CBC-2004 summary As Bill Riker already summarized - a great sailing cruise - all of the M15s used less than 1 gal of gas for the entire week.(the M17 had a 5 hp so obviously used at least a gal.) The Chester river is about 3 mi wide where we launched and the surrounding land is only about 5 - 10 feet above sea level. Because the land is so low you still get the good undisturbed breeze for some fine sailing. On Saturday we had a pleasant broad reach in 8 - 10kts of wind to a quite anchorage and sailed within 100 yards of the desired spot. Pleasant temperatures and pleasant surroundings. On Sunday had a pleasant broad reach in 8 - 10 kts of wind up the west side of the Chester river exploring gunkholes. The It was low tide an we couldn't get into the places we wanted to see but a nice sail. Nick Honodel joined us around 1 PM in his Rosbourgh 24 powerboat. We arranged to meet him in Reed creek for a raft up. We started the Raft up with Nick in the late afternoon and Abby Gura cooked two pounds of Pasta with shrimp in a tomato sauce. He also supplied a 5 liter box of merlot to supplement the beer. Tall tales abounded and a good time was had by all on the spacious after deck of the Rosbourgh 24. It was a memorable evening in good company in a quiet anchorage. As it was Sunday night all of the weekend boaters were gone and we virtually had the rivers to ourselves the rest of the week. On Monday the winds had piped up to about 18 kts before we left the anchorage but we were so protected we didn't realize it till we got out on the river. The gusts may have been up to 25 kts and we had to cross a part of the river which is exposed to a 5 - 7 mile fetch. The waves got pretty rough running against the outgoing tide. The current in the Chester only gets up to about 1 - 1 1/2 kts but makes a big difference in the wave length. I was towing a 15 ft Bolger light Dory behind my M15. I had mounted a funnel on the tow line to act as drogue when the dory was running faster than the M15. The narrow part of the funnel points in the direction being towed when the line us under tension and "flips" the other way when it drags in the water and the Dory passes it. This worked really well until the waves got so big that the Dory would stern would try to pass the Dory bow and it would get sideways to the 3 and 4 ft waves. I shortened the tow line to shorten time the Dory had to get sideways. This allowed the Dory to ram the stern of the M15 a few times. I will have to work out a different arrangement. Needless to say we all got some practice reefing in some rough waves and the reefing practice in nicer conditions sure pays off! We then had a grand down wind run with jibes on all of the turns on the river the rest of the day. After the first turn of the river the waves were no longer supported by a long fetch and were non-existent. They were replaced by the stronger gusts associated with narrower river and consequent building and tree turbulence. These gusts certainly provided some entertainment for the trip to Chestertown. We all enjoyed more fine food and drinks at Chestertown and a good shower after two nights on the hook. On Tuesday we beat back down the river with a favorable tide in 8 -10 kts of wind. The weather was getting real steamy by this time. When the afternoon sun would pop out the air temp would jump into the 90s with high humidity. We rafted up with a friend of Al Williams in an Erickson 35? for the afternoon and evening in Corsica Creek. The air temp seemed like 95, the water temp was 80 and the beer temp was 45 (traded a bottle of hot wine for some cold beers). The beer and swim were well received. More tall tales were enjoyed. On Wednesday we enjoyed a down wind run up the East Branch of Langford Creek, with winds in the 5 - 7 kts range, to the very end of the navigable portion of the river. A very pretty section of the river with few houses on most of the shoreline. We anchored in about 3 1/2 feet of water and hoped in the water for a cooling swim. UGHHHHH- the bottom was the usual muck of the Chesapeake and it was hard to swim without stirring it up. Lesson learned - anchor in deeper water if you intend to swim. On Thursday we had winds of 0 - 6 kts high heat and humidity so Bill Riker sailed and the rest of us motored to the beautiful Langford Bay Marina. The sun came out and the heat got to be too much to sail up the West branch of Langford Creek so we lounged around the pool for the afternoon. Went to Rock Hall for our second restaurant meal of the trip and it was very good. Heavy rain occurred while we were waiting for the ride to town but no thunderstorms have yet to catch us. They have been around us the last two evenings. On Friday we started out back to Kent Narrow beating into a slowly dying wind of 8 kts with high heat and humidity. The wind finally gave out about two miles from Kent narrows. We motored through the Narrows and just missed the bridge opening and had to mill around in a strong 2 kt current for 1/2 hr waiting for the bridge to open. We rafted up in a nicely protected area in Goodhands creek in 8 ft of water and had another cooling swim. We motored to Harris's crab house back through Kent Narrows. We had 4 people on the M15 racing to make the bridge opening against the current. We just made it and the current between the concrete pillars was boiling away at 3 + kts and we were only making forward progress at about 1 kt under full power. We had a great meal and toured the bars and powere boats for sale. A storm came through but the worst of it just brushed the area but smacked the Bay Bridge area ( 4 miles west of us) pretty good. Saturday - 4 AM - the quiet was shattered by a continuous stream of weekend crab boats launched at the ramp a mile up stream. By 6 AM at leat 40 boats went by. When I talked to a few of the crabbers later in the morning they had 1 to 2 bushels of crabs per boat - they were selling in the market for about $120 a bushel. Bill Riker raised his sails to a nice breeze only to have it die so he motored off to find breakfast. I left 2hrs later under a reefed main and freshening breeze to check out a few creeks before ending the cruise. All in all a great cruise but I will move it to the fall next year in the hope of a more stable weather pattern. I hope to see many of you at the Lyle Hess weekend in Solomons Is, MD this fall. Doug Kelch __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail