Fleet 10 Sail June 17-25, 2022

Bouncing to the northeast north of the Bay Bridge.

June 16-18, 2022

(To see all these posts, Click thru the "Newer Posts" at Bottom)

Sean Stull, Captain and Owner of South Paw, invited me to join his crew for a sail aboard the Hunter 34 as he joined Fleet 10 for their annual cruise to port around the Chesapeake Bay.  As I was already in northeastern PA, it was a simple matter to drive Kelly VI, my RV, due south to Annapolis, MD.

Kelly VI trek to Maryland

As the rest of the crew wouldn't
arrive until Friday evening, I
had a wonderful bike ride along the
Baltimore & Annapolis Trail.

I like how a portion of the trail is a
scale model of the solar system.
This is the starting point, the Sun.

If you enlarge this photo, it
explains the scale of the trail.

This marks Pluto at the end of the
Solar System, but not the trail.
I biked this trail on other occasions.

Captain Sean does a great job of documenting his sailing adventures on Facebook, so I'm adapting his FB Posts here in my blog.  Thank You, Sean for inviting me and sharing your documentation with me here.

Sean gave Murph the helm as we headed toward the bridge.

From Captain Sean:

Chesapeake Day 1 (June 18, 2022):  Allen Murphy was the only one of the crew to arrive on Day 0 (Friday).  Wes and I got to South Paw just before midnight and John a little later. I noticed a musty smell in the boat, checked the bilge and saw that it was a few inches from overflowing. Murph manually pumped out three 5-gallon buckets that I dumped overboard. We could see that the float switch was moving, but the pump wasn't working. I thought I would have to hit West Marine in the morning, but after looking at the wiring diagrams we saw that there was a reset at the battery selector.  Wes clicked the reset and it was back in business. I'm guessing that in changing the batteries last week it tripped the reset. The first glitch of the week turned out to be simple (and free).

 

 

Motorsailing north towards the bridge.

   

Sean's video gives a sense of the bouncy sail north of the bridge, heading northeast.

The forecast Saturday for northwest wind, and lots of it. We were on a port beam reach heading for the Bay Bridge and it seemed like everything was working as planned. The wind got swirly as we got under the bridge so we motor sailed for more control and to point up higher. North of the bridge was a whole different bay: 4-to-5-foot waves banged us around, slowed our speed and threw some spray.  The wind held over 20 with gusts 25-30.  We sailed north long enough to miss the shoals at Love Point while having the waves push us and not roll us (mostly) after we turned. 

 

Captain Sean took South Paw through the Kent Narrows opening bridge, smooth as silk.

The approach from the north into
the Kent Narrows is tricky
and very shallow, but 
Captain Sean had no trouble.

We were doing 5-6 knots downwind to Kent Narrows. Luckily the waves calmed and we made it through the narrows (and shallow). 

Docking at Kent Island Yacht Club in the wind and current was exciting. After two failed approaches, we stuck the landing on the third attempt. We had the opening picnic with all of the Fleet 10 crew and the skipper's meeting after. Overall, it was a very fun day 1.

South Paw moored at the Kent Island YC.

The planned itinerary.

Our route sailed from Annapolis to
Kent Narrows.