Today we sailed to Solomons Island. We started the day with card making for mom's birthday while she was upstairs sailing, then homeschooling began. Indigo and I both started with reading and writing comprehension with me doing Wordly Wise. Sage did a math sheet mom had made her. After finishing Indigo started cello when I started math.
When close to our destination a jet plane noisily flew overhead. We realized we were right next to the Patuxent Naval Air Station. A few minutes later, another huge, fast navy plane passed us. The wind was very nice the whole way, but in the beginning the waves were huge and that was the first time we had gotten sick since the first few days of sailing. Ten minutes away from our anchoring spot in a calm canal we saw 3 tug boats and it's funny how much more we know about them since the museum.
_______
Sailing Candy is what I call the things that you see going by as you are sailing. There can be days when there is no candy.
 |
| Two Dots, a comic I drew when Jamey and I sailed to the Bahamas in Y2K |
 |
| You hope to never see one of these this close unless you have been planning your strategy to not be in its way for some time. We changed course to get out of the channel as soon as we saw the ship as a big dot on the horizon. It passed us around 15 minutes later. They are powerful, super fast, and to be feared and respected. |
 |
| Look at how much water it is pushing in front. |
 |
| This was some sort of platform located a bit offshore. "That thing is enormous!" |
 |
| A sweet little lighthouse. |
 |
| Shark mobile. Some sort of navy attack landing craft? |
 |
| A fish trap with cormorants hanging out on top of the posts hungrily looking down. |
The sailing was super fun and challenging at the beginning and the end of the day for different reasons. When we initially hoisted the main, we were heading straight upwind to maneuver out of the Little Choptank. Though I love sailing upwind, the combination of cold NW wind with gusts to the 20s, swell aligned perfectly perpendicular to the boat (causing the bow to point upward and then crash down as the swell passes underneath), AND 1.5 seasick girls down below makes sailing a little tricky. Luckily , Skye was my helper helmsgirl, and we were able to lessen the up and down by bearing off and heading over a deep-enough shoal we had initially planned to skirt.
 |
| Skye at the wheel. She helps to stabilize mom by holding mom's leg. |
As we arrived towards the Patuxent River, the shifting and dropping wind made for lightwind sailing, the kind that takes great focus to keep whatever apparent wind and speed you have going. Aside from not being half as good a sailor as Jamey is, I also allow myself to be distracted by many things while sailing ("Is that a fishing boat or a spy boat?" "Oh cute bird!" "Yes, Sage, you can take the wheel alone." "Is the wind shifting -- let me check every point of sail and see…"). We definitely had a couple of moments when Jamey had to exercise his greatest reluctant patience and allow me to sail totally inefficiently. "We're not moving at all!" declared Sage.
 |
| Sage |
 |
| An osprey nest on the buoy at the mouth of Mill Creek |
WHERE WE STARTED: Hudson Creek, Little Choptank River
WHERE WE ARE: Mill Creek, Patuxent River
THERE TO HERE: 28 nautical miles, 8 hours, Nancy/Skye/Sage at the helm
ANCHORING: Mill Creek is super close to Solomon Island's harbor. We motored up Mill Creek to look for a more secluded spot, but most of this particular Mill Creek (there is another Mill Creek up the Patuxent River that is also a popular anchorage) is bordered by waterfront homes. We ended up dropping anchor at a gorgeous spot close to the mouth of the creek and just upriver of three huge firefighting tugboats.
No comments:
Post a Comment