Thanks for the nice summary of your trip. Always enjoy the accounts of the adventures of others! Mark Dvorscak M23 & M15 On Oct 16, 2017 09:10, "brad kurlancheek" <bkurlancheek@gmail.com> wrote:
I was able to get my Monty 15 out to the the Cambridge MD area where the Choptank meets the Chesapeak during that first week of October when Indian summer hit.
It was a 5 day cruise - the 2nd time I'd done that with this boat - my first being last October at Raystown Lake in Penna. I'm used to making such multi-day cruises in a wooden microcruiser some 13 feet long, a Shell Swifty, so sojourning in the Monty always seems to be a bit luxurious and spacious.
It took a while for me to get to the launch ramp in Cambridge. I needed a day to clean the boat after a long winter outside, another day to practice rigging and reefing, a third day to marshall all the gear into one room, a 4th to pack it all into the Xterra and boat, and a 5th to drive everything down there (4 to 5 hr drive).
The original plan, driving down there on Sunday Oct 1st, was to motel it that night and get an early start onto the water the next day, but the drive went so smoothly I nixed that plan and attempted instead to get the boat, me and gear into the water sailing and to Bolinbroke Creek under the Rte 50 Bridge and across the Choptank, all before dark. Right.
With white knuckles and a thrill, it was fun sailing across the Choptank in Force 3 & 4 winds under the Rte 50 bridge in the dark (a first time ever for me as a sailor) - thankfully a good sized moon was out - as we sailed through the 1 to 2 foot shoal area at the entrance to Bolingbroke, thankful for the Monty's shallow draft.
I spent the remainder of the evening sitting on the bow deck, in the sheltered flat water of Bolingbroke, untangling the anchor line, and hit the sack about 9 pm, with no dinner but grateful to have made it.
Spent all that week sailing in delightful weather, reefing for the first time while at sail, discovering how simple and effective heaving-to is in the Monty, wondering if the oars and electric trawling motor I'd brought were even needed at all, ever, on a boat like this (maybe not!), and pretty much had the best single-handed sailing of this life yet.
One day sailing out in the Choptank adjacent to the Tred Avon, I looked out into the Chesapeake and could see no land - another first for this novice sailor.
Brought the boat in Friday afternoon after sailing all morning, sailing the Monty into the ramp area by main alone, and there commenced the hardest part of the cruise, the packing up and driving back. But I was fortunate to stop at the Annapolis Sailboat Show on the way back, and say hello to Sal Glesser and Dave Scobie at Sage, Geoff Marshall and wife over at Marshall Marine, Shawn Payment over at Gig Harbor, Mark Johannsen (owner/builder of the Trinka 10), and some good folks over at Com-Pac.
For me there is just no better way to spend vacation time than cruising on a small sailboat like the M15 for a number of days single handed, anchoring out at night and sailing and exploring during the day.
Fair winds
- Brad