Sailing with George and Vicky: July 4th Weekend with Ken and Susan and Their Family

This weekend Susan, Vicky's lifelong friend from her early working career, and her husband, Ken, brought their family up to Delaware for a visit and to try some sailing. They arrived Friday evening from various points in Georgia and Florida.

Their son, Brandon, pictured below, is Vicky's godson. I first met him during our first trip together to China ten years ago (Photos here).

We decided that Saturday was best spent seeing some local sites and selected Longwood Gardens as a nice place for us all to visit.

Andrew, Ken, Susan and Brandon

Brandon and his girlfriend, Jessica

After touring Longwood, we went to the 1906 restaurant where I had lobster and risotto followed by a chocolate flower pot.

Lobster Risotto

Chocolate Flower Pot

So it was Sunday until we could get the whole bunch down to Seas The Day to experience life on a sailboat. We left Delaware a little after 9:00 AM and arrived in Rock Hall in time to buy sandwiches at the liquor store just before lunch.

The plan for the day was to just go out for a quick daysail and see how everyone took to the boat. (Our overall plan involved 4 days of sailing - 7 adult humans on the boat - including an extensive trip of 5 hours each way... I wanted to be sure everyone was OK with the motion on the water before committing to that plan.)

It turns out that was a great idea as Jessica unfortunately suffers from motion sickness. I'll address that later and for now now let the photos tell the story. We were able to sail across the bay towards Baltimore Light with nice winds of 8 to 10 kts and very flat water. A broad reach kept heeling to a minimum.

A bit into this sail, it was becoming evident that Jessica wasn't dealing well with the motion... we tried the wrist bands, ginger gum and all the typical remedies. I gave her the helm and that helped (at least I claim that my solution worked).

Baltimore Light always presents such nice photo opportunities.

Susan's photo

Susan at the helm.

The real solution to Jessica's seasickness seemed to be the embrace of Brandon (this was cute to watch).

After visiting the lighthouse, we motored back across the bay.

Susan took the helm for the last portion of the trip.

Susan's photo

Unfortunately our restaurant reservation was cancelled due to mechanical problems in Osprey Point's kitchen so we introduced them to the Oasis Pool Bar and Grill and brought the food back to Seas The Day.

Following dinner we had some sunset photos.

Jessica's photo on my phone

We finished the evening with Andrew filling our water tanks (he wanted to shower onboard), and watching the Rock Hall fireworks from the foredeck.

Jessica's plan to get through the night was to take some dramamine and pass out. That mission was accomplished!

On Monday (July 4h), I woke up for my standard sunrise walk, but with a boat filled with late sleepers, I found a way to occupy myself in the cockpit afterwards. Lots of grandkids were expected as all sorts of people were doing some final polishing of the boats for 4th of July trips.

Susan's photo of me having my breakfast.

Clearly the plans had to change... there was no point of doing another daysail and the five hour excursion to Herrington Harbor South was a no-go. We decided to spend one day using the resort features of Osprey Point.

This enabled Vicky to have her crab fest. We took over a picnic table and five of them attacked a set of 15 jumbos. There were no photos from this because everyone's fingers were a mess. Andrew and I were going to go to the pool bar for something beefier, but they closed due to staffing issues and we ended up going to Ford's Seafood for some cheesesteaks.

As the crab fest was winding down, I headed over to the docks to photograph fellow 425 owner, Russel, who was piloting Dire Wolf into Osprey Point on his trip from Florida to Maine. I stopped over and said hello and then later gave them a lift into town.

Russell had recently retired and he told me they sold off almost everything and Dire Wolf was now home.

The next resort activity was kayaking. Osprey Point keeps a set of 6 kayaks for guest use and we used them all.

The final resort activity was a cookout! We reserved one of the picnic tables and arranged to have a bag of charcoal, etc.. We cooked ribs and wings that had been marinating for a week and it was delicious.

Sunset photos are always in order.

We sat in the cockpit and until the mosquitos got bad again (our new Thermacell was undercharged) at which point we moved below.

A couple of the photos below show how life with 7 adults onboard works. The three young folks were lounging on the converted salon table, Ken sat at their feet working on emails while I worked at the side on this blog and Susan was in the back cabin on a group chat. Vicky eventually joined the Mario Party game.