Dolphin inspection

Bye Bye Fishing Bay

It is best, if one is going to start a sailing day by visiting a  water / pump-out / dump trash / get gas dock, that it be a short day of sailing. Marina fuel docks are reminiscent of passenger waiting lounges at airports, nothing seems to happen in a hurry. Kintala eased onto the dock behind a very nice looking Moody 46 already at the pump-out. We touched bases with India, Dock Manager extraordinaire who became a new friend last Spring.  It was nearly 0900 when Kintala, now full / empty / empty /full, eased away from the dock and moved back into the middle of Fishing Bay.

A single reef in the main and the staysail took over from the Beast, making enough HP to log nearly 4 knots on the GPS. Not fast, but fast enough for working the “U” shaped channel leading back to the Chesapeake. As the day wore on the staysail was stowed, the jib deployed, and the reef shaken out of the main to work the basically beam reach winds hovering in the 10 to 15 knots range. Waves barely topped a foot. Thin, feeble little things that slapped gently along the hull. Hard to believe this was the same body of water that Kintala had romped through just a few days ago, spray flying, lines tangling, deck monkey thrashing about, sails jammed and poles hanging.

Turning up into Mobjack Bay meant turning far off the wind. The main dropped easily onto the boom and working on the barely rocking deck was like working at a dock. The jib carried Kintala across Mobjack and deep into the Severn River. It was barely a half mile to the anchorage when the last sail was rolled away and the Beast went back to work. Along the way a pod of dolphins dropped by to play tag in the bow wake and see how we were doing. It was the first we have seen close up in several months. Such encounters are pretty high on the list of “best things about cruising” and it was an added treat to top a nearly perfect day.

Severn River is a new place for us, talked up by many as a must see. Kintala is set secure in front of the Severn River Marina; where friends have spent the summer working on their Catamaran. There had been some vague plans of seeing them tonight but, truth to tell, easy day as it was, launching the Dink just seemed like too much work. Even a great day of sailing is still a pretty busy day, and the four nights spent in Fishing Bay waiting for wind and sea to settle down were not much of a rest. All in all it took about 7 + 30 to cover the 34 miles from the last place to this. At the end of the day Kintala's deck was well ordered and tidy. Nothing was jammed or hung half way up the forestay. Which was good. I would hate to have the dolphins drop by and catch us in a state of disarray like the day we went into Fishing Bay.

It would have been down right embarrassing.