Excursion to Ridout Creek
Sailing Under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge
Beautiful Houses on the Banks of Ridout Creek
Went for our second overnight excursion to a place called Ridout Creek near Whitehall Bay, about 15 miles south of us. The sail was uneventful, and I mean really uneventful, meaning there was no wind to sail despite the forecast for 10 knot winds. We motored all the way. It was kind of cool going underneath the bay bridge after having driven over it so many times.
Our destination was Ridout Creek. It’s not a creek in the Colorado sense, but more like the outlet of a creek. We anchored near very nice houses, almost all with their own private docks and boats. Lots of money surrounds the water here, as with many places. It’s really cool to anchor a few feet outside these beautiful back yards! We had a very pleasant evening.
The next day the wind had picked up quite a bit. It was coming from the north so we had a long day tacking into the wind most of the way back toward our marina. We would have stayed out another night but there was a lot of uncertainty of whether hurricane Hermine would cross over our neck of the woods. Or ocean as it were. We’d rather be back at dock if that happened.
Good wind and another good day of learning the boat systems as well as how “close” we could sail into the wind. Our instruments showed we could get within 30 degrees and keep moving at a reasonable pace, which is pretty good. What that means is this: You can’t sail directly into the wind, but you can sail at an angle to the wind coming at you, and the angle is 30 degrees (or greater). You don’t make a lot of forward progress but you can make some progress. We practiced that all day while watching giant cargo ships and barges move up and down the shipping channel to Baltimore. Nice day.
Posted in Sailing by Mark with 1 comment.
30 degrees – that’s good. I tried the same game in Dacca with my GP-14 in 1975-7 or so. That lake is now embassy row! Took Caroline sailing through deep water rice – makes for a lovely sound