Sailed down to Still Pond for the night

Well, that was an interesting week. I had planned to go down the boat on Tuesday, but I was busy making my awning and getting ready. Loretta, the girls, and I drove down on Wednesday morning for the 4th of July celebrations. I had heard that Havre de Grace has a huge 4th parade, and good fireworks, so I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, the parade was the weekend before, and the fireworks were on the 3rd (now THAT makes a lot of sense).

So anyway, we get down there only to discover that there's no reason to be there, other than to hang out on the boat. That's good enough for me!

It was cloudy all day, so we got the boat squared away, put the awning up, and just hung out at the marina. Loretta and I, at Captain Steve's advice, put snubbers on our dock lines. They're amazing. I couldn't believe how much more comfortable the boat motion was. If you're going to spend any time on board at all, whilst tied up at the slip, I strongly recommend snubbers. The girls and Alex wandered around town, read, and ate ice cream. That evening, I made grilled chicken and we invited Captains Steve and Judy over for dinner. We hung around, swapped sea stories, and ate until well after nine. Then a storm looked like it was coming in and we went back to close the foredeck hatch (wet bed = bad night). We had some thunder and lightning, a bit of wind, and a lot of rain. It was cool to sit in the cabin and look out at this drenching rainstorm in the marina lights. It was warm and dry below, though, so it was all good. The kids played games and we just hung around.

Thursday morning it was clear, though. When I was coming back from my shower I stopped to chat with a lady who's family had moored their powerboat on the floating pier across from Puddleduck's slip. They had been in the Sassafras River to watch fireworks when they noticed everyone else leaving in a hurry. They hailed one of the other boats and learned there was a tornado warning for that part of Maryland (this must have been the storm that went South of the marina). They hauled up the anchor and ran for Havre de Grace.

We all went to Waffle House for breakfast, and then Loretta, the girls, and Alex left for home. I stayed around, because a coworker was coming down to meet me. Mike arrived in about an hour, and we spent the day looking at boats, wandering around, reprovisioning, and just talking about sailing. Then we spent the night at the slip, again.

Friday brought a hazy sunrise at 5:30, and I was visiting the head when I saw this light. Got the camera, snapped this, and went back to sleep.

We got up a little after eight, squared away the boat, and put out. The wind had come up, and we made between four and seven knots all the way out the channel, around Sandy Point, and down towards Still Pond. We left the marina a little after ten and finally anchored in Still Pond a little before six. Some of this time was spent trying to anchor outside the cove, which was much too choppy. Even though the cove looked crowded, we moved inside and things were much better. The anchor held perfectly all night.

Mike and I swam around and talked about sailing. We had sandwiches for dinner, drank soda, swam some more, and then climbed aboard for the night. I shot sunset pictures and wrote to Mouse.This is a picture of a Valiant (I think) and a Pacific Seacraft that were anchored just East of us. Wow. Beautiful boats. On the other side, to the West, was an Alberg 30. I sat and watched the sun set behind her.


In the morning, we went for another swim and then headed out into very, very light and fluky Southerlies. It took almost four hours to make the run from Still Pond to the mouth of the Sassafras. We had initially planned to spend Saturday night in the Sassafras, but we were getting the snot kicked out of us by the power boat wakes, and we knew we'd spend the whole day getting to an uncomfortable anchorage. We motorsailed back to Havre de Grace and got in at the slip a little after five. We squared away, took out the trash, got showered, and headed over to Price's for crabs. Unfortunately, Price's was completely booked, so we had to go to the Nauti Goose in Northeast for crabs. It was good, but it wasn't Price's. Maybe next time. I'm glad I was so tired when I got back, because the bed was definitely rocking when I went to sleep....