A Steamy Week

Well, July isn’t the coolest month and 100F temps are usually rare, but we found them.  I left the slip Sunday morning to meet up with the Chesapeake Catalina Yacht Club (CCYC) folks at Harris Creek off the north side of the Choptank River, just past Knapps Narrows. It was a beautiful sunny day with enough wind to sail most of the way. Fired the engine to clear the Narrows lift bridge, and motor up wind to Harris Creek. Bounced briefly off the bottom  – in channel – on the east side of Knapps. There have been complaints about inadequate dredging of this channel. Guess I found the spot!

                            

As I turned north, I caught up with the CCYC fleet coming from St Michaels. With deeper drafts than mine, they had gone around to the south rather than risk the Narrows.  We built a small raft in Duns Cove and spent a pleasant night with good company.

Mike spent some time modifying his dingy lift.

                            

 

… and we passed on swimming given the company.

                            

Also enjoyed a visit from a former colleague from the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and the Chesapeake Bay Program. She lives just up Harris Creek and manages the CBP Communication Office. Nice visit and fun to hear about all the good work.

From Duns Cove we sailed to Trappe Creek further to the east. Now the temps were climbing and heat and humidity were uncomfortable when the air went calm.  Lucia flew an appropriate Asym on the way …                  

Shared a great dinner …

And woke up to a beautiful morning sky!                

That evening  a small thunder storm blew by to the north and brought a bit of cooling, however brief.

Tuesday and Wednesday we spent at the Chesapeake Yacht Club with excellent facilities. Also, I picked up SOS crew Myra and Rob for the balance of this cruise with Singles on Sailboats (SOS).  We had lunch at Snappys, then dinner at t CYC on Tuesday.

It was a relaxing day on Wednesday then a cab ride up river to board the River Queen paddle wheel for a ride back down for fireworks..

The paddle wheel dropped us – special ‘celebrity’ stop – next to CYC for a short walk back to the boats.  HOT night, even sleeping in the cockpit!

Thursday morning we left Cambridge and headed to Trippe Creek for another pleasant evening swinging on an anchor.

On Friday we headed to Oxford where we were to meet up with the SOS group who were coming from St Michaels. It was too early to get into our slip at the Mears Marina, so had a nice sail well up the Tred Avon River. Showers at Mears while waiting on our SOS friends, then happy hour on the marina veranda. (Have to say, pretty ragged facilities and not very friendly staff – won’t be going back).

We made breakfast on board Valinor Saturday morning for some of the SOS folks and shared thoughts about the extended plans. One crew had already left due to the extreme heat, and the concensus among the rest of us was ‘enough already’ – time to head home and find cooler quarters!

The favorable wind forecast turned out to be wrong, and we motored or motor-sailed all the way back to Annapolis on Saturday, secured the boat, had dinner at the Boat Yard Bar & Grill, and begged some AC from a friend at his place for the early part of the evening.

Sunday morning we cleaned up the boat and I took Rob back to his car in Cambridge and headed home. After a couple days at home, I’ll be sailing to Solomon … stay tuned.

Click here for link to SPOT track

https://www.findmespot.com/spotadventures/index.php/view_adventure?tripid=309875