Sailing to Maryland Yacht Club

I’ve delayed writing this last day sail from the Sassafras River to the Maryland Yacht Club as we became very busy with cruising friends and activities that the Seven Seas Cruising Association provided here at the Maryland Yacht Club.  Wow!  What great people, so much useful information, and such a fun time!  However, we slept for 10 hours last night. to catch-up.

Okay, so the last sailing day to get to this beautiful spot.  This was our shortest day sail so far, only 35 miles.  It was still mostly overcast.  Rain, thunderstorms and a cold front were predicted later in the day.  As we did not have any cell signal, we decided to press on before the weather hit.  We were directly into the wind for the first 10 miles or so.  As we traveled further south the bay opened up and we were soon under full sail on a close reach.  We decided to get out of the main channel and make a straight line course over some shallows to our destination.  All was great until…

… we snagged a dark colored crab pot.  Our speed suddenly went from near 7 knots to 3.2.  Normally, we can back off of these by turning into the wind.  We tried that about six times with no luck.  We were definitely dragging something.  Anita was standing on the port hinged cockpit seat when Tom was on deck raising the port dagger board.  When she reached over to tighten the dagger board line, the seat hinges ripped out of the bulkhead and sent her feet flying backward (seat and all) onto the cockpit floor.  So lucky it was only a skinned shin!!  Next boat project – repair seat hinges.

We discovered we were not caught on either dagger board.  It was either on the propellor or the rudder.  The water in the bay is not transparent, meaning one cannot see through it, so putting a camera in the water would not help.  After 40 minutes or so we finally came up with a plan.  We dropped an anchor.  Tom donned his snorkeling gear and dove over the side with a line attached to his waist.  He used a suction cup to hang onto the boat and was able to free the buoy in three quick dives.  After he was back on board, he divulged there was a current pulling him away from the boat.  Good thing he had the suction cup and line!

The remainder of the trip we both stood watch and Anita hand steered around numerous dark colored crab pot floats.  Reminds us of Casco Bay Maine!  We anchored in the well protected cove behind the Maryland Yacht Club.  (See picture above)

The thunderstorm arrived after dark.  Gusty winds, lots of rain, thunder and lightning too!  The wind also shifted 180 degrees.  It was hard to tell for sure, but we were thinking the anchor had dragged.  Amazing how calm it became once the storm passed. We re-anchored in the morning as we did not like the new location, nor trust that the anchor was set properly.  Anchor’s been fine for the past five nights. Then it was time to setup the dinghy and venture ashore.

We plan to move Lone Star closer to Annapolis Sailboat Show tomorrow as we will work at the SSCA booth for 3 hours on Thursday afternoon.  We hear the anchorages are filling up, so wish us luck!!