Spent the day winterizing the water systems, changing oil and fluids, getting items off the boat that will freeze, etc. Lovely day here at HHN.
Century Club: Stephanie Coffin
Thursday, November 9, 2023 to Friday, November 10, 2023
Number of days:
2 days
Time to put Venator away for the season. Always a sad weekend. but we also look forward to getting some improvements completed during the winter and early spring.
Thursday, October 26, 2023 to Monday, October 30, 2023
Number of days:
5 days
Friends joined us for a sail over to the Chester River, anchoring off Chestertown marina for the festival. Sailed on the Pride II and toured the other tall ships. Good food - especially the oysters. Great music. Of course the tricky current and and wind directions conspired us to lose our anchor...happily another boat "caught" Venator and kept her safe until we returned from our sail on the Pride. We had to re-anchor twice to adjust to the changing conditions. A very long scope helped us. Still, quite a challenge. The weather was amazingly perfect. Warm and sunny and stunning fall days.
Thursday, October 12, 2023 to Thursday, October 19, 2023
Number of days:
10 days
After a lovely Thursday at the Boat Show, we made our way to Baltimore on an easy reach. Spent the rainy Saturday snug in East Harbor marina. Then off on Sunday to Worton Creek. Mix of sailing and motoring. Then up into the Sassafras to Georgetown. Snagged a mooring. Then over to Middle River and an anchor in Sue Creek (in just over 5 feet of water - a bit dicey). Then back to the Magothy - bumped a little on the right hand side of the Hart Miller channel. We had a particularly fun sail into the mouth under high winds and tacking all the way. Ran hard aground off of Red 12. We were a bit too aggressive....Proud Mary tried to pull us off but not successful. We put the anchor out using the dinghy and waited for the tide to free us. Anchored near Mill Creek for our last night of the sailing week. Great sailing but the weather was quite cold this week which was sometimes uncomfortable. Next time: better clothing!
Friday, September 22, 2023 to Sunday, September 24, 2023
Number of days:
3 days
The bay is particularly lovely this time of year.
Saturday, September 9, 2023 to Sunday, September 10, 2023
Number of days:
2 days
This weekend there was no wind and we moved Venator to a new home on Park Creek, on the Magothy River. Venator will miss the Galesville mooring field where s/he/they have lived since 2015....
Friday, August 25, 2023 to Sunday, August 27, 2023
Number of days:
3 days
This weekend we headed over to St. Michael's for one night and then up Warehouse creek for one night. Got some good sailing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Saw a bald eagle. Still find those sightings special. Did some kayaking too. Replacing the bulkhead and adding a pier to our new property in Pasadena....so this may be our last days at our West River mooring site. Bittersweet.
Friday, August 11, 2023 to Sunday, August 13, 2023
Number of days:
3 days
Another long weekend...up to Annapolis for one night, then back down to Half Moon Bay. Asymmetrical spianker is working well for us. Wish the nettles would go away!!!!
Thursday, August 3, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
My friend used his paddle board and I used my kayak. Nice day on the lake.
Friday, July 28, 2023 to Sunday, July 30, 2023
Number of days:
3 days
A long hot weekend on the sailboat. This time headed north to Swan Creek to visit Haven Harbor and enjoy a pool!
However, on our way home into the West River, my husband looked up at the sky and said "Drop the sails. Now." We did but it was messy. We put on our PFDs and started to motor to our mooring. The wind gusts were over 40 - steerage was tough. Then the rain and wind were so fierce, we had zero visibilty. We used the GPS to ensure we were in the channel. We could not get to our mooring though - unable to see and probably too dangerous to try to snag anyway. Luckily, the wind was blowing off the Fuel Dock in West River, so we tied off there to wait out the storm. Thanks to Bruce for being there! We lost one of our kayaks and our dinghy flipped over and over again.
The storm passed in about an hour. The next morning we found our kayak, washed up on the shore.
Next time we plan to put on the PFDs and then just drop anchor, if at all possible.
This was the most challenging experience of my sailing carreer.