We planned a 2-day trip up the Severn River to attend an end-of-season softball party for Audrey then down the Chesapeake to the Eastern Bay and anchoring in Lloyd Creek. Our friends on Delfin planned out the trip so we buddy boated with them.
Our first trip up the Severn river was fun even though there was not much wind. We cleared the bridges by several feet, but it seemed close to me. I couldn’t pay much attention to this as I discovered an issue with our new Selden Genoa furler which caused the furling line to wrap around the forestay below the drum. The entire drum was loose. The Rigging Company fixed the problem afterwards (thanks guys!), but it was a bit tense on the foredeck with the Genoa unfurled and no way to quickly furl it if we had to for safety reasons.
We can’t quite make it into Yantz Creek due to the skinny entrance and depths, but we dropped anchor just inside of Cedar Point. We dinghied to the community beach just outside of Robinson Cove to have a great time with catching up with the parents of the girls on the team.
We saw a lot of power boats whipping into our anchorage with no regard for their wake. Some even sped in between Skyward and Delfin over top of our anchor chain. That evening we watched several captains that ignored the speed limit buoys which we were inside of and tried to take in all of the gorgeous views of the homes on the River.
We lit up Skyward’s decks with our battery powered lights for a nice ambiance. We awoke the next morning to peaceful conditions in our 2-boat anchorage.
This was the first time we anchored overnight with the new ground tackle, and we are happy to report there were no issues. The only issue being all of the mud from the Severn River that ended up embedding itself in my new chain and which needed to be rinsed off. All good, we pedaled back down the Severn towards the Bay taking in all of the sights while the kids played on their electronics.
As soon as we got into the Annapolis Harbor we saw about 8 knots of wind. It wasn’t much but we were happy to fill the sails and set a course towards Bloody Pt.
We are really liking our new bean bag chairs. They fill up the aft deck but they are very comfortable under sail in gentle conditions. If the wind kicks up, they go away!
The Jib (Solent) was not giving us enough power to move the boat more than a knot or two, so I figured out how to temporarily unfurl the Genoa safely. The little bit of wind that we had shifted well past 120 degrees. So we decided to set up our first ever wing-on-wing sail with the poled-out Genoa and Main.
We made a lot of mistakes with this set up, but we learned a lot about how to rig the guys, handle the pole, and prepare for wind shifts.
The trip up the Eastern Bay and Wye River was almost entirely motor sailing and uneventful. Coming up into Shaw Bay around Bruffs Island, the sun peeked out and showed us the beautiful yards and trees lining the water.
Delfin notified us that Shaw Bay was busy with jet skiers and power boats, so they wanted us to motor into Lloyd Creek to anchor there for the night. We navigated the Creek passed other anchored sailboats and saw our friends. As we circled them slowly, they suggested we raft up with them and their other friends. I volunteered to be the anchor boat being the largest in the fleet.
Soon, the raft up was 5 boats: A Pearson, Beneteau, Hallberg-Rassy, Tartan and a Hickley. Our drone did not safet the video, but the pictures tell it all. The anchor held strong all night and we had a great time on the dinghies, paddle boards, exploring and hanging out on each others’ boats.
We all separated and went on our way by mid-morning. The anchor and chain was packed full of mud, which took a while to clean off. But a nice shiny Ultra cleans off easily. We motor sailed back out of Lloyd Creek, out of the Wye River and through the Eastern Bay. We caught up to Delfin and they got a great picture of us underway in a moist on/off drizzle of rain.
I had just started the grill to make some burgers for lunch, and all was well with Delfin about 1000 ft to our starboard beam. That unfortunately is where the peaceful weekend ended, because as we approached the Bay, it became apparent looking at the clouds that we were in for a storm. The rain picked up steadily and then more intensely.
Soon, the rain was pelting us hard, and I donned my rain gear which is ridiculously yellow and meant for working the docks in Alaska. I texted Ray and he said they were getting hammered with rain at his house across the Bay from where we were. We were glad to had put up the sprayhood extension where the family could remain a bit more cozy than I was standing on the aft deck.
Delfin soon disappeared despite remaining very close to us, and that became nervewracking because our radar would not turn on. We were sailing by eyesight with the chartplotter and AIS (thankfully). Every now and then, I could make out Delfin then they would fade out in the rain and low cloud cover. By this time, the lightning kicked up all around us.
Our strategy was to circle back South until the lightning band passed by. In the midst of all of this commotion, uncertainty, and wetness, I was still grilling hamburgers! After what seemed like an eternity, we navigated West towards Thomas Shoal Lighthouse and the lightning stopped and rain slowed down. What a surprise we had when we spotted our dock neighbors coming out of the fog from the South, which was a strange coincidence as they were coming up from their trip to Cambridge, MD.
Needless to say, everything was wet on the deck, but we were safe and dry inside. This was a very good test showing that the deck replacement project team from Osmotech sealed up the topworks very well.
We made it to the dock safely. Next weekend we have a trip planned to St. Michaels, so I hope the weather will be better. One thing I will say is that Skyward seems to be dialed in very well, and I am building confidence in her systems and operation.
The Loxodograph 