I’ll take the average!

Wildly divergent forecasts for Saturday weather led to an extended email exchange and finally a decision to relocate the destination for the weekend SOS raft and a shorter sail. What we got was north winds 15-20kts with gusts into the upper 20s and 2-3ft waves on Saturday. That made for a great, sometimes exciting, sail down past Thomas Point and up Eastern Bay into the Wye River. The normal 4-6kt boat speed became 6-8kts motor-sailing with only the head sail flying, and bucking frequent steep chop. A good indicator of conditions was encountered as we passed Thomas Point. An ongoing race to Oxford was in progress with lots of colorful spinnakers flying. We witnessed one boat broach, put the rail under water as well as the spinnaker  – not once, but twice before they got control and sail down. I’m sure that story will get re-told many times!

On Sunday, the return trip was motoring all the way in less than 5kts of breeze – thus the title. An average of the two days would have been about perfect!

Saturday evening was the typical SOS circle raft with 15 boats, and a good time visiting around the circle with each boat crew. Good company and a chance to hear about that day’s and other adventures.

Just part of the 15 boat circle raft

Once again, we got a beautiful sunrise with mild temps and a light breeze….

Sunday sunrise

We created a parade of boats as we sailed/motored back down the Wye River…

 …. and around the light house point.

We also got an up close look at a freighter at anchor that happened to be on our course home. The fishing boat that was taking advantage of the temporary ‘reef’ provides a sense of scale.

I think they’ll have a tough time landing this one!