Family Sailing is Great Fun! August 2, 2012

When a great American family goes sailing, the day is going to be a great one. 

Family Sailing the Chesapeake Bay

Stan and Adrian and their children Leah and AJ are the friendliest folks and truly enjoy their time on the water. They met Kelly IV and Captain Murph, clambered aboard, picked out their life jackets and we were off to find the breeze.

Although there was not much wind in Back Creek, Stan soon found it at the mouth of the Severn River. Stan's steering proved his sailing classes were time well spent as he nosed Kelly just off the wind enough to enjoy a bit of heel and kick up a light spray in the blazing sunshine and light air.

Leah, Stan and AJ

AJ took over the wheel and did as well as his Dad keeping the speed up and the apparent wind at its best. There may have been some coaching by Dad but AJ's guidance led Kelly across the bay until we had cleared the breadth of the main shipping channel and were nearing the western shore of Kent Island, several miles east of Annapolis.

Leah, Adrian, AJ at the helm and Stan

Leah's turn at the helm indicated a trend was in the making. This was a family made for sailing! She had a light touch on the wheel and a grin on her face as she drove Kelly IV towards Tolly Point and Bay Ridge back on the Annapolis side of the Bay.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge off Kelly IV's port bow

Adrian really excited her clan when she applied the magic touch to take Kelly IV to her maximum speed of the day spraying the sparkling bay water over the bow and getting the entire boat to display toothy grins.

Adrian enjoys the breeze on the foredeck

Stan enjoyed getting back at the controls, but had the less exciting duty of leading the crew off the wind. In the light air, this meant the apparent wind was minimal and the cooling nature of the breeze disappeared. We fired up the iron genny and motored into Back Creek.

It turns out that when docking the boat this wonderful team followed Captain Murph's guidance perfectly, but still experienced multiple unsuccessful efforts to get Kelly into her slip. Finally a friend on the dock asked, “Is your mainsail raised for a reason?” The extremely red-faced (nothing to do with the sun) Captain Murph merely replied that Kelly would be back to the slip after a short jaunt for some sea room to drop the sail that he should have lowered before nearing the marina.

Once the mainsail was lowered, the great family crew docked as expected and all was well.