Close hauled near Fort McHenry
Kelly, Michelle, and I headed out in a J/22 in 95-degree heat shortly after noon. As we passed the Domino Sugar refinery, the already light wind died altogether, leaving us floating along at approximately one knot in the searing heat. As we gradually made our way past Fell's Point, the wind gradually picked up, and by the time we reached Canton we were moving along at a decent pace, albeit still someone slowly.
The wind continued to increase as we approached Fort McHenry, and I handed the helm over to Kelly. By the time we reached the fort, we had a steady 10 knots of wind and had cooled down considerably. The Sonar skippered by Alan managed to scoot ahead of us as we tacked our way in the general direction of the Key Brdige. By this point, conditions were quite pleasant, with excellent wind and temperatures below 90.
Around 2pm, we turned downwind, back toward the Fort, and Michelle took over on helm. I tutored her on holding our course steady and occasionally jibing, though as we approached the fort, she lost confidence and had me take over on the helm through the Fort McHenry channel.
As we approached Canton, I gave the helm back over to Kelly, and we performed a couple Quick Stop POB drills. Afterwards, Michelle took over on helm again to make our way back through Northwest Harbor. Approaching the Inner Harbor, we encountered a lot of traffic, so I took over to navigate through it, then performed a POB drill myself before handing the helm back over to Kelly for one last POB drill and docking.