On Our Way to St. Mary’s, on Calm Seas

It’s Sunday mid-day and we have been underway since 07:00.  The seas are running about 4′ but dropping as the wind that we enjoyed for the first 5 hours is beginning to die.  I was hoping that Chris Parker, the weather router, was wrong about the wind dying when I spoke with him on Saturday but his prediction was that we’d get a good start but that the wind would go away around noon.  Chris, you are right, yet again.   Bummer for that…

Yesterday was very windy and not from a good direction and he recommended that we wait till this morning to venture out so that the seas could lay down.    The bad news is that he also predicted that the wind would also “go away” by noon Sunday.   In this case, I wish that he wasn’t right so much of the time.

Today’s forecast calls for wind under 10kts from the north, not nearly enough wind to keep us moving toward our destination.    For Pandora to sail well, she needs about 10kts apparent and with that she does quite nicely.

So, a bit ago, we gave in and turned on the engine and pulled the sails in a bit.  Happily, there is still enough wind to keep the sails filled and steady us a bit as we move along at between 6.5 and 7kts.

After some motoring I decided, since it was so calm and such an easy day, to break out the fishing gear. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with fishing.  On the one hand, it’s fun to catch a fish but on the other hand, you have to do something with whatever you catch.  And, on top of all that, you don’t know what you’ll catch and it might be alarmingly large…

Anyway, I decided that the best strategy was to use a small lure with the idea of “small lure, small fish”.    Happily, after about an hour of trolling off of the back of the boat, we were rewarded by a nice, not too big, tuna.  I don’t know what sort it was but it sure had a lot of blood for such a modest sized fish.

Interestingly, tuna are warm blooded.  Although, not as warm as mammals, they are decidedly warmer than the water that they swim in. I understand that they have evolved into warm blooded fish so that they can sustain the sort of fast swimming and aggressive hunting that they are famous for.  This guy put up quite a fight.  I reeled him/her in and Jim did a great job with the gaff, getting the fish on board.

I cleaned him up right away (he was still warm, and pretty bloody) and froze half, one filet for tonight.  No frozen lasagna tonight.   Mmmm…

Enough fishing for today as I don’t have the energy to clean another one.   We are still moving along nicely and at this rate, we will arrive at the mouth of the St Mary’s river around midnight on Monday.

I can’t say that I am thrilled about heading into an unfamiliar entrance in the dark but the channel is very well maintained and marked with lighted buoys to accommodate the Navy and their submarine base, so getting up the river will be pretty straight forward.
Once we leave the main channel to head up to the town of St Mary’s, we’ll have to be more careful.  There are lighted markers but the river is pretty windy and we’ll likely be a bit tired after the crossing. The good news, is that once we are there it will be early enough for us to get a good night sleep.  Tuesday will be spent getting Pandora ready to haul in the local boatyard where she will spend the next three months on land prior to Brenda and I rejoining her in early January.

Speaking of the boatyard, the St Mary’s Boatyard, as it’s aptly named, is run by a guy named Rocky and while I have heard that he has a nice operation, I haven’t been able to get him on the phone for a few days to alert him that I am headed his way.  Yes, we talked a few months ago, but I sure hope that he has gotten my messages and e-mails and is ready for our arrival.

Well, at the very least, I can just show up at his dock when I get there.  I expect that will get his attention.

So, that’s about all I have to report as we are now about 30nm from shore and there’s nothing but unbroken horizon in all directions.  And, the temperature is very nice in the sunny 60s, a far cry from a brisk 45 in the cabin when I got up this morning.

Don’t forget, I’ll be posting my position in “where’s Pandora” every four hours.

Here’s to smooth “motor-sailing” the rest of the way to St Mary’s.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *