Breeze On

I finished the last of my 36 radiation treatments on August 26. The next day we took off for 5 days on Breeze On. We didn't have a particular destination in mind, it depended on the direction and strength of the wind. The freedom to spend more than one night on the boat without rushing home for my radiation treatments mattered more to us than where we were going. As we were leaving Cambridge we sailed by this little vessel. It is on the market for a mere seven million dollars! The wind was predicted to be very light on the day we left but, in fact, we had 8-9 knots of a lovely cool breeze. It was so cool that George positioned himself to be in the sun just to stay warm. We sailed 28.5 nautical miles and dropped our anchor in San Domingo creek, the "back door" to St. Michaels. St. Michaels is a busy, popular tourist town on the Eastern shore of Maryland. From San Domingo creek we can take our dinghy and tie up to a bulkhead next to a dock used by the watermen. From there...

There is a tired old saying that is especially appropriate for the Chesapeake. It goes something like this, "There are three kinds of sailors on the Chesapeake, those who have gone aground, those who will go aground and those who lie about it. " Well, I am not going to lie about it, we ran aground. We were in San Domingo creek which is also known as the "back door" to St. Michaels. The channel is very tricky and narrow and it was an especially low tide. (Mental note--check tides before entering a narrow, tricky, shallow creek.) I was driving in the narrowest part of the creek and apparently got too close to one side when, boom, the boat stopped and the bow dipped down. I put the boat in neutral, then reverse, and the boat backed off of the shoal. Fortunately, the bottom throughout most of the Chesapeake is muddy and soft. Went aground near that green square in the middle The dreaded green mark where we went aground   After we were free and I overcame my confusio...