Breeze On

Last week we sailed to one of our favorite spots, the Wye East River. We started out by spending two nights at Leadenham Creek while waiting for favorable winds. A waterman started working his trot line early in the morning the first day we were there and came extremely close to our boat. During one pass he assured us that he saw us (implying that he wouldn’t hit us). During another pass George offered to move, but the waterman said it wasn’t necessary. He was very friendly and seemed to be enjoying himself. While we were at Leadenham Creek we put the dinghy together so that George could test the outboard. He had recently cleaned the outboard’s carburetor and wanted to make sure it would still run! It started right up and ran very well.  Once we had a good southerly wind we sailed out into the Chesapeake and north to the Wye East River. We spent the first night in a tiny cove that we call the “bump out”. We had stayed there once before and liked it. The current this time seemed str...

Our latest outing on Breeze On was a trip to the Little Choptank. Our original plan was to leave on Sunday and return on Friday, but we decided to return on Wednesday to avoid bad forecasts for Thursday and Friday. We had a nice sail on Sunday in cloudy and cool conditions and anchored off of Town Point. Monday started out cloudy and cool but cleared enough later on to become a delightful afternoon. George hooked our TRX system on the mast and we both used it for a bit of exercise. A friend gave it to us when we first started going to the Bahamas. We took it with us but never tried it. I think I was embarrassed by the thought of other people watching me exercise. I have since watched other people exercise on the foredecks and realized I admire them for their efforts. The foredeck provides a nice environment for exercise. We had watched a YouTube video to learn how to use the system. It gives a surprisingly good workout that I can feel the next day. When we are at home we hook it up to ...

The wind dropped, the temperatures rose, and George and I went out for a few days at anchor. Since we started sailing to the Bahamas, spending a night or two at anchor on the Choptank River seemed like no big deal. Now that we are quarantined due to the pandemic, and we couldn’t sail at all for a month, it seemed like a very big deal to us. The wind and temperature were delightful and life seemed almost normal for a couple of days. We saw our friend Willem, on Mariner, as we sailed down the river. We anchored in Trippe Creek on the Tred Avon River and had the anchorage to ourselves. In the evening a boat with what sounded like small children came and anchored not far away. In the morning we saw that it appeared to be a grandfather with two young granddaughters. We watched as grandpa raised the anchor while the youngest girl—probably around six—was at the helm. He had given her a very brief tutorial which we heard —“this is forward, this is neutral and this is reverse”—before he walked ...

Maryland’s Governor Hogan lifted the restrictions on recreational boating so we went out for a brief sail yesterday!  We were delighted to be out on the water and doing something different after a month of quarantining and social distancing. It was chilly and we appreciated the warm sun shining into the open cockpit, since we haven’t yet put the bimini back on the boat. The winds were light and we drifted around at an average of four knots, but we didn’t care about that either. We are looking forward to going out for a night or two at anchor once it warms up a bit.  During the past month we have been extremely careful to keep ourselves safe from the coronavirus. We wear masks every time we leave the condo and wash our hands for 20 seconds as soon as we walk back in. We use the stairs much more than the elevator and George has fashioned a rope to use on the stairwell door handle so we don’t have to touch it. He keeps the rope on top of the stuff we have in the stairwell. We go ...

I had thought there wouldn’t be much to write about now that we are home and hunkered down during the coronavirus pandemic. I was wrong. We knew strong storms with heavy wind were forecast for today. We thought that the tide slides would keep Breeze On secure in her slip. George went down to check on the lines sometime between 9 and 10 am this morning. He called me after a few minutes to say he needed help. He was trying to tighten the line on the windward (starboard) side but the wind was blowing so hard he couldn’t get it any tighter. By the time I arrived the boat was up against the piling on the leeward (port) side and the shroud—one of the cables that holds the mast up—was catching on the piling. Not good. I tried pushing the boat away from the piling while George tightened the line on the other side. I couldn’t do it. Meanwhile, it just kept getting windier and the gusts were especially strong. We switched sides and I tightened the starboard side while he pushed away from the pil...

The boat is unloaded, the food inventoried and put into bins. We cut back on the amount of food we take each year, based on how much we used the prior winter. The job of unloading has therefore become easier every year. If we go to the Bahamas again next winter we will take even less food. We were grateful to have some food left over to hold us over until we could purchase food but we were completely out of fresh vegetables. We were also looking forward to buying food for meals that are different from our boat meals. While at anchor in Solomons waiting for storms to pass, George downloaded the Walmart groceries app and started a list for curbside pickup. We have a Walmart in our town and, although we don’t normally buy our groceries there, we had heard last summer how convenient it is to shop that way. The first step is to schedule a pickup time. The first available time was two days away (Friday) so we chose an 8-9 am slot. We were able to add to the list up until Thursday night. On F...

We had a late start yesterday morning after waiting for a line of storms to pass through Solomons. We expected west winds in the mid-teens but once we entered the bay we found wind in the mid-twenties. We put a reef in the main and sailed up the Bay until the wind eventually dropped. We used almost every imaginable combination of mainsail, reefed main, and mainsail with jib. The wind speed and direction were constantly changing and we ended up motor sailing the last bit to Cambridge. The trip home felt bittersweet since it is the last sail we will have until the coronavirus restrictions are lifted. We also have no idea if we will be returning to the Bahamas next winter. So much uncertainty.  We arrived home about 4:15 pm and unloaded some things from the boat. We traveled 39.1 nautical miles in 7 hours at an average speed of 5.7 kn.  Our grand total since leaving Cambridge last fall was 3032 nautical miles.  Since arriving at home we both feel a bit overwhelmed and pulled...