June 2023

6/2 At Tidewater and loaded onto baji-naji by 3pm. Very hot day 88-90+°. Walked with Christiane to see the Pride of Baltimore ll, a tall ship docked at the dock just north of Tidewater. Had a lot of fun on the free deck tour. Laz was able to answer many of Christiane's questions. Had a chance to talk to Shevawn, the Chief mate, who answered many more. Bought a sticker for my water bottle. Walked back to baji-naji to get more cash so I could buy a denim work shirt with the Pride embroidery on it.

Walking back from the Pride we saw the HdG Youth Sailing Program and found Hilfy behind the fence!

Went to the First Friday street fair and got a slice of white pizza with broccoli from La Cocina and a Greek salad with chicken (Laz had a lamb gyro) from Bmore Greek Grill food truck. There was such a long line for the food truck that I got a funnel cake next door and shared with Laz while we were waiting. Lovely sunset over First Friday. Brought the food back to baji-naji to eat in the cockpit. Chatted with our neighbors, Harry and Margaret Begg, who own Beggar the older trawler on our starboard side. They have been here many years and used to sail until it was too much.

6/3 Ran out to CVS to get cortisone cream for the numerous big bites from last evening. Got back and found some in the chart table, oh well. Filled the aft water tank, switched to forward tank for usage, and washed the grass and bird poop off. Spent part of the am reviewing operations on baji-naji with Will and Emily in advance of our passage from Cape May to Jersey City. Will has overnight and open ocean experience and had a lot of great suggestions. He brought over their life vests and tethers to look at. We will need tethers and we just bought some of Fitz's surplus vests and leg straps. Will uses bright throw pillows for man overboard, in addition to the ring.

Took off around 12:30p from the dock. Tranquility left before us by 1/2 hr or so. Brisk wind from the E, so we put up main and unfurled the jib and sailed by the Pride.

Wind was the promised 10-15 kts with gusts to 20 from the E. Wow! Tacked up the Sassafras, sailed all the way to Green 5 then furled the jib and dropped the main shortly thereafter. Had to go around 2 sailboats (one from Maine) in order to enter Back Creek and anchored in a favorite spot behind Knight Island. It continues to blow up to 15 at times and there were some dark clouds which came and went.

Saw this little guy munching on and off while we were relaxing. Not much of a sunset as the clouds were pretty thick here. Pasta dinner below as it was chilly. 20+° cooler than yesterday.

6/4 Tomato, basil, mozzarella quiche from Nomadic for breakfast. The wind has quieted down from overnight. Met Bruce, Pam and their dog Ben on the dinghy Merlin from SV Charis. They are from Maine, currently in Rock Hall. The other boats dragged anchor overnight, apparently did not leave enough scope. Since the wind has settled down, we took Boji up Back Creek to explore. Very pretty, a couple of private docks and one public dock.

There is a large house and estate grounds in the back of that photo, hard to see from this shot. Was using my new waterproof phone case and I was unable to zoom in easily.

Back to baji-naji. Lovely wind from the North. We raised the mainsail and motor sailed out to the red, then sailed all the way to the mouth of the Sassafras. Wind shifted to the W which was fine, then died, which was not. Motored back the rest of the way. Tranquility and Altair were in ahead of us. Turns out the Towboat US coming out of our fairway has just towed Altair in. Something wrong with the engine. We did rinse x 2 and pumpout to decrease the sludge in the holding tank then back into our slip. Chatted with folks for a bit then headed home. Giordano's sausage mushroom and artichoke pizza for dinner!

6/19 Juneteenth! After some appointments (dentist, etc) and shopping at Talula’s Table, we decided to go sailing. We were back from our Chicago road trip in the early am 6/17 and had gone to UnWined off the Elk River on Father’s Day to see the Whitewalls. Apparently everyone else saw dolphins that day in the Bohemia and the mouth of the Elk. We headed to Tidewater in the afternoon and was on baji-naji by 4;30pm. Great winds 10-15kts from SE - E ish, sailed to Still Pond on a beam reach. We anchored well in towards Chum Creek by 8pm. A lovely dinner of a Farm salad and cheddar baguette from Talula’s. Not much of a sunset as the sky was still hazy from the Canadian wildfires.

6/20 Slept in, much needed. Late enough for the first meal to be brunch. Made a lovely French Toast from Me n Ollie’s Cinnamon bread and topped it with fresh strawberries. A small plain omelet and bacon from Baily’s (Becky’s pigs!) with the wonderful Waterman’s Blend coffee from Mobjack Coffee Roasters. Mmmm. Watched a family in a converted oyster boat playing. The fish haven closest to us had at least 4 great blue herons the evening before, but not this morning. The sky was still hazy, although the chewy particles in the air were supposed to be dissipating soon. Got underway by 1pm. It was lovely to have a very slow start to the day and enjoy. Good wind, although had switched to the E-NE so we had to tack all the way up, but then had a marvelous sail in the channel leading to HdG. The wind stayed strong 10-15kts which was so lovely. Asked for a dockhand to stand on Tranquility with the strong E wind, just in case, but ended up getting her in the slip without any difficulty or needing assistance. A beautiful sail to and from Still Pond.

6/24 Several stormy and rainy days making it tough to go out. We need the rain, so not too many complaints here. Headed to baji-naji to do chores today. Laz put up a hook for my apron just outside the aft cabin, in the galley. I glued in the splinter on the companionway top step. We replaced the pulls on the safety lines. Laz put in a latch for the swim ladder, to keep it from banging underway. The latch he put on the aft port floor drawer, aka the ‘soda drawer’ is working really well! We tried to swap out the dowel on the bug screen, but the metal poles Laz had are too big. Will have to figure out something else, as the current dowel is bent out of shape. Seriously. I put the non skid down for our baji-naji rug at the bottom of the companionway. We secured the port aft cushion! Took 4 new velcro strips, and it does not move. So good when I have to climb on in to secure the hatch window treatment. Laz retied the traveler lines, after looking at YouTube videos for an improved halyard hitch. We replaced the shackle on the code-0 halyard and trimmed and heated/melted the end of the downhaul line. Let’s hope it stays. The other lines we’ve trimmed/heated/melted have not stayed in place and are fraying at the ends a bit.

After all the chores, we walked over to Hutchins park where another Tall Ship, the Dove, from St. Mary’s was docked. Smaller than Pride II, she was just completed last year. Had a nice talk with one of the crew and noted the modern elements, including the Garmin radar, as she is a reproduction of the 1633 vessel. Great view of the flats from her deck. On the way out, we saw a big thunderhead over the marina. It had rained on and off all day, good thing there were chores in the cabin as well as on deck!

6/28, Wednesday. It's been stormy the last several days. We've needed the rain but it has made it difficult to start our trip to New England. There is good wind today and no storms today, tomorrow and Friday. Packed some things for the long voyage, to start stocking baji-naji, as well as provisions for 3 days. A little discombobulated on the packing as we played soccer last night since it looked like the team might be short players. Fun game, we won. At Tidewater Marina by 11 am, all the gear and provisions stowed and off the docks by 11:45. Refilled the forward water tank, as it was empty. Switched to use aft tank. Great breeze from the NW, so we sailed out the channel. Quite a bit of haze from the Canadian wildfires. Trying to ignore that my lungs may hate me for being out these few days.

Thought we'd try for the Magothy as the winds were steadily at 10kts+. Except then…switched further and further South to SW and occasionally W and dropped to 5 or under. Hmm. We hadn't quite made it to Still Pond when it died down. Bonus though, Laz spotted a dolphin pair after we passed Still Pond, close to Worton Point. Decided to go to Worton instead of the Magothy, since the winds had softened and changed direction. Of course as we get near the light stanchions for Worton, the wind picks up to a brisk 10+ again from…you guessed it…the NW! We decided to head for Middle River. Boy were we glad we did. On the west side of Poole's Island we saw a dolphin pod leaping high into the air! One even did a twist flip, like it was trying out to be Flipper.

So amazing to see them playing!

Had to keep an eye out for crab pots as they are plentiful here after passing the green. No more dolphin, but I was reminded that the nice woman from Rippon Brothers Seafood said that the dolphin are beautiful but they like to eat soft shell crab or any crab, which she wished they would do somewhere else.

Wednesday night races for Middle River with lots of boats headed out.

Went all the way up to the North Branch of Hopkins Creek. (Or so we thought. Consultation with the chart later shows we were up the headwaters of Middle River) Very pretty with homes on one side and greenery and old docks on the other. There was even a moderate sunset in the haze. Enjoyed cheddar and honeycrisp as well as spinach artichoke dip and hummus with pita chips in the cockpit. Lots of urban sounds, helicopters coming and going, dogs barking, a few boats coming and going from Cutter Marina farther up the river. And of course the dulcet tones of a great blue heron squawk. Jambalaya pot pie for dinner with the faint sunset.

6/29 Cooled down nicely overnight, was a quiet night, no wind or wake. Even Laz slept until almost 0900. Made French toast with strawberries on top, as well as 2 slices of the excellent bacon from Baily's. The haze was so thick it was hard to see across the creek. Decided to motor home as the air quality index AQI was in the 180 range and my lungs are NOT happy with that. No wind, so it was motor all the way. I wore my duck bill N-95 the whole way back. Except when I had a drink or lunch. Crazy eerie haze

On the plus side we saw two pairs of cow nose rays playing in the crab pot field heading out from Middle River, most of the way to Poole's Island.

Looked for more dolphin, but did not see them. The Aberdeen patrol boats were out though and they were blowing stuff up. Not that you could see the smoke with all the haze.

Got boarded by the nice Coast Guard patrol boat out of Still Pond for their inspection. All good and we have the paper to prove it.

Motored the whole way back and was in the slip by 4pm. Sad we could not sail or stay out; I was looking forward to trying my new swim saddle in Worton Cove.

Weather is improving for next week in NJ so going to head out Monday. Will be at Tidewater Marina Sun night for the fireworks.