Sailing in and around the Chesapeake Bay

Mid-August, 2009 Susie and I went to White Stone, VA, in the subburbs of Kilmarnok, to visit a dear old friend of ours that lives on the Northern Neck penunsula of the Cheasapeake Bay. Jim Hatch actually lives on Carters Creek, which is off the Rappahannock River, which feeds into the Cheasapeake Bay. If you are looking at a chart, the Rappahannock is the river just south of the Potomac. It is a beautiful place to live, mostly because it is a beautiful place to sail. On Saturday we went sailing with Jim's neighbor, Carl and Debi on their new Hunter 45 along with two other friends, John and Sammie. It was a very light-air day, but we didn't care. Any time you are sailing (in comfort) with friends, old and new, it's a good day. The next evening we took JAZZ, Jim's Pearson True North, up the Rappahannock to the quaint little town of Urbanna where we casually walked from the harbor one block into town and had a great dinner at the Cafe' MoJo restaurant. What's neat about the Chesapeake Bay is that there is so much waterman history and all of the quaintly named towns and bays live up to their charming expressions. Another day we took JAZZ on an extended cruise down the Rappahannack into the Chesapeake Bay and

burned some of Jim's diesel fuel. It was great, and would have taken a week on a sailboat in light air. Somewhere I have heard, "there is a boat for all seasons". Susie and I treated Jim to a birthday dinner at the Tide's Inn in Carter's Creek. The Tide's Inn is an old historic hotel that looks like it was part of the days of the film, "Dirty Dancing". It has such character.

After we left Jim's, we drove to Newport News, VA and had a great tour of the Mariner's Muesuem and then headed further south down to the port town of New Burn, NC. We stayed the night in a riverfront hotel and had the chance to visit some of the historical buildings, eat great seafood and, of course, walk the docks and look at boats. The next day we headed out to Charleston to attend a wedding of an old family friend. We flew Chase, our son, into Charleston to participate in the festivities, and of course we ate lots of seafood, walked the docks and looked at boats. Are you seeing a pattern here?

For more pictures of the trip go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cstewartphotos/ChesapeakeToCharleston?authkey=Gv1sRgCOvQxrCEouelKQ#

Sailboat Bay to Apalachicola, FL

On June 14th through the 20th, 2009 Jim Jones, Quinn Stewart and Charlie (that's me) sailed Briar Patch from Gulf Shores to Apalachicola FL and back. We left Sunday morning on the 14th and went East to Pensacola. From there we went out the ship channel into the Gulf, and at about 20 miles out, set our course at 107 degrees. With the wind off our starbord quarter at about 15-20 kts, we were able to beam reach all day, all night and make landfall at about 10:00 the next morning at Port St. Joe. We cruised about the St. Joseph Bay a while and then cut up the ICW through the swamp to Apalach. When we got to Apalachicola, we tied up at the Waterstreet Inn and went ashore and immediately ate several dozen raw oysters. That's the only place on the planet that I will eat raw oysters. We eased out to the edge of Apalachicola Bay, and after assessing the shallow water and the Govt. Cut in St. George Island, we headed back through the ICW to Panama City and anchored up in St. Andrews Bay, just off Shell Island. That sunset, the emerald water, and the pristine white sand dotted with palms and pines was as pretty as any in the whole Gulf of Mexico, including the Keys. At 0600 the next morning we headed out the PC ship channel about 10 miles and then set our course on 283 degrees toward Destin pass. We were pointing close to the wind all day, but had a terrific sail with the wind SW at 14 knots. At 1645 that evening we entered the "rocking and rolling" Destin pass. Not a pass that I would recommend for tender hearts, and never, never, never would I attempt landfall there after nightfall. We came in at low tide, and were able to get under the Destin bridge, by just inches. Our mast is about 48 feet with light, windex and antenna. From there we went on in to Fort Walton and anchored off the municipal park pier. Once we reached Pensacola, we anchored up in Big Lagoon and listened to the surf of the gulf across the spit of beach. The good thing about anchoring off Pensacola is that you get a really nice wake-up call when the F-14's from NAS take off and scream over your head. Of course the trip wouldn't be complete without a stop at Pirates Cove at Perdido Bay back in Alabama. All in all, we traveled 470 miles, and burned 27 gallons of diesel for the whole trip; in a 6 ton boat. Normally we should not have run the engine so much, but the entire trip back, heading West, we were into the wind, and as it turned out, we would have had to have waited two weeks for it to eventually turn favorable. We didn't have time for that. That's a difference in the sailors of today and those of yesteryear.

Dauphin Island Race, 2009

On April 24, 25 and 26 2009 Jim Jones, Quinn Stewart and Charlie sailed the Briar Patch, a Pearson 323 sloop from Gulf Shores to Mobile, then raced from Mobile to Dauphin Island and then back to Sailboat Bay in Gulf Shores, AL. This is our 24th DI race. We didn't win a trophy, but we did have a good time, and actually corrected over a boat that was much faster than us. Hooray for handicaps. This was the first shakedown cruise after the major refurbishment of the mast, standing and running rigging and power plant in 2008 and early 2009. All systems went well and nothing broke or fell off the boat in what turned into some pretty rough seas and windy conditions. That's us at the starting line (above photo), not the Hinckley B40, but the Pearson right behind it. Life is good, but not that good.

Mast Step redo for Briar Patch

On December 7, 2008 we pulled the mast on Briar Patch and put it on blocks in Nelson's Boatyard. After 20+ years of an aluminum mast sitting on a steel step in the salty bilge of an aging boat, electrolysis and other nasty natural elements took their toll. The mast step was in dire need of being refurbished. I have read of other similar Pearson 323 boats having the same problem, and that prompted me to take a keen look at what lurks beneath the floor in the bilge of Briar Patch. Owners of other P-323's had been so kind to post their experience in replacing the mast step, and refurbishing the mast. I took heed, took aim, and then took action to do the same.

After pulling the mast and examining the situation, we cut off about 2.5 inches of corroded mast from the bottom. I went to a machine shop (JV Lamar who does great work) in Gulf Shores and had him make a new mast step out of stainless steel. He then made a mast extension block that replaced the 2.5 inches that we had cut off the mast.

While the mast was out, we took the opportunity to sand and paint it to bring it back to like new looks. We primed all bare aluminum with zinc chromate, and then primed with Interlux primer.

We then put 2 coats of Interlux Brightside polyurathane paint for the finish. I talked with an Interlux engineer about our paint strategy for aluminum and he said we were on the mark.

Now all we have to do is tune the mast stays and shrouds, and set the sails.

Thanks to my friends and the professionals at Nelsons and JV Lamar machine shop for their help. Special thanks to a good young friend, Garrett Gozdur who helped me re-wire the mast lights before we set the mast and to Jim Jones who was the "roll" of the roll and tip painting process.

Click on the url below to see the before and after pictures. This yacht is ready to go sailing again!

http://picasaweb.google.com/cstewartphotos/MastRefurbOnBriarPatch?authkey=Gv1sRgCKrBlK7Eson_xAE#

Gulf Shores, Alabama to Key West on Little Wing

On Feburary 16, 2009 we four guys, Steve Tedford, Mike Darden, Ken Rollins and I set sail from Gulf Shores, Alabama, to Pensacola Pass, to Clearwatrer FL, to Dry Tortugas, to Key West, to Marathon, FL in the Keys. We sailed on the fine 37 ft. yacht, Little Wing. Here is our story in pictorial form.

(click on url: http://picasaweb.google.com/cstewartphotos/KeyWest22009?authkey=Gv1sRgCO_3wNG_t-i2fg#

Crossing the Gulf of Mexico

March 17 thru March 27. Sailing on Little Wing, a beautiful Island Packet 370, owned and skippered by Steve Tedford of Gulf Shores, Alabama. Crewed by Mike Darden, Bob McDonald and Charlie Stewart. Sailed East from Gulf Shores to Port St. Joe, then to Apalachicola to wait on a weather window for the crossing. Sat two days in Apalach waiting for a storm system to pass, then sailed out on Thursday morning. Ran aground at low tide in the middle of the channel making our way across Apalach Bay to Government Cut which puts us into the Gulf. Finally we get out to sea in the safety of deep water, and set sail on a port beam reach, winds at 16 kts. Later that afternoon as the winds subsided, we put up the new cruising spinnaker for the first time on Little Wing. She was fabulous. That sail makes Little Wing at 12 tons sing and dance.

At dark we took the spinnaker down and went under jib and main. During the night winds picked up to 20 kts., and in the early morning hours, they piped up to 27kts. That made it a little choppy in the Gulf, but the boat was made for that sort of thing and never missed a beat. We, however, had to adapt. Our sail from Appalach to Marathon Key was 72 hours at sea. We made port at Marathon Marina, and had showers and electricity, cable hook-up and all the amenities of luxury. We then departed Marathon early the next morning on the Atlantic side and sailed North up Hawk Channel. Winds were from the NW and we were able to sail on a port reach all the way to Angelfish Cut, which is a channel we could take from the Atlantic to the Bay of Biscayne. Although the winds had picked up to about 18-20 kts from the North, we were able to anchor up for the night on the lee of Pumpkin Key to enjoy a beautiful sunset over Key Largo. The next morning we set out up the ICW for the 24 mile stretch to Miami. We anchored up in No Name Harbor for the night, and the next day sailed over to Dinner Key Marina which was our Miami destination.

See the pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/cstewartphotos/LittleWingGulfShoresToMiami

Tall Ships and Tall Buildings: Chicago 2007

Chicago; the city of tall ships and tall buildings. After our visit the last week of July, 2007, we learned it is also the city of great steakhouses, deep pan pizza, Cubs baseball and hotdogs at Wrigley field, and oddly enough, a city that hosts the "Houndstooth Bar", an Alabama Football Memorabilia restaurant/bar, right in the middle of Wriggleville.

Click here to see the Chicago weekend pictures. http://picasaweb.google.com/cstewartphotos/TallShipsAndTallBuildingsChicago

Jimmy Jones, one of my old highschool buddies, and I re-acquainted with each other after way too many years, and to our surprise, we found out that we still had a lot in common. Our wives act like twins, we still love Alabama Football and Baseball, and Jimmy still has salt in his veins and a love for boating that I knew about even when we were in High School. Our first yacht was a mail-order canvas canoe kit that we built in highschool. We took our wives on a long weekend to Chicago and stayed in a quaint little vintage hotel, the Talbott (built in 1927) and since refurbished to a nice 4 star boutique hotel right in the middle of the shopping district on Rush Street and Delaware. It is one block from the magnificent mile on Michigan Avenue, and just blocks from Navy Pier. There we saw two of the City's tall ships, the Windy, a 148 foot four masted schooner, and the Windy II, a 148 foot barque rigg. I love the history of the old sailing ships!