Owl Moon makes it to Annapolis, finally!

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.

Owl Moon docked in her new home!