Logbook: 10-05-2022

Pasadena, Maryland to Annapolis

Summary

Avemar weighed anchor in Rock Creek in Pasadena, MD at 0950 and reached out into the Patapsco River and then into the Chesapeake Bay sailing southbound to Annapolis because we’re attending the sailboat show next week.

It was a fairly uneventful trip that required only one gybe in less than 20 knots of wind. Hurricane Ian’s leftover breeze and rain cleared out during the night before departure leaving grey skies and low misty clouds.

The Wind Pilot steered for most of the trip until we cleared under the Bay Bridge and hardened up on a starboard tack to enter the Severn River.

After searching for a mooring ball on both sides of the Spa Creek bridge with no success in finding an open one, we came back out into the river and set anchor just off of the Eastport Yacht Club at 1545.

Washed down the decks to try to get rid of the Chesapeake Bay mud brought onboard by multiple trips of the anchor rode through the windlass. Then, tequila and tonic with lime, amazing leftover spaghetti and a great night of sleep!

Trip Notes

I sailed up into this part of the Chesapeake Bay to attend the sailboat show and I arrived fairly early. A friend suggested that I attend the Seven Seas Sailing Association Annapolis GAM at the Maryland Yacht Club and so that is why I sailed up that way two weeks ago. I spent the weekend in a slip for the event which turned out to be very cool. I met a lot of experienced sailors with tens of thousands of miles under their keels, including more circumnavigators in one room than I could count! I’ll post about that event separately. I the meantime you can check out SSCA.org. After 70 years they are one of the earliest sailing and cruising associations. They are doing amazing work all over the world today.

The trip down the Bay was breezy, downwind and a little chilly with a light mist to start and temperatures in the low 50’s. There isn’t much else to share about the sailing. It was a quick trip and a fun sail.

I did find a tear in the staysail where the bolt rope fits into and exits the furler foil track which sucks. These Precision Sails that are less than a year old. I may post about Precision Sails later because I’m not a fanboat like all of the other YouTubers who got free sails or huge discounts to promote these sails to suck in people like me, needing new sails but at the time was not near a sailmaker. Both of their sewn on logos have blown off of the headsails. That should be a clue. Ok, I’m rambling. I wasn’t planning to rant today.

This tear seems like a complicated repair. It isn’t simply patching a hole or a rip in the middle of the cloth. If there is any slack in the staysail halyard tension, the sag happens right at this point at the bottom of the sail where the bolt rope goes into the track. If not repaired, it will rip more and it would tear apart straight up the foil along the luff. Ugh.

When I arrived in Annapolis, every mooring ball was full. I expected that in advance. The powerboat show is this weekend. The thing that surprised me is that there were almost no motor vessels on the balls. They were almost all sailboats and catamarans. Also as expected, a lot of the balls were reserved or covered with red marking indicating they were not available for use right now. All of that is fine. I didn’t really want a ball.

I was hoping to anchor in Spa Creek. After a couple of attempts in the only spot that I saw that would work for Avemar. I’m 99% sure that Annapolis has added several dozen new mooring balls to the creek since I was here in July. There is almost no spot to anchor and not be within 75 feet of a private dock or a boat on a ball anymore. It’s possible, and I do not know this to be a fact, that they add mooring balls for the powerboat and sailboat shows during October.

I decided to go back through the bridge and out into the river and anchor with about a dozen other boats just off of the Eastport Yacht Club. I’m in 45 feet of water and don’t think I’ve ever sent down 200+ feet of chain rode before, but that is what it took to stick! I’ll say a prayer before weighing anchor that the windlass is in a good mood that day!

Here’s the highlight of the trip!

As I was drifting in Spa Creek deciding what to do, another sailboat passed me and came up alongside. It was a tight spot and I didn’t get the name or the type of boat although if I had one guess, it was an IP31. Anyway, the captain hailed me but I couldn’t hear and so I went up to the rail. I heard him the next time…

“Nice to see Avemar. I’m the former owner. She looks the same as when I sold her.”

How cool is that?

Bill Taylor and his wife sailed Avemar for years and many miles until the early 2000’s. No so coincidentally, they were Commodores in the SCCA. (I joined because I saw their paperwork about the SSCA in the documents I got when I bought Avemar last year.)

Bill and I exchanged phone numbers and since then, text messages and plan on connecting this weekend so he can visit his old boat. He said I’d get the full early history of Avemar and the details of all of these systems that I have yet to figure out… Apparently he installed them!

There are only six Liberty 38 sailboats and they are each so unique, it will be very neat to learn what was done in the early years to make Avemar such a special boat and different from the other five sister ships. I will report back!

Logbook: 10-05-2022

Crew? Solo

Where to? Annapolis, Maryland

Where from? Rock Creek, Pasadena, Maryland (39° 09.141 N 76° 30.059 W)

Anchor weighed: 0950 on 10/05/22

Where did I end up? Severn River, Annapolis, MD (38° 58.524 N 76° 05.533 W)

Anchor set: 1545 on 10/05/22

Sailing distance? 24.07 nm

Total miles since 11/2022? 3,338 nm

Cover Photo

Avemar sailing south under the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bay Bridge