A sporty day on the Chesapeake Bay.

Chuck at Chesapeake Sailmakers introduced me to one of his technicians who had only been sailing once in his life. I thought I would do something about that and invited him out sailing. That second sail turned out to be today.

It was a sporty day out there. Looking at the winds recorded at Thomas Point, we were mostly in winds that were close to 20 knot with gusts approaching 30 knots at times. With a second time sailor aboard, I decided to put in a first reef and not roll out the jib.

It was a lumpy beat with spray flying on the way down to Thomas Point. For a new sailor, he did very well steering in those difficult conditions. Once we tacked around and bore off, we had a wild and wonderful trip back to Annapolis. Surfing between Thomas Point and Tolley, we held a pretty steady 8 knots, and at one point hit 10.6 knots surfing. That was all with a single reef and without a jib.

We took a fast loop through Annapolis Harbor.  A friend snapped the attatched picture as we left the harbor on the beat out,  hugging the shore in the lee of the apartments on the point perhaps a few 100 feet before hitting the serious breeze off the Bay. That picture sure looks very docile, but isn't that always the case. Aferall it is only a snapshot from a reasonably protected point in the harbor. Attached are the readings from the weather buoy roughly a mile and a half away in the full brunt of the wind.

On the way out from Mill Creek, on our first tack. we passed near the weather buoy around 2:30 befor tacking and heading out into the Bay where the wind and waves were a bit more sporty., We passed the buoy on the way into the harbor a little before 3:40. And passed it gain maybe 15-20 minutes later, by then we were heading back home to Mill Creek.