Rhode River/Magothy River

Since my last post we pulled the boat so that George could paint the bottom and polish the sides. We also had the people at Generation III take a look at the autopilot and rudder. We had noticed an occasional clunking noise that seemed to be related to the steering and wanted to make sure we didn’t have a problem. The folks at Generation III said everything looked good with both the autopilot and rudder so we feel reassured.

Once Breeze On came home we went out for a few day sails and felt grateful for the opportunity during these days of social distancing. A few days ago we set sail for the western shore of the Chesapeake. After a nice day of downwind sailing our first stop was the Rhode River. We stayed there one night then set sail north past Annapolis and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the Magothy River. We arrived at the bridge just as two other sailboats were passing under it. That was a first for us. George would happily tell you that both of those boats had been ahead of us and we caught up to them at the bridge. We both agreed that Breeze On seems faster now that she has a clean bottom.

Once we were in the Magothy River and approaching our anchorage we dropped the mainsail. The main halyard caught a new cover George had purchased for the bow thruster controls and sent it flying overboard. Breeze On did not come with a cover for the bow thruster control but the sun has caused the controls to crack. The cover George bought is actually made to be an end cap for a plastic fence post but it is similar in size. I am usually the one who removes the covers for the navigation system displays as we prepare to sail. Since the cover is new, I am not used to it, and I don’t use the thruster when leaving the slip so I had neglected to remove it when we were getting ready to leave a few days ago. In any case, we used the episode as an excuse to practice a man-overboard drill and we retrieve the cover.

I have been noticing for several weeks that the wind readings seemed to be off, especially the apparent wind when we are going upwind. As George was finishing putting the mainsail away he looked up to the top of the mast and noticed that the anemometer (little spinny thing that measures wind speed) was completely gone. I guess that explains why the wind speed readings were off. We aren’t sure how and when that happened.

We anchored at a lovely anchorage next to a horse farm on the Magothy. The biggest downside is that it is very popular, especially on weekends. Numerous motor boats come in to anchor for the day. Last night 14 boats stayed over in the anchorage. Right now there are about 60 boats and they are still coming. There is a raft-up of six, make that seven, small boats behind us that has about 25-30 people. It is as if they never heard of the coronavirus. This morning, before breakfast, George went up the mast to try replacing the broken wind instrument with an old one we had. The old one didn’t work at all so we will make due with inaccurate wind readings until we can replace the broken one.

The weather is hot but the water is lovely, with none of the dreaded sea nettles. We have been swimming several times to cool off.