The best benefit of storing Seas The Day in the water during the winter is that spring commissioning happened as soon as the water was turned on at our marina. Thus for the first time since coming down to Rock Hall, we were able to start using Seas The Day on April 15... the official start of the "season" for our marina.
Friday was pretty much dedicated to loading everything and getting it stowed below. It's just like moving in to your college dorm... a disorganized mess for at least the first few hours.
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| We had to stop first for some pulled pork sandwiches from Rock Hall Liquors. |
Amongst the typical chores like setting up the fridge and freezer and checking the bilge, we discovered that there was some water condensation under the forward berth. Vicky was able to crawl into the space and clean it with the wet/dry vac.
After that excitement, I headed outside to swab the deck for the first time. The wind had picked up to about 15 kts, and it felt quite cold.
With everything inside and outside looking good, we headed to Osprey Point Restaurant for our first dinner of the season. This is our favorite restaurant in Rock Hall, and super convenient, being only 200 yards from our slip.
Once back from dinner, we had to double check the forward bilge to ensure it remained dry. It has been ever since.
As evening approached, I went outside and began updating the Raymarine firmware by the light of the full moon. It was a beautiful evening.
On Saturday morning I had to do a quick safety check of the propane system before cooking breakfast. (Open the solenoid, pressurize the system with all the burners off, then close the tank... two photos 15 min apart confirm no leaks.)
I also confirmed that all the fire extinguishers were good.
Following breakfast, it was time to get underway. We checked the oil (yes, both of us - we're both taking Engine Maintenance from the US Power Squadron) and got the engine ready. After starting up (I wanted to run the engine for at least 5 min. before departing), I realized that one of the costs of storing in the water was some serious wear on dock lines from the winter storms. Lucky for us, we had some spares all ready.
We departed a little after 9:00 AM. As we exited out of Swan Creek the full force of sailing this early hit us. Air temps were in the low 60s and as you can see below, winds were in the low 20s. We proceeded south through some 2.5 to 3ft waves and it was quite a ride. It wasn't necessarily pleasant, but not horrible. I mentally decided to stick it out until we reached the #3 buoy before deciding to return or proceed.
I really wanted to check out the Ever Forward, a container ship that had run aground a month earlier. It had somehow missed a turn coming out of Baltimore and was pretty well stuck. They were still removing some containers before Sunday morning's high tide when the 3rd refloating attempt would take place.
We decided to proceed across the bay. That turned out to be a great decision as conditions improved once the wind from the south was no longer hitting us in the face.
There was a 1000 yard (roughly 0.5 NM) security zone around the Ever Forward which showed up nicely on the AIS layer of my chart plotter. Here you can see how she missed the turn from Baltimore (to the upper right) and plowed into the side of the channel. You can also see quite a number of tugboats, barges and law enforcement vessels all around her.
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| Here you can see me about a half a mile in front measuring 25 feet on my depth sounder. Except for the channel all the seabed around her is in the mid-20s. |
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| We had the chance to watch them remove a container or two |
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| Lots of law enforcement vessels in the area. This one would shortly chase down two jet skiers. |
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| We were not the only recreational vessel visiting the site. |
(Note: As I write this, the Ever Forward was freed from its grounding at the 6:00 AM high tide on Easter Sunday. It was towed south of the Bay Bridge to the anchoring grounds off of Annapolis. My understanding is that they will do a hull inspection with some divers before allowing her to proceed back to Baltimore to pick up the remaining cargo that was off-loaded before resuming her trip to Newport, then on to NYC and Boston.)
Having seen the Ever Forward, we headed back east across the bay. The winds had died down a bit and we pulled out the sails for a perfect hour of sailing on a nice beam reach back to the #3 buoy to turn into Swan Creek.
Vicky made some dumplings for dinner Saturday evening which we had with some white wine and blueberries for dessert. We relaxed in the cockpit for a few moments before I realized I needed to fill the water tanks before the storm came.
Shortly after taking these photos, the downpour started and I quickly put away the water filling kit.
It was quite rocky again on Sunday morning. Temps had dropped to the mid-50s with a strong mid-20s winds. We stayed inside for breakfast (and all morning).
I explained to Vicky that even though we are on a boat, the baby Jesus knows where we are and he could still get in his sleigh and deliver the chocolate peanut butter Easter eggs to us just like he gave them to his disciples that first Easter (as commemorated in da Vinci's "The Last Supper").
I'm not sure she believed me....
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