Heading out next week

[HeaveToo]

I have two weeks off starting next Tuesday.  I am heading out for a little cruise into the Chesapeake Bay.  I will be starting from my home port of Colonial Beach.  It is about 30 nautical miles from Colonial Beach to Point Lookout (entrance to Chesapeake Bay).

I will make my way to the Chesapeake Bay.  It make a day or two depending on wind, how early I get started, and how I feel.  After that I plan to hit Solomons Island, MD.  From there I have so many options it isn't funny. 

I could go North East and go into the Choptank River (that gives me access to Cainbridge, Oxford, and the backside of St. Michaels from Santo Domingo Creek).  I also have access to other areas.

If I go south east from Solomons I can go over to Smith Island.  From there there is Tangier Island, Chrisfield, and Onancock.  From those locations Deltaville is in that area as well.

Directly North I would have access to Deal, the Rhode River, and eventually Annapolis.  I am not sure if I will venture as far north as Annapolis but it is possible.

I will base me cruise on wind and weather, of course.  I will try to update as I go along.

One small concern is how much weight I will be carrying.  I will have a full cooler, 6 gallon gas tank, and other cruising stuff.  I am debating on carrying one of my folding bikes but this is also something to consider because it is a little heavy (a little less than 50 pounds).  It won't fit in any of the lockers so I will have to stash it and move it around inside of the cabin.  I will also be towing my dingy. 

I also wonder about power consumption.  I have 1 group 27 battery and my outboard does have an alternator.  I also have a 5 watt solar panel (more of a trickle charger).  I may have to take a slip to plug into shore power at some point.

I am very familiar with this area.  Still, it is nice to have a cruising guide.  If anyone hasn't checked it out, ActiveCaptain is a really cool app.  It shows you a ton of information along with anchorages and what-not. 

[brackish]

Sounds like a great trip whatever the final route, have a good and safe time.

You'll probably be ok with the battery, just make sure if it is a maintainable lead acid that you check the electrolyte level before you leave.  The only time I had a cruise battery failure was when I failed to check and the level was seriously low.  Also, if you have an incandescent mast top anchor light, I would carry an LED lantern and run it up the backstay about 3/4 of the way with a retrieve line attached.  That's what I do now.  The batteries in that thing will last the whole two weeks and it will take a big load off your house battery.

[HeaveToo]

I have the LED anchor light on the masthead.  It draws very little power:

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/davis-instruments--mini-amp-mega-light--P009_277_003_501

It will be cooler temps, I think, so I won't be running the cabin fan.  My main draw should be the stereo, gps, and tillerpilot. 

I will probably take a slip a couple of times so I can top off too.  That may help. 

[Bob23]

I won't hesitate to say I'm envious. I bought a battery powered fan on Amazon for my 23. In addtion to not using any house juice, it's also portable so it can be placed anywhere.
I guess the tiller pilot will draw the most.
Bob23

[HeaveToo]

I ended up cutting my cruise short....life called.  Anyway, I put the boat through her paces and it was a great shakedown cruise.

I actually hit some snotty weather...15 sustained, maybe 20knots at points.  Going to windward in it was not exactly fun, but not too bad either.  The good part was I didn't have to go too far (I did notice a lot of side slipping but I was pinching a little to help spill some wind and to try to get around a mark).  As soon as I rounded Cedar Point (mouth of the Pax River in the Chesapeake bay) I was able to ease off a little and I was on a tight reach.  As my tight reach was opened up to more of a reach the boat was hitting great speeds.  I was surfing down the waves and I even saw 7.4 knots on the GPS.  I also experienced some rough wave action and Saga did fine.

My route was from Colonial Beach to Point Lookout State park for the first night.  This was a new anchorage for me and I knew that I could get inside it because of the skinny draft.  It was about 35 miles and I did it in 7 hours, all under sail. 

The second day I went out of the Potomac River, around Point Lookout, and up to Solomons Island, off of the Pax River.  This was about 26 miles or so.  I had a tight reach the whole way and I was not seeing speeds below 4 knots until I got to the mouth of the Pax River (the wind up and died).

I stayed in Solomons Island for a few nights.  Then I sailed back into the Potomac River.  Again, I had a spectacular sail (strong winds at first but they died down a little and became lighter once I was inside of the Potomac River.  I was making for Price's Cove behind St. George's Island (Behind Piney Point in the Potomac River).  Conditions and forecast changed so that anchorage wasn't favorable so I backtracked 4 miles and went into Smith Creek (I did over 40 miles that day).

After Smith Creek I hopped back into the Potomac and sailed to Leonardtown, MD (this is off of Bretton bay).  This was a shorter hop of 26 miles and I sailed the entire way. 

Today was the last day and I went from Bretton Bay to Colonial Beach.  I put her back on the trailer and went home. 

This was a great trip.  The weather was amazing for most of the trip and I had good wind most days.  It would start strong in the morning and get flukey in the afternoons.

I did learn a lot about the boat and I will have a good list of new modifications to do to the boat to get it to spec.

[capt_nemo]

HeaveToo,

Sailed the Chesapeake for 20 years in 4 sailboats, so I too am familiar with the area and weather conditions.

Glad you had a SAFE and enjoyable trip that provided you with much food for thought.

It is only when we actually experience living aboard and putting a boat through her paces, that we realize some modifications are in order to improve sailing efficiency, comfort, safety, etc.. The next difficult part is PRIORITIZING the mods considering their complexity, relative importance to us, time available, skills required, and, of course, dollars.

One recommendation for integrating your mods into your boat. For a given mod, whether external or down below, develop location(s) for it and STUDY those locations carefully, especially WHAT IS ALREADY THERE that might be used to mount, secure, or fasten the mod to the boat.

It does take some imaginative "out of the box" thinking, but it isn't too difficult. For example, the REMOVABLE home made interior step two-drawer storage module and starboard bulkhead storage module pictured below were firmly secured to the boat WITHOUT DRILLING A SINGLE NEW HOLE IN THE BOAT OR ALTERING THE BOAT'S STRUCTURE IN ANY PERMANENT WAY. I've made changes to my rigging the same way.

Hope this provides additional food for thought. Good luck and keep us posted.

capt_nemo

[HeaveToo]

My first modification is to fix the bed situation.  The cushions are pretty new on this boat and they are pretty firm.  They hurt my back they are so firm.  A simple egg crate mattress should help.

Next issue to address is power.  I need more power in the boat.  I will put two Group 27 batteries onto the boat.  After that I would like to add a solar panel that will attach on top of the bimini to charge everything.  I am thinking 60 watts.

[capt_nemo]

HeaveToo,

Sounds like a good plan for meaningful mods.

You might want to consider Memory Foam of suitable thickness for a mattress.
On my large sailboat, an Island Packet 35, eventually had a custom mattress made of (heavy) Latex Foam Rubber - quite comfortable.
On large 36' Trawler had a custom regular boat mattress made - again, quite comfortable.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, can take the place of a good night's rest when cruising and living aboard.

Additional Deep Cycle HOUSE batteries are required to run all the latest electronics and other comfort items while cruising. Solar Panel is a good addition to any cruising boat. Think about low current draw LED lighting as time and circumstances permit.

Sail safely.

capt_nemo

[HeaveToo]

Anchor and cabin light is LED. 

Most things I have are low draw.  I have a fan that is a low draw but until I beef up the system I don't want to use it.

I had a similar setup on my Catalina 30 (2 house group 27 batteries).  The thing that it had that I don't have now is a good charging system.....a nice alternator to charge the batteries.  It would run an hour each day, usually, so it would be a good maintenance charge on the batteries.  That is what I am hoping to do with solar power.

[HeaveToo]

Here is a photobucket slideshow of some of the pictures I took during the trip:
http://s296.photobucket.com/user/HeaveToo/slideshow/2014%20Solomons%20Island%20Trip?sort=3

[capt_nemo]

HeaveToo,

Boat looks nice - thanks for sharing.

capt_nemo

[brackish]

Nice pics, looks like a great cruise.