June 24-25, 2021 Summer Cruise Begins

By
Second Star is off the dock again, headed north for another Bay cruise.

There is a late afternoon gathering of the Moran Creek Yacht Club (really just a fancy name for a group of friends and neighbors) at the sand bar about 1/4 mile from our home dock, so that's our first stop. Friends gather on the beach to chat  and share snacks. Turns out we are the only sailboat today; everyone else brought their motor boats and can pull right up onto the beach. Friends Jay & Lynne were nice enough to give us a ride from our boat to the beach.  Sam got to play with her best dog friend Duffy, chasing crabs and fetching sticks thrown into the water.

We spent the night there at the point. Dinner was a cooling steak salad loaded with fresh veg from our garden, then it was an early bedtime. Hanging out in the sun does sap our energy!

June 25
After a blueberry breakfast tart it's time to haul the anchor and head north. Winds are forecast to be very light so we'll mostly motor, with a modest goal of Reedville.

For once the forecast held true.  The wind was a whopping 2.5 kts as we passed under the Whitestone bridge, and 5 kts at Windnill Point where we make the turn into the bay.  Even though we did raise our mainsail, it was definitely a glassy water motoring day for us.  Since it was Saturday there were hunderds of motor boats fishing thd shallows, but everyone was polite and on their best behavior.

We always intend to drop anchor by mid afternoon, but rarely actually do so.  Today we ducked into Ingram Bay Marina for fuel, then decided to make nearby Dameron Marsh our stopping place. It's a small hook of land that will give reasonable protection from the SE wind that increased to 11kts by dinnertime, and we'll have a gentle swell.to rock us to sleep tonight.

Before dinner we took Sam to the beach for some exercise. She loves running on the sand, swimming in the water and catching her frisbee.  I discovered a canvas frisbee doesn't fly too well when wet, but she didn't care. She was a happy dog.

I had prepared meals for the trip that could be frozen & finished cooking with minimal time,  mess and adding heat to the boat. Brent pulled some chicken divan out of the freezer for dinner, then surprised me with chocolate cake for dessert. We don't really rough it when we're sailing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

April 2-4, 2023 Myrtle Beach to Cape Lookout

By
Image
 We slipped away from our place on the dock after three nights at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club and turned into the ICW heading north. An hour later we turned into Little River Inlet to pass into the open Atlantic Ocean.   We sailed north about 30 miles before returning to the ICW via Cape Fear River.  The Cape Fear River was in flood tide, which was very helpful making 15 miles north to Carolina Beach.  We took a mooring provided by the city of Carolina Beach after talking on the phone with Larry the Dockmaster who is just about the friendliest guy you ever met. He was very welcoming.  Sam was anxious for some shore time, so we dinghy-ed to the town dock and walked 1 block to the ocean beach. She seemed happy to ve back near the surf. On our last visit Larry told us the best burger in town could be found at the gas station next to the dinghy dock. We enjoyed it last time & it seemed like a good way to shortcut dinner while also filling our fuel jugs. ...
Read more

Fri Sept 11 Patuxtent River to Little Choptank

By
Image
We woke up to a ruckus.  These two were being quite chatty and apparently we were anchored near their tree.  They would jabber to each other, fly off to do some fishing, then come back to the tree to brag about their catch and, undoubtedly, the one that got away. We had some nice sailing leaving the Patuxent River, light rain with the sun peaking through now & then.  The skies began to darken and the wind picked up about 3 hours into the sail.  We ended up skating though 4-6 foot seas with 17-20 kt windsfor the rest of the day.  Lots of waves over the bow, a few crashing up over the cockpit windows.  We received a text message from friends Ed & Lynn that they were anchored in the Little Choptank River.  We were not far (as the crow flies) from there, and decided to join them. A few more hours of navigating the rough water and we dropped our anchor 100 feet away from them just at dusk.  They kindly invited us over for snacks ...
Read more

Day 22 & 23 Glouster, Mass- A Brief Intermission....

By
Image
When we arrived in Gloucester, MA Sunday afternoon it was incredibly hot, part of a heat wave involving most of the nation.  We turned on air conditioning; it was lovely. Monday we had planned to relax and not move the boat, waiting for more favorable winds to allow us to move north.  That turned out to be a good call, because I was feeling under the weather and slept most of the day.  Brent made me some pizza for dinner and we played a couple rounds of cribbage. (He won as usual.)  Sometime in the evening it started to rain, and continued to pour down all night. We needed to pull out a quilt to sleep under. Tuesday morning the rain had washed the boat thoroughly, and instead of being unbearably hot we were digging into our cooler weather clothes for sweaters and wool socks. What a change! We grabbed a lull in the rain to take Shelby ashore and explore.  We walked for a couple hours in a mostly light rain.  We toured downtown Glouchester, enjoying th...
Read more