Sailing with George and Vicky

There's not much to say on this post... it was simply a beautiful daysail in mid-October. They were at the house to do the final bit of installing our theater organ on Friday evening, and we had a family event on Sunday, so we just ran down to Rock Hall for a few hours of sailing.

The weather was beautiful... about 10 degrees warmer than last week.

Temps in the mid-60s with 12 to 18 kt winds. Perfect for sailing, but the water was a bit rough out on the bay. (We usually don't invite guests in late fall - it's too unpredictable.)

I'll let the photos (and the captions) tell the story.

We had to begin by chasing the spiders.

Vicky took the helm to get us out on the bay.

Once we turned at the #3 buoy, we set sail and spent some time tacking back and forth. Around lunchtime, Vicky decided she was cold and would go below to make some Ramen with veggies for lunch. (We're in the "let's eat from the stores onboard so we don't have to haul it back" phase of the season.)

After arriving back in Rock Hall, Vicky wanted to clean the cockpit cushions, so we rested a bit after she finished that to allow them to finish drying. We were back home before nightfall.

We headed to Rock Hall after work on Friday evening for my birthday weekend, getting there just after dark due to the earlier and earlier sunsets in autumn. We discovered on arrival that due to my slip and fall at the end of the previous weekend (see the end of that post), and missing last weekend due to the remnants of hurricane Ian passing over Rock Hall, we now had a mess on our hands.

In our haste to depart after my fall, none of us had noticed that the galley hatch was left open from when Vicky had made dumplings for our cookout with Jim's family. That meant the hatch was open for the several days of rain from the hurricane.

My best guess is most of the water probably fell right into the sink and drained out of the boat. A little water fell onto the counter and froze into the freezer compartment, and a good bit of water fell onto the galley floor and flooded the storage compartment (which is conveniently sealed from the rest of the bilge for food storage). Unfortunately we didn't store food down there but rather cleaning supplies for Vicky including the shop vacuum. Luckily, it was a wet dry vac and after a day of drying out, all seems well.

We spent a good bit of time Friday evening bailing and wiping water from around the galley.

Ah, Yachting!

Notice the frozen drips of water surrounding the chicken legs.

On Saturday morning, I noticed that they were setting up a tent and chairs in what I could only conclude must be preparations for my birthday celebration on Sunday... or maybe it has something to do with an apparent wedding held there Saturday night. 😉

After a nice lunch from the liquor store (pulled pork sandwiches), we headed out for a chilly day of sailing. You can see we are much more bundled up than a couple of weeks ago. Temps were in the very low 60s with 15 kts of wind meaning the wind chill was in the mid-50s.

We did manage to get the sails out for a bit, but it was too cold... we both decided that we weren't making great sailing decisions due to the cold and we decided to return.

Don't get me wrong... it was a beautiful day... just not one we wanted to spend on the water.

We finally walked over to try The Blue Heron, a restaurant that opened earlier this summer.

The place was packed... we got one of the last tables... but inside, it was NOISY. Incredibly loud... it's not like the place was rowdy... just lots of folks in normal conversations, but the room must magnify the sound somehow and the noise level was ear-splitting.

The food, however, was good and we will try it again when the weather is a tad warmer and we could stand to be outside.

After dinner, we walked back as the sun was setting and watched episodes of The Crown (the 5th season is coming soon).

John and Jessica brought Luna (my grandpuppy) down to Rock Hall to help me celebrate my birthday on Sunday. Shortly after they arrived, we decided to walk over to Muskrat Alley (a small breakfast/lunch restaurant attached to the nearby Carriage House B&B), which is dog friendly in their outdoor tables.

After brunch, we continued our walk to Ferry Park Beach where, alas, we found NO DOGS ALLOWED ON BEACH signs. Vicky puppysat Luna briefly while the kids explored the jetty.

We then walked back to Seas The Day and spent the mid-afternoon visiting in the cockpit.

At one point, I noticed a lot of activity among the neighboring boats and I was suddenly treated to a Happy Birthday serenade with Maxxon presenting me a birthday muffin! We love being on B-Dock!

Tracey, Ryan, Maxxon, Andy and Alicia from Yekaterina (in the background)
and Captain Joe from nearby Sol Searcher singing happy birthday.

Maxxon always has to come below to check out
what treats Vicky has for him today.

Luna is a very social dog and thrived on all the attention.

Soon it was time to pack up and head over to the tent for my birthday celebration. (OK, the tent, band, and crab-fest might have had something to do with Osprey Point's end-of-season slip holders party.)

We finished the day with an "all you can eat" crab and corn dinner with fried chicken, shrimp and salads extravaganza. I stuck to crab dip, shrimp, smoked salmon and chicken (with a fair helping of corn and broccoli salad for balance), but I think John, Jess and Vicky polished off 16 Jumbo crabs.

The event was catered by Chester River Seafood.