Birthday Cruise 5.28.2011 - 6.3.2011

For my 50th birthday, Eileen gave me an incredible gift...sailing for a week with my brother Steve. It was an awesome gift and the week was all that I anticipated and more! On Saturday, May 28, I picked up Steve from BWI and we headed straight to Port Annapolis where Domingoman was fully provisioned. We casted off the dock lines and away we went! We encountered all kinds of conditions and had more than enough wind (too much wind at times)! We spent six nights aboard and sailed for seven days, logging 260 Nautical Miles in total. Some legs were longer than others and ranged from 30 NM to 50 NM. We typically sailed for 8-12 hours per day. Our top speed was 7.7 knots and averaged 4-5 knots for the entire trip. Winds were typically 12 to 15 knots and reached 27 knots one day. In order, we sailed to Herring Bay (North), Cambridge, Solomons Island, Smith Island (almost to the VA line), Slaughter Creek off the Little Choptank River, Herring Bay (South), and then back to Annapolis.

A Saturday morning bottle of Vueve

Heading South from Annapolis


Riding bikes to Deale, MD

Why we rode our bikes! This is Skipper's Pier.

We dragged a line for most of our trip. Fish on!

This is a 26" Striped Bass aka Rockfish. We also caught two that were 20" each. We thought that they needed to be 28" to keep so we threw them back. Turns out that they need to be between 18" and 28" to keep. That is very disappointing as this is a very good eating fish! Oh well...next time!

We took a ride into town in Cambridge! Jaye, our driver was a hoot!

Testing out a folding bicycle along the bulkhead.

This is a lighthouse marking the Choptank River. Maryland's own Leaning Tower of Pisa!

Thermal regulating!

Sunset at Solomon's Island

Navigating to Smith Island. Charts, GPS, and Binos are a must for a trip on the Chesapeake.

We anchored 2 NM off of Smith Island. With no electric hookup to power the fans, we put up the wind scoop to harvest a 12 knot breeze which kept us very cool.

Sunset on Slaughter Creek. So calm, so peaceful, you would never know that we would wake up to 4' waves and a stiff breeze on the nose that we had to beat into as we had to begin our Journey North.

Steve had a blast catching Maryland Blue Crabs!

Some rough conditions...getting the rails wet!

Only heeling 40-45 degrees!

We did this for several hours and it was very tiring!

Heading back to Annapolis on our last day, we were greeted by the start of the Annapolis to Newport race. We saw the start for all classes. This is the 100' super max class. These boats are ridiculous!

This is one of the super max boats. Notice how many people are on the rail (you can click on the picture to enlarge it). This boat came in third on corrected time.

This week was certainly ranked in the best birthday gift ever category. I am so thankful to Eileen for this generous gift of time and to Steve for helping her to make it happen. I will never forget this week on the Bay.