July 20-22
Potomac River
Crew: Chuck

We arrived at the marina early afternoon on Sunday with intentions of sailing somewhere and anchoring overnight for the first time, but after a rather rambunctious sail in big chop, we decided that we’d rather not spend the night on that rollercoaster and returned to Cole’s Point for the night.

Friends John & Marty from Charlottesville were there and talked about taking a trip down to Point Lookout Marina on the Maryland side, almost to the Bay. My goal this season is to experience new things and go places that I’ve not been before, and this was one, so after talking it over, we decided to join them.

We left the marina Monday morning and found little to no wind, but about half way there the wind picked up and we had a nice sail down to the mouth of Smith’s Creek, and I got this picture of “Nova” along the way.

After getting settled into the new marina, and taking a long cool soak in the swimming pool, we followed the advice of some other sailors who were visiting and walked to Courtney’s for dinner. Despite décor and a building straight out of the ‘40s or ‘50s and service that can be described as laissez-faire at best, this was a great seafood restaurant! When I asked which of the fish specials was the most local, the waiter/fisherman said, “all of them.” Apparently he catches the fish and his wife cooks them. A great meal, except for the steak that Marty ordered, but we decided she deserved that for ordering steak in the first place!

The next morning after posing for the picture above and backing out of the slip (left), Chuck and I took off a bit before “Nova” and started for Cole’s Point.

We motored up river for 75% of the trip, on water as smooth as glass, but eventually we were able to get the sails up and start a bit of tacking into the wind. But we didn’t have the sails up more than 45 minutes before the weather alert came over the radio. John radioed and said that they were dropping sails and making for the marina. Chuck and I, being a bit closer to home than they, thought we’d maybe get in one more tack and then do the same.

However, the second radio warning was for Calvert & St. Mary’s counties, just across the river from Cole’s Point, so we quickly got the sails down, got everything below that we didn’t want to get wet, and got into our foul weather gear.

Marty got this picture of the “Goober” just as we approached the storm. (You might have to click on it to even see the boat!)

After watching the darkening skies come down river at us, the storm was on us in an instant and we were soon engulfed in big waves, flashing lightning, winds that the radio later said were up to 60 knots, and driving rain that stung so much we thought it was hailing. We fought our way into the wind as the storm worsened to the point that we couldn’t even see the shoreline. The bow was buried in the waves a couple of times, and steering became almost impossible if I didn’t keep her dead into the wind, but the bulk of the lightning, although awesome to behold was thankfully over on the Maryland side.

Like most Summer squalls, the winds started to let up after about 15 minutes (although it seemed much longer!) and the shoreline became visible again. By the time we made the channel into the marina, the sun was out and we were sure that everybody at home port would be saying, “Storm; what storm?” Ron, however, reported that all the chairs had been blown into the swimming pool, so they knew what we’d been through.

John and Marty got in shortly after we did and after he helped me with a couple of maintenance issues we pooled our resources for a late lunch. Chuck and I packed up in the still sweltering heat and headed for home.

Although the storm is not something I want to go through on a regular basis, it's exactly the kind of experience that I need to get under my belt. Similarly, John's help with my maintenance issues and his general sailing knowledge made this a great trip.

Patsy and I went to the boat for a few days prior to attending the 50th anniversary of her old swim team in Richmond. We arrived on Wednesday, July 2nd, and spent the afternoon loading the boat and getting a few maintenance items out of the way. We set out to dinner and found that neither AC’s nor Good Eats were open on Wednesdays, so we tried the Driftwood. No sooner had we gotten our drinks than the power went out, so we had to abandon that idea too, and finding the Tavern also closed, returned to eat sandwiches at the boat.

The plan for Thursday was to sail down to Lewisetta and the Coan River on the Virginia side where sister Barbara & bro-in-law Ray have friends. We didn’t intend to visit, but to check out a new area. The wind, unfortunately was practically in our face, so we sailed to the mouth of the St. Mary’s and back. After almost no wind at the start, we made the other side of the Potomac just in time for it to pick up. For this tack, the wind was perfect, and we made 6-7 knots for most of the trip home.

Close-hauled at 7 knots from the helm.

The old captain at the helm.

As we approached the slip, Patsy noticed Cleo (below) on the boat next to mine. My friend Mike was there replacing his toilet (fun!) and had brought his faithful companion along. After we got the boat all squared away and started happy hour, we got a few pictures as she wandered around the helm.

The breezes we found on the river were nowhere to be found in the marina, so we eventually headed up to the pool to cool off for a bit. We tried Good Eats for dinner after a shower, but found it just packed, so we went next door to the Backdraft for a less gourmet, but great shrimp dinner.

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While we sailed on Thursday, we noticed some water in the galley floor. Patsy mopped it up as I sailed and we didn't seem to have much of a problem after that, but when we fired up the engine again as we came into the marina, the water returned. We again mopped up and all seemed well, until the next morning when Patsy awoke to about an inch of water under her bunk in the main part of the cabin. We found Ron from the marina who's boat sitting two slips from us and he showed me that the stuffing box was leaking way more than it's supposed to and the bilge pump was not working at all. This sounded like pretty frightening combination to this rookie who's never had to deal with it before, but Ron assured us that he'd get the bilge working and that they'd get on the other problem after the busy weekend. Thanks to him and Marc down the dock who loaned us his spare float switch, we at least had a bilge to pump out the leaking.

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After those repairs Friday morning, we headed out about 12:30 for what looked like a great day on the water, but again found almost no breeze. The plan this time was to sail up river and just go where I'd never been before, but the almost dead calm wind prompted us to turn around after a short while, and when the wind seemed to be just nonexistent, Patsy persuaded me to fire up the engine and at least get some breeze in our faces. Within 5 minutes if doing so, we had great wind, so I got the sails back up and we had a great sail to the Maryland side and back to Cole's Point. The winds weren't as fresh as the day before, but we made 5-6 knots most of the way.

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We decided to give the Driftwood another try for dinner that night and surprisingly ran into my co-workers John & Faye from Richmond. We had a great meal there, as usual, and headed back to the bar at AC's to watch Cole's Point's Fourth of July fireworks. The nice thing about them is that people all up and down the river seem to get involved, so there were fireworks going on somewhere for hours!

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Saturday morning was all spent in getting packed up, car loaded, and my giving the topsides a good washing, which I'd not done since last season. After that we headed to Richmond and Patsy's reunion.