NIH Sailing Association
NIH Sailing Association
We offer the following highlights of our cruising program:
After doubling the point, we dropped sails behind Rich Neck and motored our way into Tilghman Creek. The entrance is guarded by a tight zig-zag of points which gave the deeper draft Grace Note just a moments' grounding. Deja Vue meanwhile was suffering it's own problems -- an engine overheating with rather dramatic looking smoke pouring up out of the cabin. Big boat diesel lesson #1. We dropped anchor where the engine died, conveniently in the middle of the creek, and rafted up for lunch. During lunch we were treated to a close-up view of a bald eagle flying briefly with a flock of buzzards, and a herd of about ten deer who one-by--one jumped into the water a few hunred yards downstream and swam across the creek.
After lunch, we reached across the mouth of the Miles River, then tacked our way up into the Wye East River, where we surprised the Beneteau 35 "Boo" as it was poking about Granery and Dividing Creeks looking for us. Meanwhile, Bob had dropped his superior hook in a tiny indentation, aptly called One Boat Cove -- at least by NIHSA. There, we rafted up for the night, joined by Boo - skippered by Joan Beerweiler with Cindy Walczak, Cay Loria, Pat Schreiber, and Steven Stahl - and by the Pearson 30 "Opus" with Mary Pat Cricenti, Debbie Parshall, and Sarah Stone aboard. We were treated to another bald eagle, an osprey scooping a fish from our little inlet, a flock of swans on the wing, and an enourmous mud bar that seemed to creep closer to our sterns as the tide went out. Festivities included, the usual gin and tonics, good wine and good food, and was topped off by a flaming crepes suzette dessert executed with flare [sic] by chef Hall. After much whistful talk about Huber, and the way he liked to jump in the water first thing on a cold day, one of the newcomers asked brightly, "Is Huber a Pet?"..."Sort Of." [And we all wish him a speedie recovery from his unfortuante recent accident ashore].
The raft up provided a prime opportunity to compare boats. Opus is an older Pearson 30 built as a racer cruiser and is much less beamy than Grace Note. By all accounts it sails much better. Everyone agreed that Boo was the winner of the show boat department - built in cockpit ice chest, roomy and teaky below, but disappointingly, no jacuzzi. Deja Vue probably won the contest for sheer internal volume -- the quarter birth goes all the way across under the cockpit -- but had a tendency to round up [the boat, not the birth].
Overnight, the wind clocked around to the South. Whereas we had been almost aground on one side of the cove, we were now playing cozy with a weed bed on the other side. After a breakfast of Mimosas and mooching from various pantries, we broke up the raft and headed out. Since we did not trust our motor or the mud, we got a side-by-side tow out by Grace Note. We repaid the favor by promptly ditching her as we short tacked back down the Wye. Again her extra foot of draft seemed more of a hinderance than a help. Since the wind had changed, going home was more or less a reverse of the trip out. We passed the same loons off Bloody Point that we had seen on the way down. The wind rose into the 20s as we got closer to Annapolis and surf was up as we raced the homeward bound J24 fleet on a broad reach into the Severn. Docking Deja Vue sans motor proved to be slow and frustrating since the Catalina would not point for beans on the main, alone.
Throughout the trip, we rotated navigation and helm duties every half hour, so all had plenty of varied experiences. We made a point of finding every object on the charts. Your intrepid reported captured much of the action on film. Unfortunately, the second day, which included some fine close-ups of Bloody Point, got lost due to a failure in film threading. Guess, we'll just have to go do it again. Thanks for a great outing. Peter.
Blessed by balmy weather, a fleet of a dozen boats converged on Tilghman Creek at the south end of the eastern bay for the club's annual Columbus Day cruise. Four charter boats carried 20 while 8 owner boats added another 24 people for a total of 44 souls, a dog and a cat. It was a split personality cruise, with northern and southern components, and party-hardy vs. more restrained celebrants.
It all began on Friday night when northern boats enjoyed al fresco dining at the Waterman's Crabhouse with a beautiful view of the sunset over Rock Hall harbor, or in the slip at Rock Hall. Swift, Sequel, Lazy J, and Voyager rafted up near the islands in the Rhode River to kick off the cruise.
Caracol provided the first anchor for Saturday's raft-up in Tilghman Creek. Akizuki scored Saturday's longest sail from Rock Hall via the Bay Bridge and Bloody Point, while the crew of Standard Missile won the 'ready at the last minute' award. Arpege fueled a lot of the fun, probably in an attempt to adapt to their unique yacht. The split personality asserted itself as the Saturday night Tilghman creek raft up was split in two when the ends of the raft found themselves facing each other in the twilight. However, for the price of a wet bottom, "Frosty", sailing dinghy for Thursday, provided enjoyable water taxi service between the rafts on a beautiful moonlit night. There were as many modes of propulsion as there were dinghies. "Sea Biscuit", tender for Whirlaway ferried crew with an electric motor and "Jonathan", Swift's dinghy provided some rowing exercise as well as serving as the base for a group photo before the raft broke up.
Sunday morning the northern and southern boats parted company as Akizuki, Arpege, Dominion, Opus, Sequel and Voyager headed to the top of Grays Inn Creek off the Chester River via Kent Narrows.
Reports Arpege's skipper: "After we went through Kent Narrows, Opus, Sequel, Thursday and our boat stopped at Red Eye's Dock Bar for Bloody Marys. It turned out to be a stressful pain to dock; the current was roaring past at several knots, there were dozens of big powerboats milling around, and there was nowhere to dock. Sequel found a place, and Opus and Arpege rafted to them. It was worth it because it is such a weird place. A biker took our picture with one of our cameras. Gray's Inn Creek was lovely, and we had a raft of six boats. Sadly, the margaritas ran out pretty quickly, as we were sharing with everyone. We bought a dozen crabs at Kent Narrows eaten later as appetizers; the usual festivities followed, at least on our boat. I will confess to overachieving on fun. Another lovely night - clear, if a little cool. Again, a split-personality situation, with the partying crowd at one end, and the more sensible ones at the other."
Southern boats had lunch at St. Michael's before Standard Missile, Lazy J, Swift and Whirlaway proceeded up the Miles River to Hunting Creek. Lazy J gets the Good Housekeeping gold star and the eternal thanks of S.M.'s crew for rafting up with Ron & his cast of thousands on Sunday night. Swift and Whirlaway rafted together around the corner. With two dinghies it was still possible for the rafts to socialize; some sang (or tried..) Bob Dylan songs and others listened to the baseball game.
The boats headed out Monday morning about 10am, back to their respective home ports, on the warmest day yet - what great weather!
From Voyager's skipper:
"Monday we surged out of the Chester River, powered by Voyager's large,
colorful cruising spinnaker; later, we beat southward, heeled over under
steady breezes; and in the evening, motored in the dark from Thomas
Point to Galesville, successfully finding navigation markers and crab
pot free zones, despite the handicap of an erratic compass."
From Arpege:
"Monday we sailed off the raft and short-tacked up Gray's Inn and into the Chester. We had a great sail most of the way down the Chester. When we turned downwind toward Rock Hall, it was motor time, because that boat just won't go downwind. Returning to the slip, we were in unanimous agreement that we had a tremendous cruise, and we were a great team."
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