Summer Cruise Day 2

We raised anchor in the early morning and made our way South towards South River where we were to meet up with my parents boat. 

This was the only day when we had a destination with a time set on it. We were to meet with them for the afternoon and raft overnight for us to set sail the following morning.

We made good time during the morning, arriving at the mouth of South River by 2pm. That's when the wind died and we slowly made our way towards the river. We were there for so long that the tide actually changed and we were just barely able to keep our position under sail. We were slowly sailing forward in water that was pushing us backwards. Around 4pm, after 2 hours of sitting, we decided that we needed to motor up the river.

While under full sail and with a little push from the motor, we began moving along at 1 to 2 knots over ground. We finally arrived at our destination around 8pm, 6 hours after reaching the river! Maddie and I agreed that we would have simply anchored outside of the river rather than fighting our way in if we did not have a meeting time set up already. 

We met up with with my dad at the mouth of Harness Creek and went in together. 

The electric motor was able to power us up the river to this point, but it was too much motoring for the small battery bank, we burned the batteries down to 42% while struggling up South River against the tide.

It was all worth it though, we anchored and my dad rafted up to us for the night. My sister and her boyfriend made a delicious dinner for us to prepare for our big departure.

While we were rafted, I plugged Wisdom into my dads generator to recharge the batteries. Our new departure time was "As soon as the batteries are recharged!" This ended up being a long time since we were plugged into an outlet on my dads boat, only charging at 15 amps AC.

While rafted the next morning, we got had the perfect opportunity for a photo op.

Yes, we are a family of dentists! 

My boat is Wisdom, because of the wisdom that I have acquired while living and working on her. The dinghy is Tooth, because then it turns the whole name into what I do for a living, pulling wisdom teeth. Eggstraction, my dads boat, is an Egg Harbor.

The question is, should we get another boat and name it Bloody, and put it all the way to the left?

Summer Cruise Day 1

We set out on a long sailing trip heading South. We have no set point to where we will arrive, simply sailing South for 2 weeks and then turning around and making our way back to Fells Point.

Our first day started rather un-eventfully, we took longer than expected to leave the pier, so that put us on a later start than planned, but it didn't matter because we had no time cards to punch! 

We left the Inner Harbor of Baltimore in very light winds heading out of the Patapsco River towards the Chesapeake Bay. The sun was getting low on the horizon as we approached the Key Bridge when a squall hit us. We had reefed the sails already as the clouds approaching looked ominous, but this was rather strong for our first day. 
 

I was up at the fore peak preparing to drop the anchor for the night when it hit. Maddie was at the helm on her 6th sailing trip, so when it hit, she was alone in the cockpit. I don't know what went through her mind as the wind picked up speed instantly heeling the boat over as the wind shifted onto our beam, but I don't think it was happy thoughts. The wind was ripping the tops of waves off and sending the water flying through the air as visibility was quickly diminishing.  Through all of the noise and confusion, she let out the mainsheet which righted the vessel instantly. I was very glad that she did this as I was clinging to the bow rail waiting for her to rectify the situation. What probably occurred in a few seconds felt like an eternity as I was holding on. 

In a few minutes, the squall passed and the seas flattened as the dead calm air hung over us. It was a bit nerve wracking to think this happened in our own back yard as we made our way to the ocean. I had only been crew on a sailboat for 4 days in the Atlantic from Key West, FL to Charleston, SC, and Maddie had only been sailing a few times in the Patapsco River. We didn't have a ton of practical experience between us, but we did have the will and knowledge to make the trip. 

We anchored for the night and slept well as we prepared for our next day of sailing.

Lazy days while under sail

Some days, everyone is full of energy. Other days, not so much!

We were sailing in the Southern part of the bay when Maddie felt like taking a nap. This video was taken while sailing along at 7kn under Jib and Main off of Hoopers Island.

Anchoring

Part of cruising is dropping the hook when the days sailing comes to an end, but there are other times when anchoring becomes necessary.

Our go to anchor is a 20kg (44lbs) Bruce (claw style) anchor attached to 300' of all chain rode. We use a Simpson Lawrence Seatiger 555 windlass to help bring it up. It's a manual windlass that doesn't bring it up fast, and takes a lot of work to raise anchor, but it always brings it up! 

The Bruce always comes up full of mud and shells as it digs deep into the soft Chesapeake mud. Even when current change the boats direction by 180*, and we swing all the way around, this anchor holds. There have been times when the mud was only on a side fluke, indicating that the anchor was laying on its side, and it still held well. Mind you that I let out an excessive amount of chain and use a nylon snubber to take the strain off of the windlass and roller. If there is any wind or current, I usually let out between 140' to 180' of chain in 20' of water. I know it's more than needed, but I can sleep deeply knowing that the anchor is secure. 

We did have a squall that hit us near New Point Comfort, VA while at anchor. The water was only 8 to 10 feet deep but we had 280' of chain out in preparation for the coming storm. Winds kicked up to 52 kn as the waves built and the rain came pelting down.

During this epic squall of 20 minutes, the anchor never dragged! The bottom was sand and shell, which provided excellent holding when paired with the Bruce. 

Scrap piece of dyneema helps bind all the rode so it doesn't fall off the flukes while sailing.

Our secondary anchor is mounted on the stern ready to deploy, a Fortress FX-37. This anchor could replace the Bruce, but the Bruce has held me through so many storms and poor anchorages that I would find it insulting to it to remove it from its throne at the bow. The FX-37 is attached to 30 feet of chain and then nylon rode. The plan is if something really bad were to happen, we could deploy the anchor in a hurry and move the attachment point to a bow cleat. Being stern mounted, we can reach this anchor in a hurry from the helm, yet it is out of the way when cruising or working with the bow anchor. It lives in a 4" PVC pipe lashed to the stern rail with sufficient rode for stern anchoring and kedging wrapped around its flukes. 

I have only used this anchor once so far, it was in a sleepy creek and I wanted to keep the stern of the boat in the shade of a large tree, so I set it as a stern hook to keep the boat from swinging during the afternoon. Talk about overkill for a stern hook!

The Storm anchor is an 80lbs Fishermans Anchor, also called a Herreshoff Anchor. The large flukes will hold in mud, clay, and sand, the hooks of the flukes will hold in weeds and rocks, and the sheer weight will help it dig into anything it lays on. The reason it is my storm anchor and not my main bow anchor is that it weighs 80lbs, and the shape makes it hard to stow. The cross bar is actually supposed to lay flat along the stock so that it can be stored deep in a locker, never to be seen again. Since it weighs 80lbs, I would not be able to lug it out of a deep locker and assemble it while bouncing around in a storm. This is why it lives assembled and lashed to the toe rail. Its center of gravity is actually outside of the toe rail, so merely untying it will launch it. The problem is retrieving the heavy sucker! It takes the windlass to raise the anchor and then a halyard to hoist it onto the deck and get it lashed to the toe rail again. All the lines seen hanging from the crossbar are needed to retrieve the anchor and stow it. 

If we had to deploy the anchor in an emergency, it would be a quick proceeding, but we would have to wait for the weather to turn dead calm before we would ever be able to consider recovering the anchor.

Sailing along with all three anchors ready. The Bruce ready to launch off the bow roller, the Fisherman mounted but ready if ever needed, the Fortress on the stern, also at the ready.

As far as when to anchor, the usual reason is to take a break from sailing; be it sleeping, a lunch hook, kedging, or because conditions call for it.

We usually drop anchor around sunset after a day of sailing, we let out a fair amount of chain, tie off the snubber, and rest easily that evening.

If we are out with friends, sometimes we will drop the hook while we all eat lunch. The Lunch Hook usually involves a very short scope, as it is a very temporary hold. In 20 feet of water, I would usually let out between 140 to 180 feet to sleep, I may only let out 60 feet for lunch. The more you let out, the more you need to pull back up in about an hour.

While we were cruising, we ended up anchoring because conditions demanded it. We had been becalmed and were riding the current South while we waited for the wind to return. It turns out the winds didn't come back that day, but the current did reverse and began taking us North. To avoid backtracking, we dropped anchor to hold our position. We ended up raising the anchor when at the following slack tide to ride South on the next current. Needless to say, we did not cover much ground that day.

Kedging is a nifty trik to keep in your sailors hat! When you need to move the boat, be it off a shoal or into shade, kedging can be your best friend. It is a rather involved procedure, so you need some serious motivation to get all the gear in order. 

First you have to load the anchor in the dinghy and start rowing it away from the boat. If you are on a shoal, you have to row it out to deeper water. Once there, you deploy the anchor from the dinghy and let it set. Then you row back to the main boat and start winching in the anchor line. If you are not grounded too hard, this should be enough to pull you off the shoal. The less stressful way to kedge is to pull the boat into the shade. This is done by running the stern hook beyond where you want the boat to be. Then launch it like usual from the dinghy and pull in the stern rode. This will pull the stern to a desired spot and keep the boat from swinging.

For me, that desired spot is in the shade of a tree while it sit out and read after a long sail to get to the anchorage. Relaxing always feels better after a great accomplishment!