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.