Harry Mote - Sailing in the rain            We usually tack on a few extra days to the Spring Cruise and this year we decided to cruise the Wye as well as the Miles.    So we decided to launch at Rolphs Marina on the Chester River and cruise Wye Island, either on the way to the Miles or on the way back, depending on time and weather.              The Chester has been a favorite since earlier Spring Cruises and it’s an easy commute for us from New Jersey. We left Barnegat at about 0900 on Tuesday morning and we were launched, rigged and on our way down the river by 0130 with a fair current.    About a half-mile or so down stream from Rolphs on the west side of the river, there is a farm with an old windmill that sticks up above buildings and tree tops.  The fan must be frozen in place, because eagles (we would guess, too high for osprey) have built a nest in the top fan blades -- a curious sight.             We decided to spend the first night at Eastern Neck Island in Shipyard Creek.    As we ghosted into our anchorage we disturbed a great blue heron stalking his dinner and Alice spotted an eagle over the trees as she was about to drop anchor.    We saw two more a few minutes later.   We spent the evening enjoying bird calls and the solitude and beauty of this sanctuary for wildlife, as well as shallow water sailors, on the edge of the North East Corridor.          Next morning it was blowing in the 20s and gusting into the 30s.    This was the forecast for the rest of the day and evening so we stayed put, caught up on reading and got our heads in gear for living on the boat.

Ardea close-hauled

On Thursday morning the wind had abated enough to head for Kent Narrows with a single reef.  It turned out to be a nice day and we had a very pleasant sail to the Miles River.   We spent the night in Leeds Creek in the cove of the Saturday night raft-up.    Friday morning we took advantage of our membership at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum to shower and pump porta-pottie.   The pump-out is self-service, user-friendly and works well with portable toilets.              The SC started for us when we hooked up with you guys at around noon on the water off the Miles River Yacht Club.    Apart from the fun of seeing everybody again (some we hadn’t seen in a few years), one of the highlights of the cruise was the sail in the rain on Saturday morning from Hunting Creek up to Leeds.    Sailing in those light air, light rain conditions has always been pleasant for me and the experience calls to mind songs like “Singing In the Rain” (Alice says that’s corny) and generally happy times.              I remember a day on the Navesink River in Red Bank, New Jersey, a year or two after we bought Ardea, sailing by myself in similar conditions.    I happened to have a can of beer in my hand and my only care in the world was keeping the rain from diluting my beer.    It was quiet, I was the only one on the river, and it was very pleasant.             Apart from the pleasure, there is great practical value in sailing in the rain.    It helps wash away road dirt and salt from a recent thrash to windward.    And is it one of the few times that we get to wear our foul weather gear.   So, John, never mind those negative comments about SC weather:  A little rain brings happy times and pleasant sails - as long as it isn’t also blowing and carrying on.  We look forward to the Miles River again next year and having lunch in that nice trophy room at the Yacht Club.

After lunch, back out on the Miles again and headed toward the Wye, we started monitoring VHF 16.  We were to possibly hook up with two friends from Red Bank.   One of them had just taken delivery of a C-Dory, a small motor cruiser of about 25 feet with a 130 hp Honda on the back of it.   They had picked up the boat, called Ark, at Essex, Md., across the Bay, and had to put 20 hrs on the engine and have the 20-hr service done before heading for the C&D Canal and home to Red Bank.             We finally made contact when we were near the mouth of the Wye.    We offered to wait for them at the entrance marker but the response was: “Keep going, Harry.  We’ll catch up rather quickly.”    The boat cruises at 20-25 kts.   We rafted up in Lloyd Creek, off the Wye East River, had a new boat drink, a new boat tour, and agreed that it would be fun to zip back to the Crab Claw restaurant at St Michaels, using Ark as our launch, where we sat outside by the water and had smash ‘em ‘n’ eat ‘em crabs.              Next morning, our friends headed back to Essex and we spent the next two days going around Wye Island and back up the Chester River and home.