2010 Sailstice Cruise - June 19th

Been working very hard on the Boat and her sister for the past few weeks, and needed a break. I had to go it alone as Brigite was in Western VA at a weekend away.

I took the morning off, packed a steak, salad, cooked rice and a tomato, and headed East!

Did some work on the boat, with the help of Lee from Sea Dog, the 24 foot fishing boat beside us. The work was supposed to take about an hour, but ended up taking 3 - such seems to be the way working on boats, actual time = expected time * 3.

I wanted to test the rig tension and the #3 sail, and it seemed there was enough wind for that, out of the SSE forecast at 9kn, but actually more like 16 with gusts to 20kn, especially out in the East just past the protection of shore.

So off I went with the autopilot working perfectly, after my repairs to the broken gear. It was a reach out and another boat left just after me, and I believe it was Butch in Schock Full O Nutz, they caught me at the Bridge Tunnel (BT), and then reached off.

I wanted to go up to Cape Henry, and around the Tanker anchorage, as I have wanted to sail out there for a long time, and the wind direction was perfect. The Tankers are very cool, they are like resting giants, massive and reminders how powerful the ocean is. Why? Because these things are soo massive that they look like they are invincible, but still out on the oceans of the World they take beatings, and to me that demonstrates the power of the Oceans and is a reminder that they can never be underestimated.

Ok, so back to the sail, sailed up and around the tankers, to the furthest out ship then tacked back towards the beach up at Cape Henry. That area is a military base and Restricted (Out of Bounds), and there were boats doing training missions there, and I sailed right through it. I hoped they were not authorized to use live fire on intruders!!!

Then I sailed up towards Lynnhaven, as the sun started to set. I bore off to a run and towards the BT, put up the chute (busy work when single handed), lit the BBQ and enjoyed the sunset.

Got to 1st Island as darkness set in, dropped the chute while there was still some light, sailed close hauled the 4.5 nm towards Little Creek. Cooked my steaks on the way and enjoyed them as I sailed along.

Entered the Cut just after 10, and was on my way cycling home at 11pm. A 20 nm sail taking 4hrs.

Short Cruise and BBQ - Sat Jun 12th

Brigite & I took some time to take the boat on a hot Saturday afternoon. The Southerly was strong and building to over 15 knots. We used the #2 and a reef and were still overpowered.

We sailed around in the bay, then back to the beach by the house where we anchored and started the BBQ.

The tide was out, and we bumped up on the sand as we approaced to anchor, and we now have that WP on the GPS. It was soft and we were going very slow and there was no risk of any damage, etc.

We had a glass of wine and lit the BBQ, when storm clouds and rain appeared on the west horizon over Hampton, so we decided to raise the anchor and motor sail with the #2 up to East Beach and cook/eat there, closer to the cut and marina.

The storms passed just to our N and we only got a few sprinkles of rain, but a strong wind from the W. It was choppy and B was not feeling well when down below.

We ate, hung out as the wind and chop died down, and headed for home in the dark - probably around 10pm.

Wed Beercan Racing Update

Not much racing here in June. The weather has not cooperated, mostly due to summer type storms developing in the evenings.

May 26th racing was abandoned due to the absence of any wind.

The June 2nd was abandonned due approaching thunder storms - luckily for us as we were too busy to head out, we had to go up to Colonial Beach at the weekend so no time for racing.

The 9th we had a race - kind of. The RC was very wish-washy about whether or not to have a race as there were diminishing storms around. They called the race, then under peer pressure reinstated a race! Thus it was not going to count, but get scored anyway.

Wind was S around 11 kn, course sent us from the start to J close hauled, a long spinn broad reach to L, a beat back to the start leaving K to Stbd. A strong flood tide all evening.

We had a killer start with our #3 and full main. We were first to J, gybed, put up the chute and were able to hold off the thundering herd to also be first around L, this was great going! CYMRU wasn't far behind, able to slowly eat away on our lead once they had their big genoa poled out wing-on-wing.

We had a good beat, and used the in-hauler on the genoa and it helped us gain a few degrees closer to the wind.

Got passed by CYMRU not long after rounding L, and they were a freight train upwind, then Baserunner passed us to weather, and maybe one other boat got ahead, so maybe we finished 4th scratch, but we corrected over everybody!!! Shame it doesn't count - but it was a great sail and a lot of fun which is more important. CYMRU was second, despite horrible tactics, and Southern Style was 3rd, having been very fast on the beat.

On the 16th, we were working on the rig, and had to skip racing to work on the boat, but to no harm as racing was abandoned due to oncoming storms! By my count the Summer 5 race series only had one race day!

Lets hope we get better weather the next couple of Wednesdays so we can forget this frustrating spell.

May Update...

Not much to report this past week. At the weekend Brigite & I sailed on a J/24 (Hospice Regatta), and so did not take Silver Fox out.

Had a lovely race day on the 19th, light easterly around 5kn. Short course K, J, S presumably in the event the wind crapped out.

We set up for the start a tad early, at the favored end, and after burning time barely laid the pin end, plus a couple of bigger boats to weather rolled us, but it was not too bad, the other end of the line was a complete cluster!

Had more Spinn boats out this week - for first time. I think there were 4 total, and Schock Full O Nuts was red hot. Turbo's Tub also got us, making their time from J to the finish, as we rounded the leeward mark together (us and CYMRU outside of her).

The boat felt dialed in, I don't remember her feeling this way racing before, it was sweet, and fun! We used the #1 on the Primaries and that worked well. We also did well preparing well in advance (before the start) for the first hoist. Baserunner came in to the top mark on the Stbd lay (Stbd rounding) and fouled us, but we waved it off when he tacked. We also have a new holder for the small GPS and it worked very well.

Despite the boat tracking well, and no major mistakes we were still deep in the fleet. We did beat most of the non-spinn fleet and one spinn boat, but as expected the boat is not thoroughbred! Which is fine by me.

Sailed back to the dock as it was a pretty evening for a sail.

We put on the Starboard handrails this week! After about 8 months or so! I also checked the oil (fine) and the water level in the Battery (also fine), and added a holder for the trash can at the base of the stairs. By my estimation we have run for 15.75 hours since the tank was last full.

Ralpho Out!

Kiptopeake and back home to Cobbs marina

After the thunder & lightning at 0430, we slept in until 1040. It was a nice calm morning, with the boat barely moving, making for great sleeping conditions. Had breakfast then inflated the dingy to explore ashore.

The bay is part of the Kiptopeake State Park, so when we went ashore we found a nice walkway to trails through the forest. It was a beautiful morning, warm and sunny. We wandered around the trails, and up to a small camping store at the pier. The store just opened last weekend and is operated by friendly Park personnel.

We checked the former ferry pier, and then headed back to the boat.

By the time we had everything put away and were ready to raise the anchor it was nearly 1400. We went out, and decided not to pass under the bridge at the Northern end, but rather take a more direct route back. We had the tide under us all afternoon, and the forecast of NE breeze, which would be from astern at around 14 mph.

But once out it was very light, and the boat was hardly moving. We had lunch and then after about an hour the wind abruptly filled from the NE under a dark cloud. We went for a chute, gybed and were making great progress down the rhumb line.

As we progressed the wind continued to veer to the East, and came up a bit. The chop was getting bigger as we got away from the shore, and it made for great sailing!

We crossed 2 shipping lanes, and on both occasions had pretty close crossings with commercial traffic, both of which we passed in front of.

As we got further down the route, with the strong breeze we had to stay close to DDW, or else the boat was too loaded up. Later around first Island, we dropped the chute and power reached to the cut with the #3 and full main. Brigite did most of the driving here and did great!

We got in around 17:30, which was a great time as we still had the full evening to do things at home, and get ready for the work week. The trip over took 6:30 hours, and we did 24.5 nm, coming back it took only 3:45 and was much more direct at only 18.7 nm.

A great weekend sailing, exploring, cruising and having fun - basically a great way to celebrate ones 41st birthday!!!

May Birthday Cruise to Kiptopeake

What a wonderful weekend! We were late leaving, and missed the favorable tides and wind. So we went out into around 15kn on the nose in choppy seas. A tough slog into that for a couple of hours, with VMG of only a knot or less on Stbd tack. But at least it was warm and sunny, and the forecast was for the wind to go right and lighten as the afternoon went on. We hoised the #3 and main with one reef.

Brigite got a case of mal de mer, and was not at all well, but felt better lying down in the cockpit. Other than that I was enjoying the sail, but getting frustrated that the wind was not veering and our VMG was very low, and almost non-existant on stbd.

The wind started to gradually decrease, to the point that the gusts were not overpowering us any more. The seas also were getting smoother. We beat up to the second island bridge tunnel opening, and we changed up to the #2, and got pushed further out thru the channel by the strong tide which must have been over 2 knots.

Then suddenly at around 4pm, the wind lightened up suddenly, and then instantly shifted right by 50 degrees. Great for us, but it was still light and we were pretty much running on the spot as we headed into the ebbing tide, but eventually the wind picked up and we started winning the battle.

Breeze filled in nicely, and the seas flattened completely to give us a beautiful reach for the second half of the trip.

Entered between the two rows of sunken concrete war ships that form the breakwalls for the harbor. 2 other boats were there and we dropped anchor to the south of them. I inspected the bottom, and cleaned what I could. The prop, shaft and P bracket were COVERED in barnacles, and I couldn't get everything off as it was too cold to stay in the water (65 degrees).

We BBQ'ed terikae chicken, and also had couscos and green beans. Off to bed around 2230, and a nice sound sleep.... until 0430 when flashes of lightening, and light rain woke us up. It wasn't too intense a storm, or else we were not directly in its path, but either way, we rode it out without problem, other than thinking of contingency plans, and keeping one eye open for about an hour and a half, then back to deep sleep.

No beer can racing 5/12/10

A storm producing system moved across the country and looked like it would hit our area at 7pm. It would be late, so the system could weaken and break apart, but at 5pm it was still packing a punch as it passed Lynchburg. I decided not to risk putting ourselves in the path of the rain, wind, and lightening.

In hindsight it was the right decision, the storms arrived right as planned, and racing was abandoned prior to the start.

Hope to get out at the weekend...

Ralph Out.