Galesville, then to Annapolis
Another day in paradise as I glanced around the quiet anchorage in Galesville taking in the morning sunshine and relaxing with the soothing sounds of water lapping at Kelly IV's hull while the building breeze was rustling the burgees flying off the starboard spreader. The large motor yacht off our starboard quarter was lying there just as it had all night. So when I glance their direction a few minutes later and they're gone, it takes me by surprise. Suddenly I realize that they are banging against the side of a sailboat just a couple hundred feet aft of Kelly.
It is crazy to experience two anchoring adventures just a few days apart (our collision in Solomons happened while we were at anchor), but there it was right in front of me. One minute the power yacht was lying quietly to her anchor which served her fine all night long, the next she was no longer under control and her hull was beating against the sailboat. Fortunately, they sorted it out and in another few minutes the two skippers were exchanging information and the motor cruiser was on her way. The wild part of all this is that, at its strongest, the breeze was still less than 10 knots. I have to believe that something went wrong while they were raising their anchor, rather than their anchor dragging (which is a common culprit in these events).
The prior day started easy as the sail to Galesville was about 32 nm and didn't require an oh-dark-thirty departure to get there in daylight. Our experienced crew guided Kelly back through the winding navigation aids and past the threatening shoals without a hitch. The breeze was the best we'd seen so far this week, so once in the open water of the Choptank River we set sail. Those who understand Murphy's Law will not be surprised to learn that Kelly faced the “Sailing Corollary to Murphy's Law: whenever a nice sailing breeze pipes up, it will be on the nose.”
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| Jack and Bob sailing Kelly IV |
No worries, with Jack at the helm and Bob on the sheets, they tweaked and adjusted to point as close to the wind as possible and after only two tacks we cleared the south end of Tilghman Island. This route did take us several miles further than going through Knapp's Narrows. A local captain advised us only a week earlier that there was significant shoaling in the Narrows and it would be easy to get stuck. His advise was to go through at mid-tide on the flood so we'd get relatively deep water and, if grounded, we'd soon float off as the tide continued to rise. Our schedule would have placed us into the Narrows at the peak of high tide which means that if we ran aground we'd be more than 12 hours waiting for the next tide to float us off. It seemed prudent to just take an hour extra to sail around the extra distance and avoid the potential problem altogether.
It was a beautiful day, yet our breeze was beginning to wane. And, wouldn't you know it, our course turned us downwind so what little breeze there was just wasn't enough to keep us moving. We did spend a half hour struggling to set the drifter and merely drifted close to the fishing weirs. That convinced us to stow the sails, fire the iron genny and proceed across the bay to the West River where we'd anchor off the small town of Galesville.
The quiet evening at anchor was followed by a good night's sleep then the brief excitement of the collision described earlier.
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| Thomas Point Lighthouse |
On Sunday, June 2, the building breeze continued and was both strong enough and aft of the beam so Kelly IV sailed away immediately after raising her anchor. A few gybes brought us to the mouth of the West River, then we sailed on a comfortable broad reach until we cleared the Thomas Point Lighthouse. At that point we set the whisker pole on the jib and sailed wing-and-wing for over an hour until past Tolly Point.
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| Approaching Annapolis under sail |
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