Chesapeake Bay-Strong Wind, Steep Waves

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

Yes, stopped there in our Mage 36 cat a few weeks ago, just anchored right inside the inlet. The ride in was completely uneventful, buoys do a good job of marking the channel even though the chart shows you going over dry land. The way out was a little sporty. Nice big rolling seas in the Atlantic that were easy to handle, but they steepened right up in the inlet and while not really dangerous, especially since I knew the depths following my track from the trip in, it was some big crashes into every wave for an hour or so that wasn't terribly comfortable. And the catamaran concentrates waves that hit our dinghy motor if I leave it on, so the dinghy was swinging pretty wildly and knocked the outboard cover off at some point. Dumb move on my part, I knew there were going to be steep waves and knew they hit the outboard, so definitely should have taken it off before weighing anchor. A couple hundred dollar lesson learned, I got off easy!

Nice.

I have wanted to sail in there for old time sake, but I spent my time at that inlet on my 14' Aluminum boat with 25 Evinrude so I was usually there when it was calm and had lots of power to run

Flounder fishing there and at Metompkin Inlet was unbelievable from the mid 60's until I went into the military in the mid 70's. (being a small town country kid)

Trout fishing was good there in the Fall just using frozen bull minnows.

In Summer, it was peeler crab and on the bayside

Peeler crab was easily bought directly from the crab houses back then.

[MicHughV]

y'all talk about sailing all you want...but no Chesapeake tale is complete without throwing in that Chesapeake delicacy.....steamed blue crab at St. Michael's !! I would sail thru' a storm for one more platter !!

[VBsail]

Saturday morning was sporty. We were going to go cross over from Matthews to Cape Charles in the morning, looked around, and said we can wait a few hours. Headed out after lunch thinking it would be a sporty ride and the wind dropped to almost nothing. Glassy calm evening with a beautiful sunset.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

y'all talk about sailing all you want...but no Chesapeake tale is complete without throwing in that Chesapeake delicacy.....steamed blue crab at St. Michael's !! I would sail thru' a storm for one more platter !!

St. Michaels?

That's like 130 miles up the bay.

You bypassed a lot of restaurants along the way that serve blue crab (steamed or fried soft crabs), oysters, and clams along the way.

Back in the day on seaside, you could find clams pretty easily and have those raw for lunch so all you needed to bring was your bait, beer, and water.

We used to actually get crabs at Quinby or Wachapregue (seaside) back in the day at buildings where you could see the water through gaps in the wooden flooring. That was exciting for a child.

People living on the barrier Islands in the early 1900's could live almost totally off of fish, crabs, oysters, clams, and geese, ducks, etc they hunted. Mostly using sailboats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnYNo9lQyAM

[MicHughV]

My first ever "cruise" in my newly built boat was 6 weeks in the Chesapeake. I don't recall ever having such bad weather that it prevented me from going anywhere. It was a fun trip, barring a few hiccups here and there. Despite the tales of woe told here, it is not the ocean and wave comparisons, etc, would be like comparing apples and oranges.

I was on the go almost daily as there is much to see there, went as far north as Annapolis, but zipped east and west many times. It got brisk at times, but not having any particular agenda, I could modify my course at will and select a destination that would not require me to bash my brains out.

It's a great sailing area in my opinion. The key to having a great trip is having the luxury of time to pick your weather window.

Every time I have ever had my butt handed to to me due to inclement weather was because I was trying to sail to a timetable, guests on board that could only arrive at a set date, etc...but my Chesapeake trip remains in my memory as a fun time.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

My first ever "cruise" in my newly built boat was 6 weeks in the Chesapeake. I don't recall ever having such bad weather that it prevented me from going anywhere. It was a fun trip, barring a few hiccups here and there. Despite the tales of woe told here, it is not the ocean and wave comparisons, etc, would be like comparing apples and oranges.

I was on the go almost daily as there is much to see there, went as far north as Annapolis, but zipped east and west many times. It got brisk at times, but not having any particular agenda, I could modify my course at will and select a destination that would not require me to bash my brains out.

It's a great sailing area in my opinion. The key to having a great trip is having the luxury of time to pick your weather window.

Every time I have ever had my butt handed to to me due to inclement weather was because I was trying to sail to a timetable, guests on board that could only arrive at a set date, etc...but my Chesapeake trip remains in my memory as a fun time.

I do sail on a schedule and had planned to be back on Saturday. I had planned this for the entire week.

This being to use this passing front and it's North Wind to get back across quickly.

Next time I'll have the hatch boards mostly in and my harness etc on before sailing off in wind forecasts of 20 knots plus which many times on the Chesapeake mean 30 knots plus. (and my head port closed luckily for me it was on the leeward side for this crossing)

My body was a bit beat up from doing my 2.5 mile run and workout on Wednesday and sailing on Thursday. (I'm mid 60's)

I also ran some on the trails at Kiptopeke on Friday. Plus hiked and climbed the cliffs and stairs. And I don't sleep well on the boat the first week or so.

Twice after dark I had to pull anchor and move both times to a spot close to the cement ships as I was getting beat up near shore after the wind turned and increased a bit.

Moving means more marsh mud on deck and on your hands, chain, and anchor.

The sail across was exhilarating especially since I was on my Bristol 27. If I had been on a boat say of 35' or more it would have been almost like just another sail as long as you didn't have too much sail up.(like I did on my boat with it's 19.75' LWL)

I did enjoy watching with amazement how this folkboat design handled the oncoming breaking waves midway across after I had turned DDW (and before when I could watch)

I've been in winds on the bay like this before but I guess since the tide was rippin in the opposite direction that was the big difference.

Also, my main sailing area is the Lower Bay, the entrance to the Bay. It can get pretty wild in this area.

The upper bay is much better protected than down here.

I spend many years when I was young fishing in the widest part Tangier and below 20 miles but back then I didn't have a boat that could handle 30 plus knots very well or the conditions (sea state) like it was on Saturday.

The thing is your equipment needs to be up to par on those type days. I wouldn't want to have to call for help because I was negligent on boat maintenance.

As it was, I was babying the rudder because the tiller was a little loose which made me suspect other possible problems. I have since tighten that up and it's fine. The bearings seems good also, but there is a tad bit of play maybe 1/16th of an inch or so.

I was also worrying about the rigging which is at least 16 years old (I never met or spoke to the PO) but since my boat including the rigging is a bit on the overbuilt side I figured it was OK.

[thomm225]

So one of the takeaways from sailing across the lower bay on a day like last Saturday is that you get to see how your boat handles the conditions.

Next time my plan is to get the boat set up a bit better so it can steer itself while I take video.

It would need to be able to do this anyway if I was offshore and these conditions persisted for a day or more as a singlehander.

This is one of the perks of sailing the lower bay. You get some pretty tough conditions to sail and test in but at the same time are close enough to shore where you can be back anywhere from 3-5 hours depending.

[DanielPerry]

In the Manitou Passage of Lake Michigan we get some lovely waves of your description, and it's so interesting as you described with shoals and currents..deflection and wave stacking and cancelling, compressing and growing taller over shoals etc. Its like a puzzle that sometimes you learn to see patterns in, mesmerizing. Then next time its different, hehe.

Going into: The "canoe kayak" method is essentially what I have to do whenever the wind gets over 15kts with a lot of fetch and Im trying to beat. I cant stand there when the bow is slamming and the mast shaking and not have the thought "there's no friggen way Im not losing my mast one of these days". So instead, angle off the wave a fair bit (say 15-20 degrees) right before, but as the wave crest reaches right below the bow (ish)..put the tiller alee and steer back so youre going straight over. The bow will "kiss" the back off the wave and you usually dont slam at all. It's probably the most invaluable technique Ive discovered for sailing into these kinds of waves. Takes the edge off.

Going with: All I can say is I'd rather take one into the cockpit than surf ending with a broach.. Im interested to hear any techniques for this as well.

[edexter]

Hah, we have a little Rhodes 22' sailboat that we sail on the upper bay, and yeah, we got beaten up by short-period waves coming up the bay in mid-August - coming out of Rock Hall one Sunday morning, we have to motor out the channel to the S and SW for a bit to get around the Swan Point bar, and a crisp wind and waves were coming up the Bay, so the waves were head on. In that little thing it isn't uncommon to take waves over the bow but this day we took several over the cabin top, it was a bit moist. When we turned west - shot for the Pleasure Island Light, so we could sail up behind Hart Miller Island (heading for her slip up Frogmortar Creek, off Middle River - the Captain had to be at work by noon!), we were taking the waves from port and rockin' and rollin' for sure! They weren't the seven footers you faced, but certainly made holding any kind of a straight course laughable. I might add, I did turn northish for a bit, and was surfing them as we made for the Pleasure Island channel, and they were doing a touch under 6 knots (hull speed for the boat being about 6.4 knots). Wasn't dangerous but sure made for a rollercoaster ride.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by edexter

Hah, we have a little Rhodes 22' sailboat that we sail on the upper bay, and yeah, we got beaten up by short-period waves coming up the bay in mid-August - coming out of Rock Hall one Sunday morning, we have to motor out the channel to the S and SW for a bit to get around the Swan Point bar, and a crisp wind and waves were coming up the Bay, so the waves were head on. In that little thing it isn't uncommon to take waves over the bow but this day we took several over the cabin top, it was a bit moist. When we turned west - shot for the Pleasure Island Light, so we could sail up behind Hart Miller Island (heading for her slip up Frogmortar Creek, off Middle River - the Captain had to be at work by noon!), we were taking the waves from port and rockin' and rollin' for sure! They weren't the seven footers you faced, but certainly made holding any kind of a straight course laughable. I might add, I did turn northish for a bit, and was surfing them as we made for the Pleasure Island channel, and they were doing a touch under 6 knots (hull speed for the boat being about 6.4 knots). Wasn't dangerous but sure made for a rollercoaster ride.

Nice story.

Hull speed on my Bristol 27 is just under 6 knots, and last time I was in 28 knots coming down the bay (downwind again after a passing front Onancock - Kiptopeke) I was hitting around 7.7 knots.

I believe the boat was moving through the water faster at times this time, but I didn't have any instruments in the cockpit except my handheld Suunto Compass

[waynetmazan]

This is sailing in the Chesapeake... In the early 1600's Captain John Smith experienced this same weather... Every sailor since then has learned to keep a weather eye.....

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by waynetmazan

This is sailing in the Chesapeake... In the early 1600's Captain John Smith experienced this same weather... Every sailor since then has learned to keep a weather eye.....

Yeah, I've been eyeing it since the 1960's, but sometimes it can still sneak up on you especially if you are sailing out of a nice secure anchorage like Kiptopeke can be when the winds are North

This time I think it was the opposing tide and the forecast of 15-20 knots (actual wind speed on a couple buoys was 33 knots that am) that was the problem. I figured maybe 22 knots but once out passed the Eastern Shore sailing SW it got a little ugly with waves coming over the side and totally soaking me.

Sailed the first part with autopilot while watching the waves get bigger and steeper and watching the boat continue to rise above but then every once in a while a wave much larger than the rest would come in and I'd duck behind the dodger as it broke on the boat or dodger/forward. (I noticed an eye end on the dodger frame was broken after I got back to the dock) I was using the starboard side cabin top hand rail to hold on to even after I got my harness and tether on.

Then turning South for DDW the jib was going nuts until I had a chance to get it in while steering to keep the boat right. I had the entire jib unfurled and one reef (my only one) in the main. (bad setup but I did have speed)

I still think I can get my boat to act a little better in those conditions with more reef points and maybe using my 90% Jib partially furled. It's shorter than the normal jib also. Video was taken near the end of the crossing and the wind and waves may have been laying down a little by then.

The whistling in the video doesn't seem as loud as it was on the boat either. At times I was thinking I had never remembered the rig whistling that much before.

[edexter]

Hah, with our Yamaha 9.9 wide open she'll do about 6.5 knots in flat water, and I have observed the GPS reading 6.4 with the Captain at the helm under sail (it's her boat), while I just held on to the high side, screaming and trying not to fall out. Usually I'm at the stick, tho, and much more sedately.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by edexter

Hah, with our Yamaha 9.9 wide open she'll do about 6.5 knots in flat water, and I have observed the GPS reading 6.4 with the Captain at the helm under sail (it's her boat), while I just held on to the high side, screaming and trying not to fall out. Usually I'm at the stick, tho, and much more sedately.

Nice.

I sure like those forward facing ports on that boat.

Makes it easy to take a quick look ahead when down below for a while.......

[edexter]

Fun little boat, great ofr the northern bay - designed by Philip Rhodes back in the '60s, near the end of his career, so she has the advantage of decades of experience; tender at first but with the keel down she goes over about 15 to 20 degrees and sticks pretty well (though the Captain advises she WILL get knocked down, but will self right, and has positive flotation so you just gotta bail her out. Having replaced all the electronics when helping her get it back in the water, damned if that is happening on MY watch). Shallow draft, 4' with the wedge-shaped keel down, 2' up, and it kicks up if you hit something. Plus, the line has been in production since the mid-60s and has been constantly improved. Now made by General Boats in Edenton NC, she's got a lot packed into her - a pop-top cabin roof with a canvas and plastic tent that goes over the whole cabin for privacy in marinas, head with a door, one-burner butane stove, little cold water sink, fold out bed, table that can go in the cabin or out in the largish cockpit, furling main and 170 genoa, and a motor mount with a compound block so you can lift the 100 pound motor out of the water when sailing. And those big hatches just abaft of and above the forward portlights really help with ventilation - as long as you close and dog them before taking a wave over the bow, lol. Make that mistake at least once a year. Wouldn't be much fun in the conditions you described tho, you did well.