Approaching the Key Bridge on a broad reach
Heading back from the bridge
Just a little puff
The forecast for the rest of the month was in the 20s and 30s, but weirdly Thursday was forecast to be around 50, with winds at 5-10 knots, so I put out a call for crew on the DSC forums, arranged to leave work early, and reserved a J/22.
By the time Thursday arrived, the forecast had increased to 10-15 knots gusting to 25, with a Small Craft Advisory in effect until 4. Zack and Karen arrived shortly before I did and had the boat mostly rigged by the time I got down to the dock. I set up my GoPro, then we raiised and reefed the mainsail. I took the helm and we departed by backing off the dock, then we raised the jib and headed out.
The wind was still rather gusty early on, and we got up to around 7.2 knots a few times on the way out past Fort McHenry. There was one other sailboat, a small cruiser, sailing behind us, but otherwise the harbor was empty aside from an occasional tugboat moving around. After a little more than a half hour, I handed the helm over to Zack, who took us out to the Key Bridge on a broad reach, arriving at just about an hour into our sail. We then hove-to so I could swap out the GoPro battery. Karen took over the helm, and we started on our way back.
The return trip took a bit longer, since we were heading upwind most of the way back to Fort McHenry. Karen handed the helm back over to me about 2/3 of the way back to the Fort, and I took us through the channel. As we got back to Northwest Harbor, the wind became shifty and gusty, which resulted in some fun sailing.
The GoPro battery died as we were passing the Domino Sugar refinery, so we were unable to record footage of our docking. There was a pretty substantial crosswind blowing into the dock, so we dropped the mainsail next to the dock and did a 360 into our parking spot.