HOTCR

[Elk River]

Blue Heaven was launched yesterday and is in her slip awaiting some minor items to be done.  In the next day or so the sails will be on and we will take a trial sail.  It would appear that all will be well and ready for the Rendezvous this weekend.  High tide Saturday is 0938, Sunday is 1014 and Sunday's low is 1703.  Tidal heights run about 3-ish feet.

Elk River































Elk River

[Mike K]

After much scrambling, my Precision 21 finally hit the water yesterday on the Bohemia River.  With the cold temperatures, I doubt the new bottom paint had fully dried after I finished painting on Saturday.  At least I didn't see the water turn paint color when I did launch the boat off the trailer!  However, the paint was wet enough when I lowered it onto the trailer bunks that some of it stuck, and tore off the carpeting when I launched!  Oh well, at least I have all summer to replace the carpeting on the bunks now.

Marty, I did manage to get the mast up before launching yesterday, but ran out of time before putting the boom and the mainsail on, so we have a little work to do before leaving on Saturday.  I was surprised to find that the moorings were still not placed on the river by the marina, however, they gave me a temporary slip for the sailboat, so we should be good to go. 

However when we come back, we have to make sure it's not low tide, as the docks are not floating, and the finger docks are really high at low tide (the marina caters to some really big boats with very high freeboard).  We could have a tough time getting off the boat!  Maybe we should bring some extra beer and wine in case we need to wait for high tide at the slip!

Let's hope for some warmer temperatures next weekend!
See you all soon,
Mike

[Elk River]

NOAA indicates partly sunny this Sat & Sun, temps 69 & 74 respectfully.

Elk River

[Tim Gardner]

BASTURDS!

[Bob23]

Tim with me not being there, you are free to show up- no chance of being beaten in a race!
Bob23

[Tim Gardner]

Bob,  I'll be inSt. Augustine, FL by Thursday night.  You really don't need to butter me up about the erstwhile race.
(I choose to think of your sarcasm as butter). Booger!

[MKBLK]

Brad,

Thanks for the update on the tides. Ought to prove helpful. Weather outlook looks great! Can't wait!

Mike - Let me know what time will be best, considering the tides. Would it be better if I drove directly to the marina?

BobB - 6:30 at XVM should be good.

Mike - XVM is about 70 miles from your home via I-95. So, should take about 1-1/2 hours on a Saturday morning (at an average of 50 mph).

Has everybody decided where to launch? And most importantly, where will we be having breakfast!

Tim - EYHO!

Marty

[Elk River]

Hi All:

     My guess is that Bob (you know, the one that didn't chicken out) will launch at my neighborhood ramp.  We can then tuck his boat into a slip and have breakfast at our house.  As Mike's boat is already wet, Marty and Mike have the option of eating at our house and then driving back to Mike's boat on the Bohemia (25 - 30 minutes, perhaps).  Bob, Lily and I could slip our lines and head downriver to meet you on the Bohemia, ending up at Cabin John Creek at some point.  That would then mean lunch & supper on the boats Saturday, breakfast and possibly lunch on the boats Sunday.  We will head back with Bob to unlock the ramp gate.

     Tim, is that something of a local name for fish that you have down there in Virginia?  I know that tournaments are held on the North East River on the other side of our peninsula, but I don't think that's the type of bass they fish for.

     See you folks soon,

     Elk River












 

[Bob23]

Just one big happy family of off-center Compac-o-nauts! TG: Looking forward to sailing with you (and others) at CLR 2015.
Have a great time everyone: I'll hoist a Ballantine IPA in your honor while I'm working in Koinoina or rowing or working or....
Bob23

[Elk River]

Weather Update:

     Chesapeake Bay north of Pooles Island:

     Saturday: 20% chance of showers in the afternoon, mostly sunny, high 72; wind NW around 5 kn
     Saturday night:  low around 50, wind SW 5 kn
     Sunday;  sunny, 77; wind NW 5 - 10 kn

     Looking forward to seeing everyone,

     Elk River

[MKBLK]

What a pleasant weekend! The weather great and the company even better. Really enjoyed my sail with Mike and our rendezvous with Bob and Brad/Lilly. A little more wind would have been nice, but I'm not complaining!

Funniest thing: When Mike and I lost the wind and were becalmed, we dropped the sails and prepared to motor in. Within nanoseconds after starting the Honda, the wind picked up smartly. Mike looked at me with that "really" look and I just said, "set the jib again!". He shut down the Honda and released the jib (I have to admit, rolling furlers are terrific. Off we went on jib alone... at almost 4 knots!

We talked about all kinds of stuff and really enjoyed each others company. Ate well. Slept like logs.

Mike had bought a new dinghy for his Precision 21 (sacrilege!) and it followed us everywhere. I took up the responsibility to be the designated rower (since Bob23 was absent... and missed) and had fun providing taxi service generally rowing all over the place. No Bob, I didn't capsize it!

Yeah, it was a very pleasant weekend. Looking forward to meeting up Mike, Bob, Lilly and Brad in the future (BBB-2015 perhaps?).

Marty

[Mike K]

I heartily agree with Marty.  A wonderful weekend of sailing and rafting with some great people.  Brad and Lily, great job on getting this all off the ground and into the water, and you (and the Farmers Almanac), picked a fantastic weather weekend.  It was a real pleasure to meet Bob and see the rest of you again, and to share food, Marty's Landsharks and Little Debbie's and Entenmann's Cookies.   I still need to do a sugar detox after yesterday, but I couldn't help having an ice cream cone on the drive home!  To feel less guilty, I forced Marty to have one too.

Marty and I had a great time sailing up the Elk River on Saturday to meet you guys.  I had never been that far north.  I hope you had a good sail back up the Elk River.

On Sunday, we left Cabin John Creek, turned south, and went all the way down past the Turkey Point lighthouse.  That reminded me of the wild turkeys that we heard Saturday during our beautiful sunset dinner.  On the way back north to the Bohemia River, we were on a long downwind run, and I got to use my whisker pole for the first time to sail "wing on wing".  Wow, what a difference it made to have the big genoa do some of the work instead of flapping in the breeze!  It almost doubled our downwind speed.  At one point we were doing 4 knots downwind towing the high drag dinghy.  Not bad for a 5-10 knot wind day.  After both days, I was surprised to see a total distance covered of 26 nautical miles, much of it sailing.  Surprising, as some of the time the winds were very light.  Time and miles fly when you're having fun.

Marty, it was very nice having you along, and you're invited along for day sails on the Chesapeake anytime.  Thanks for the help sailing, rowing, and taking all those wonderful pictures to record the event.  After skimming the boat book you gave me last night, it looks fantastic!  Thanks.

Many thanks to all.  Hey, let's do this again real soon!

Mike

[Beckeresq]

It's unanimous.  HOTCR was a total success.  Capt John Creek was amazing, and the company was fantastic.

Thanks, again to Lily and Brad for putting everything together, and special thanks for keeping the "junior"member in the fleet in sight.

It just doesn't get any better than this.

bb

[Elk River]

Hello All:

    I'm glad that everyone enjoyed the weekend.  As has already been mentioned, the weather and company were terrific.  Steadier wind throughout would have been nice, but as a wise person once said: "The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails".  So be it, we sailed and motored as necessary.  It would seem that another attempt at a HOTCR is in order this year.  I will work with the calendar to see what I can do.  Hopefully, a few photos will appear below.

Bob headed downriver:  

close-up of Bob:    

commercial traffic on our return:  

Mike and Marty meet us:  

Com-Pac 16 and Precision 21:  

Bob in Cabin John Creek:  [imghttp://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f6/bradley2441/HOTCR/P5020055_zpscoauruqx.jpg]http://[/img]

Another view of Mike's Precision 21:

Party Boat (notice Mike's soul food):  

Marty emulating Bob23:  [imghttp://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f6/bradley2441/HOTCR/P5030060_zpsbfy5wjin.jpg][/img]


    Happy sailing to all,

    Elk River

[Elk River]

Hmmm, some of the photo stuff didn't go as planned; I'll try the three that didn't make it.

Bob headed downriver: 


Close-up of Bob:


Bob in Cabin John Creek:


Elk River