Lazing around on the Bay

On a warm Friday in August a dozen sailors made their way to Rock Hall, Maryland to spend  the weekend on the water. Their goal was to sail across the bay, anchor, raft up, and relax. To keep minds agile, or at least awake, trip leaders Mia and Kris had created a trivia contest to be held one evening. 

In a very organized move, Assistant Trip Leader Kris secured reservations for both crews at a newer restaurant favorite in Rock Hall. The crews convened at a big table at Flying Decoy Bar and Grill where a very busy waitress cheerfully provided separate checks for all twelve. The food was excellent and the conversations lively. The mussels received rave reviews; they were listed as an appetizer but could have been a full meal.

Dinner at Flying Decoy

On Saturday morning the charter company advised us not to raft up on Sunday night as thunder storms were predicted. In retrospect, the trip leaders realized having the trivia on the same night as the traditional appetizer dinner on Saturday made good sense. Go with the flow, we’re being lazy.

Luff Out Loud (Mia, Beneteau 41) and Jawn B (Bob, Beneteau 410) set out within moments of one another around 10:00 a.m. They found light wind out on the bay, but set their sails just the same. While Jawn B headed down toward the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to look for wind, Luff Out Loud luffed west and found some ripples on the water mid-bay. They also found dozens of crabs swimming just below the water’s surface, along with jelly fish. The wind rose and fell, never more than low teens. But it was enough to enjoy several hours of lazy sailing. Finally Luff Out Loud entered the channel into Bodkin Creek at the mouth of the Patapsco River. This is a narrow, shallow channel where careful attention to red and green daymarks is key. And so is avoiding the many speedy powerboats that also enjoy the creek. After holding her breath for a few minutes in the channel Mia relaxed and steered on around to the east then north into Main Creek and a quiet spot where a couple power boats were also anchored. 

Most of the crew jumped in the water, which was 86 degrees and blissfully free of common sea nettles. Jawn B. glided into the creek an hour or so later and came alongside to raft up. Once they were secured Mia and Kris declared a 6:30 dinner hour, intending to give Jawn B’s crew time for a dip. Unfortunately, the sea nettles had drifted in with the tide, discouraging the swimmers. Bob had brought an inflatable standup paddle board to try but Jawn B’s delayed arrival and the sea nettles made that unattractive!

Appetizers were served aboard both boats while crews travelled from one to the other. In a remarkable feat of engineering, skippers Mia and Bob had managed to perfectly align the two boats’ lifeline gates, making travel quite easy.

As appetites were sated, Kris produced answer sheets for everyone (except herself and Mia) – a sheet of paper, a pen, and a piece of cardboard for a writing surface. Kris thinks of everything.

Click Here to take the trivia challenge! (sorry, no more prizes)

There was much joking and some groaning and head scratching as Kris read the questions. They were not easy! The first batch of sixteen were about the Chesapeake Bay, and the second set of nine was about America, in honor of the 250th anniversary of the nation. The question about how many bridges span the Bay, and their names, engendered the most discussion (answer: 2, Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel). 

Kris had procured prizes for three places on each boat – she’d planned on prizes for everybody, but a final shipment of participation prizes didn’t arrive on time. The overall winner was John Francischetti with 20 correct answers out of 25. He selected the red baseball cap that Kris had made for the trip. The top winner on the other boat was Bob Rainey, who got the other hat. There were  people across both boats in second place, so Mia broke an appetizer skewer into various lengths and the two crews drew against one another so that each boat had a second place winner (a bottle of wine) and third place winners who received flashlights with runnerups receiving a “I’d rather be Sailing” plaque. Some of which had to be delivered later.It was a warm night on the water, but everyone settled down and slept comfortably. In the morning hearty breakfasts preceded unrafting. Unfortunately, the sea nettles were still hanging about, so nobody went for a morning swim. 

Breakfast aboard Jawn-B consisted of freshly made waffles with blueberries and real maple syrup. A camp style waffle iron was used on top of the stove burner.

The weather prediction for the day was mixed. In addition to the predicted thunderstorms later, the wind prediction for the day was gusts in the 20s from the south. And naturally we were heading south under the bridge, then back up the Severn river to another protected anchorage. 

Aboard Luff Out Loud as we got out of Bodkin Creek there was discussion of sailing east all the way across the bay then tacking southwest to the bridge. Or just powering south to get past the bridge and hope for good sailing wind once we turned west. We calculated either option taking about the same amount of time. But then, if you take the longer option (sailing east then southwest) and conditions change along the way, then you could suddenly be far behind your plan. 

Hans manages the weather and the helm.

We motored south until we got under the bridge. The wind was in the teens with the predicted mid-20s gusts. On Luff Out Loud the instruments kindly notified us every time it gusted to 25. That got old. Once under the bridge we set our sails for a beam to broad reach across to Annapolis, then turned more downwind to sail as far as we could past the Naval Academy and up the Severn River. Rain came and went. For Luff Out Loud’s crew this wasn’t a terrible inconvenience, but aboard Jawn B it turned out the canvas of the bimini and dodger leaked like crazy. There wasn’t a dry spot in the cockpit. 

Luff Out Loud crew underway: Barb, John, Eleanor, Kris.

Luff Out Loud had just passed under one of the bridges when Jawn B came right up on her stern. Bob wore a gleeful grin as they sailed on by. While passing under the Riva Bridge, Jawn B’s auto-helm went rogue and suddenly made a hard turn to starboard. The same thing happened on the return on Monday travelling in the opposite direction - sudden hard turn to starboard. Maybe there was a magnetic abnormality near the bridge causing the electronic compass to ‘spin’. Bob learned his lesson and will put the auto-helm in standby when in close proximity to objects.

The trip up the Severn is about eight miles. We were able to sail about half way before the surrounding hills muffled the southerly breeze so much we had to turn on the motors.

No matter, it was a fun run and did not feel as long as we feared it might. Soon we were turning to port into Round Bay. The water got thin and we took it slowly around the south end of St. Helena Island and on through the s-curve of Maynadier Creek. 

Although there are houses around the creek, it is still one of the most secluded anchorages we visit on the Bay. Rows of colorful floats marked out an area for some mysterious special purpose. It looked like a slalom course. Luff Out Loud found good holding adjacent to the floats where we were confident we would not swing into them. Jawn B came in and anchored nearby, but as previously agreed, we did not raft up.

After the windy day, and with the sky still overcast and storms on the radar, nobody was enthusiastic about swimming. Cocktails and appetizers came out and everyone got down to the business of being lazy. 

Except the cooks. Aboard Luff Out Loud Kris made up a fine dinner of “walking tacos:” Slit open a bag of Fritos, put in taco meat, rice and beans, salsa, peppers and onions… Everyone had agreed not to have lettuce on board this weekend with the threat of contamination still top of mind. Most of the crew opted to pour the Fritos on a plate and top it, rather than eating out of the bag. After all, we were not walking any further than our bunks.

Aboard Jawn B, dinner consisted of sausage and peppers that Beth had prepared at home and heated in the oven. It was well received after a day of occasional rain showers.

Rain was still predicted, although we had not yet seen any, nor the threatened thunder and lightning. For those who like to sleep outside, it presented a creative challenge. Aboard Luff Out Loud, Hans was determined to stay in the cockpit. He slid the companionway hatch part way closed and arranged cushions across the top of it, tucked in under the dodger. Mia and Kris, sleeping in the main salon, were prepared for Hans to join them on the galley floor. 

As it happened, there was only a little rain and no sign of the thunderstorms beyond some flashes in the clouds in the distance. 

Rested and ready to face a beautiful Monday, both crews had breakfast while watching the local birds perched on their spreaders. A couple energetic birds were sitting on Luff Out Loud’s anemometer riding it around and around as it spun in the light breeze. 

Breakfast stowed and lunch plans put in place, both boats went about hauling their anchors. The trip down the river was uneventful: No rain, but also no wind. The fleet came out of the river and headed for the Bay Bridge, setting sail in a few knots of wind. After passing under the bridge the wind just died. Aboard Luff Out Loud they felt trapped, reaching along parallel to the bridge. 

Finally they gave up and resorted to the iron jenny to get them further north into the bay. After that they managed to sail for a while before the wind vanished completely. By then Jawn B had taken an easterly course heading more directly toward Rock Hall. By the time they were in the approach to Rock Hall the two boats were separated by about fifteen minutes with Jawn B ahead. Aboard Luff Out Loud Mia decided to go a little slower to give Jawn B time at the fuel dock – Haven’s Fuel Dock was the only one available.

When Luff Out Loud got to Swan Creek Marina they saw Jawn B standing still ahead of them, clearly aground. Mia’s phone rang. Bob explained that they’d turned to starboard at Red 14 as usual and lined up the next red daymark, and ran hard aground. Clearly Red 14 was off station. Mia took this under advisement and they used the position Navionics said the buoy should be to make their turn. When they lined up on the next marks, it was obvious how far out of the channel Jawn B was. Passing her they could see that her bow was high. She was stuck hard on an outgoing tide.

Jawn B Crew: Mary Ann, Andrew, Hank, Beth, Anne Marie, Bob.

Our friends at Haven Charters sent out Bobby, a marina worker, on a work barge. He was unable to budge Jawn B. When Bob pointed out that the red was in the wrong spot, he went over to it, hauled it aboard, dragged it over to where he thought it should be, and dropped it. So that explained why the green buoys in the channel also seemed to be out of place – they were, and were privately maintained. Lesson learned: do not trust the privately maintained aids to navigation in the area, keep a sharp lookout on the Navionics screen.

While Luff Out Loud’s crew off loaded and headed for their cars, Jawn B’s crew lounged around, took showers on-board, and ate must go food. Beth made it her job to make appetizers with everything she could find in the galley and pantry. Finally at 7:00 p.m., Jawn B’s bow swiveled 90 degrees. Bob rushed to the helm, got the engine started, and steered her into the channel and on to her slip. 

The lazy weekend had both planned and unplanned relaxation, and a bit of unexpected adventure just to spice things up.

Photos: Kristine Kaufmann, Hans Burger, Mia McCroskey