and we dropped the anchor. We gave the batteries a chance to recover but after an hour they still didn't have enough juice to fire off the iron genny. For only the second time in my life, I callled TowBoat US. Captain Mike arrived in an hour and promptly gave us a jump. Bingo!  I let the engine run at high idle for 90 minutes and hoped for the best Tuesday morning. And, our prayers were answered.

Tuesday morning.  We enjoyed eggs and sausage along with coffee and OJ for breakfast before once again getting underway. Once again we caught the breeze, sailing south, tacking once (actually a gentleman's gybe) to sail under the Solomons bridge.  The wind was favorable and we sailed down the river, out past Drum Point and into the Bay. The wind freshened and we hit 7 knots with a full main and yankee.  We were well out into the Chesapeake, when after a series of wind shifts, it appeared the wind was dying. At Green 77 we made the turn to head in.  Suddenly, we experienced a 90-degree wind shift, with the wind coming right out of the mouth of the river.  We trimmed sails and pinched, until I knew we could make Pax 3 without making 2 tacks.  We sailed back into the Patuxent where we doused and covered the sails.  We got in and discussed our calendars, trying to decide when we get back out here again. It was great 3 nights and 3 days of great Fall Sailing on the Chesapeake!  "We live all year for this!"