October 28, 2016 Breezy day on the Bay today. We had a late start out of Annapolis, but made good time down around Bloody Pt. and up Eastern Bay...just over 4 hours from leaving the dock to anchor down in Dividing Creek off the Wye River.
October 29, 2016 Oops! We tested the new keel/hull joint on Owl Moon. While under motor down the Wye River, John put Owl Moon under control of the autopilot to go and do something while Diane was busy on the phone. As soon as John got back to the helm, the forward progress of Owl Moon was suddenly halted as we grounded on a shoal in the Wye River. Fortunately, the bottom was soft and we backed off without much difficulty. The most challenging part was for John to realize the boat was still under control of the auto pilot and had it's own mind regarding heading. Going below we found no sign of water entering the bilge. Owl Moon's new keel/hull joint withstood its first test!
We continued on to St. Michaels where we joined some other Corinthian boats at anchor in the harbor. It was good we had come over early as the harbor was filling up for the Festival at the Maritime Museum.
October 30, 2016 John got up early and took in the beautiful sunrise.
Our Corinthian friends Vicki and Greg were anchored nearby on Erin Brie.
We weighed anchor after an early breakfast to head back to Annapolis.
Passing by our friends Carol and Leigh with a Little Ship Club guest aboard All That Jazz on our way out of the harbor.
Such a warm day for the end of October!
We sailed down Eastern Bay and part way up the Chesapeake toward Annapolis before the wind gave out leaving us motoring the last bit.
October 16 & 18, 2016 John had Tom Zolper join him for the first day sail on Owl Moon out of her home berth on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. John had been anxious to test the centerboard that had been freed up recently when Bob Putnam pried it loose by working on the centerboard at the bottom of the keel. He was diving his boat around the corner and offered to give loosening the board a try.
Owl Moon sailing up wind for the first time with the centerboard down. It went down without any problem.
Two days later, the weather was again perfect for a fall sail. This time we had friends Joe and Eve-Marie aboard and Diane skipped an Environmental Matters Committee she had meant to attend...it was just too nice a day to miss out on sailing.
October 10,, 2016 We had a small gathering with friends to christen Owl Moon. There are varied traditions for christening a boat. We got the basis of our christening here:
http://www.yachtsee.com/helps/christening.php
John poured some Scotch that traveled aboard Owl Moon from Brunswick, GA
And Diane offered champaign for the christening.
Greg Shea was one of the friends who joined us. He had risked his life by sailing on the open ocean aboard Owl Moon before a proper christening, joining John on the trip from Brunswick to Charleston.
September 30 - October 4, 2016 We departed Friday morning on a much calmer day than the previous day. Jim, owner/manager of Regent Point Marina, helped us off the dock.
The water was over the finger pier as we prepared to depart RP.
With light wind and adverse current, we motored out the Rappahannock River.
Happy to be under way again on Owl Moon!
Once around Windmill Point, the wind was sufficient to put up the sails. With the northeast wind and our goal being the Coan River on the south shore of the Potomac, we motor sailed in order to point higher and make Smith Point without tacking. By the time we reached Smith Point, the winds had built to the upper teens with gusts to 20 knots.
Owl Moon did very well bashing through the waves as we motor sailed upwind.
After rounding Smith Point, we rolled in the little sail, rolled out the reacher, and cut off the engine. We went on a reach at 8 knots in those conditions. Part way up the Potomac towards our destination, the wind had built to the point we were overpowered. We decided to reef the main and found that the lines had not been run correctly (no line run at the luff for our single line reefing). John was able to jury rig a tie down at the mast and we put one reef in the main. It was really blowing once we reached the Coan R. and we had quite a large following sea as we made our way into the entrance of the river.
Paul and Mindy were already anchored up the Coan R.on Jylland, Paul's Sare 34, when we arrived as they had a shorter distance to go from where they spent Thursday night. They joined us for happy hour and Paul and I looked at the reefing lines to determine how they should be run...nice to have our boatyard manager along when going for a shakedown cruise after having so much work done!
Paul and Mindy had a head start Saturday morning. Again, the wind was brisk as we came out of the Coan R., and coming right from Point Lookout. We motorsailed NE across the Potomac and caught up with Paul and Mindy as they had tacked over to port on the north shore of the Potomac. After crossing their transom, we cut our engine and the race was on. We rounded Point Lookout just a bit ahead of Jylland, but then we fell off to a reach, rolled out the big sail, shook out the reef in the main and took off...conditions much more suited to Owl Moon than Jylland.
Crossing Jylland's transom.
We saw a pair of Bald Eagles as we entered Back Creek, Solomons, MD. Jylland rafted with Owl Moon at the head of the creek. We met up with our friends, Joe and Eve-Marie on Back Creek in Solomons. The were out sailing with another couple for a week charter on the Bay. We enjoyed happy hour aboard their boat after Joe picked us up in their dingy. In the morning, we took advantage of the light wind and Paul and I fixed the reefing lines on Owl Moon.
After two days of good breeze for sailing, we found ourselves motoring for the Little Choptank on Sunday.
Cove Point Light just north of Solomons.
Once we got to the mouth of the Little Choptank, we raised our main to check the reef lines and mark the main halyard and reef lines. All seemed good. We headed for an anchorage up Hudson Creek and Paul and Mindy headed for the marina up Slaughter Creek.
Beautiful Sunset in our peaceful Hudson Creek anchorage.
The day was again a motoring day. We decided to head to Slaughter Creek Marina to get some fuel for the long motor to West River. Thankfully, Paul and Mindy were still at the marina and assisted us at getting into the self service fuel dock. On exiting Slaughter Creek, there was enough breeze to put up sail. We even started with the small jib, but soon changed over to the big jib as the winds got light.
Owl Moon paasses Thomas Point Light for the first time.
Finally, we had to turn on the engine and ended up motoring all the way to Whitehall Creek in order to be able to arrive at our slip early on Tuesday.
Docking was a bit of a challenge since we did not have any dock lines or piling/dock protection in the slip...arriving for the first time. Fortunately, the wind was relatively light.
