Century Club: Tom Dean

Got to the marina and decided to take off right away. Good wind - blowing 5 - 10 out of the southwest - no real gusts. Barometer 29.84 and pretty steady through the day. Temperature was 67 at time of departure and warmed to 76. Got the mainsail up fairly quickly - right around the first marker on Langford creek. Waited to tack before putting out genoa. Started to feel a bit overpowered - healing up to 15 degrees with some weather helm, so I reduced the headsail down to a jib size and that did the trick.  Used the sutopilot quite a bit - and it did very well with this wind.  Anything lighter and it just goes nuts  (when going to s wind direction instead of a compass heading). Passed my dock neighbor - second wind - who was out having some fun before I headed down towards Queenstown. Decided to come back on a broad reach which went fast! Going to have to try and rig a boom bang and see if that makes a difference. Lovely sail - was out from 20:30 until 3:30!

Pulled out of the marina at 11am.  Sunny, 68 degrees, with a light wind - but it was predicted to pick up. I was a bit surprised that there was good wind today, as the forecast had not looked particularly promising! Got the main up pretty quick, but waited on the Genoa until I was almost out of Langford Creek as the wind was dead south. Was pretty much on close hauls all day... that is until I turned and headed back. The wind started to pick up a bit as we got into the afternoon. It wasn't too bad, but I did have to let the traveler down a bit when the winds picked up... just to keep the boat balanced.  Use the auto-helm quite a bit... steering towards a wind direction and with the higher winds, Bubbles did very well.

While still in the big basin (before going around the Eastern Neck island where it juts out into the Chester, I turned into the wind, rolled up the Genoa and lowered the main and set the Gennaker out. Had winds behind me at 9 knots - and I flew back up the Chester and into Langford Creek. It was a wonderful outing... keep learning new things about sailing and Bubbles every time I go out!

Beautiful day - upper 60's and getting into the mid 70's before I got off the water! Winds out of the south 5-10... a few gusts and/or stronger winds later. Mostly Sunny. Got to the marina early and almost immediately set out! Actually beat the sailing school boat out of the slip - and they had been preparing before I even arrived at the marina! AIS picked up the two sailboats that had drifted past us as we anchored at Cacaway on May 7th - the seagull and another.

The wind was out of the WNW between 5 and 10 knots...and Bubbles was just chugging right along. Was really working on getting the sails adjusted correctly and I seem to do pretty well through a close reach. Still not consistant on a beam reach... and I am not even sure if the main telltales are supposed to stream when on a broad reach - something I have to check out! Was able to sail pretty close to the wind - have to get the centerboard back into action to see if I can do better... now that the wind instruments are aligned and calibrated correctly!

Got down near the buoys off of Eastern Neck Island before the wind started ti peter out a bit. Ended up doing some long tacks across the basin heading back north. Seemed to be losing ground on the starboard tacks - then had some wind shifting and the starboard tacks were working well! After 4 or 5 tacks got on a port tack to head back up the river to Langford creek - and the winds picked up... substantially - and I got to the point where I really had to reef the headsail - way too much canvas out! However, the strong winds let me sail a bit closer and I made it into the mouth of Langford creek before I had to turn on the engine for the ride back to Lankford Bay Marina. It was getting late, and I would have needed to do a bunch of tacks in a small area to have any chance of sailing back up. Gave me a chance to tie up and cover almost everything (while bubbles manned the conn) while motoring back to the marina. An educational day and a fun day!

Well, the forecast was for light - very light winds - and except for a few gusts that almost lured me out... the experts were correct. After attending to a few details, I decided to really fully explore 'Davis creek by paddle board. Headed down the creek towards the mouth. Really a beautiful area - lots of wildlife and beautiful homes. Fought a few gusts, but for the most part it was really fairly tame. Didn't get all the way to the beginning of the creek - but darn close. Near the beginning saw something I never had before - a very definite line in the water where heavily sedimented water - almost milky in color began and ran up to the beginning of the creek(see pictures).  Didn't see anything to explain it - a few houses, but they had been there a while. Guess this is where the lack of clarity in the bay starts! Wish I had been sailing, but at least I was on the water!