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| Ready to watch the Wed. night races |
The Wednesday night sailboat races in Annapolis are always a
treat, and we enjoyed them again last night.
It was a beautiful evening, with a nice wind blowing in from the
south. Around 18:00 we started to see
the boats going out to the starting line area and the parade continued until
after 18:30, but there were not as many boats this time as last week. We prepared to have dinner out in the
cockpit, so that we would not miss any of the excitement. The southerly breeze would ensure that the
boats would be tacking as they approached the finish line, which was upstream
of the mooring field. The mooring field
had about twice as many boats in it as last week, so there were not as many
open places for the racing boats to go.
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| Tacking through the mooring field |
As the first of the boats started approaching the mooring
field, the wind had shifted a little more to the east, and it became apparent
that if they approached on the eastern side, they had a good chance to be able
to make it to the finish line on the same tack.
That spoiled our fun for the first few boats, but then the wind shifted
back to a more southerly direction, and we were in luck. As the majority of boats approached in
closely packed groups, they started picking their way through the moored boats,
squeaking past moored boats as they tried to avoid each other and gain some
advantage. By 20:00 the wind had died
out to barely a breath of air, and there were still 20 boats that had not yet
finished. They were going so slowly in
the light wind that it became boring to watch and we went inside to begin
preparing for an early morning departure.
We cast off the mooring line in Annapolis at 07:00 this
morning in calm winds and a glassy smooth sea.
The morning forecast said we would have light (5 to 10 knots) west winds
in the morning, turning to the southeast by night. We were prepared to motor the whole 45 miles
to Solomons, if necessary, but we had hoped we would get in a few hours of
sailing when the wind strengthened to 10 knots.
We set the jib to give us a little more speed with the motor running,
and were making pretty good time until about 08:30 when the wind finally got to
10 knots and we shut off the engine and set the mainsail too. We were able to sustain about 5 to 5.5 knots
in this wind and it kept up for about an hour before it gradually got lighter
and lighter until our boat speed was down under 4 knots. At this point we started the engine, then
furled the jib and left the main out.
The wind kept diminishing until the Bay was glassy. It stayed that way for the remainder of our
passage to Solomons. We used quite a bit
of fuel today, unfortunately. When we
arrived in Solomons, we refueled and took on about 30 gallons. We have traveled about 300 miles since the
last time we refueled, so it looks like we have sailed about half the miles
we’ve traveled and motored the other half.
We’re here because it is located close to a lab where Lyn
can get a blood test (routine monthly check for her doctor), and we can pick up
our mail at a Post Office nearby. Then
we plan to leave for Crisfield as soon as we get back from these errands,
because we want to visit Tangier Island and there is a ferry from Crisfield to
Tangier Island. So if all goes well, we
will be leaving Solomons tomorrow morning around 10:00 and should arrive in
Crisfield by 16:00.
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