We got invited to help a friend move his Jeanneau 35 from Solomon’s to Annapolis for a nice Winter sail. The weather window opened up a couple of days after an unusual and historic weather front blew through the area bringing heavy winds, rain and persisting flooding conditions with tides.
We drove down from Annapolis the night before and stayed at the friend’s house on Mill Creek. What a sweet location. We wake up the next morning with 38 degF calm skies. My friend and the owner, as we learned the night before, had been friends for dozens of years and had a long history of sailing together on various boats. With a simple turn of the key, the engine started, and that’s when I felt that the boat had been maintained decently.
We took our gloves off to expose our toasty fingers to put up the dodger and bimini canvas and to ready the boat for departure. I took a few moments to do a amateur rig check which was something taught to me by Dimi on Nikitoo. It wa’saulgoodman’. The dodger glazing had frosted over in just a few seconds.
Backing out of the dock at 0830 went without a hitch which is to be expected for the boat and home/dock owner.
My gear for the trip would be multiple layers of poly and wool under my Winter foulies, my trusty Muck Arctic Ice Vibram tall boots, a warm wool hat, snow gloves and my Costas. As we proceeded down a very still Mill Creek, the bow was breaking up a very thin layer of ice. I was glad that I had prepared well.
People on social media suggested that we might face a strong ebbing tide pushing against us the entire trip -AND- that we might encounter a lot of debris from the flooding to the North of our departure location. Based on tide charts, we expected slack to occur around 1100 although we knew that tide charts might not include effects of the storm and flooding. As we rounded Ship Point and then Drum Point, we saw a small amount of current head on as expected. Along with current against us, we faced light winds about 30-45 degrees which no aboard one liked. That meant that the motor would stay on, and we left it on for the rest of the (total) 8 hour, 44 nm trip.
The sun was warm behind us, and we just proceeded onwards passed the lighthouse and CNG/LNG terminal. The sea state was super calm which helped the 4 crew get settled into conversation with the miles started ticking down. I was hoping for more of a blow and sail than a motor sail, but we were just enjoying being on the water.
We saw an 10+ foot long floating tree trunk about 30 minutes after turning North which put us on alert for more debris. Thankfully, that would be the most we would see the entire trip. Around 1100 as predicted, the current went slack and also the wind came in from behind. We unfurled the genoa and took advantage of the conditions at lunchtime.
The skipper turned on the helm autopilot which reminded us of our Catalina 34’s helm autopilot. It was noisy, but it worked all day long. The winds stayed about 120-160 degrees most of the day and eventually picked up to 10 knots apparent. Finally we started seeing 2 foot waves coming astern which just kept pushing us North. We passed “Bristol Cream” a 14m monohull who was headed South and directly into the wind and waves.
We could see their past track in Marine Traffic. It appeared as if they started sailing coming out of Annapolis and then they dropped the sails and went 100% motor into this slop. Along the way, we passed the familiar Bloody Pt and then Thomas Point Shoal Light. As we approached the light house, the sun was shining on it so brightly. I tried really hard to get a David Site’s quality picture of the light house, but I am no match for the pro!
These two reference points made us feel like we were back in familiar waters. There was a decent amount of shipping up and down throughout the day, which made me happy as a supply chain person. The wind and sea state started calming down before the South River, which made for a lucky day on the Chesapeake in January.
The rest of the trip was uneventful as we approached the Annapolis Harbor and Back Creek entrance. I love seeing the sun shining bright on the water and seeing the familiar Annapolis towers and Bay Bridge.
It was a great day on the water thanks to our friends on Genesis.
Gear-wise, I was warm on top except for my neck. I like my HH jacket because it is roomy enough to allow me to layer, but my neck is skinny and the jacket’s neck is a bit too wide. My neck gets cold – I don’t understand that. Legs, feet, head and hands were fine, though.
The Loxodograph 