Tag: Lighthouse

Visits to lighthouses

We had a small fleet for a summer race to Wolf Trap Light House and back. There were 6 spinnaker boats and the two boats in the PHRF-A fleet were us on the J99 Battle Rhythm and the J109 Afterthought.

We started in the Piankatank just off Gwynns Island and had winds in the low teens out of the SSE and mostly sunny. There was a bit of traffic at the start with all of the boats piling up at the starboard end of the line which happened to be the government mark. We had to dodge a few boats and once we got clear we hung with Afterthought upwind on the way out of the Piankatank.

Once we cleared the river we continued upwind south to Wolf Trap light. With the current going out of the bay it was advantageous to continue on starboard all the way out into the bay. We got to the layline a couple miles from the lighthouse and tacked onto Port.  Afterthought had continued to inch further away from us and was about ½ mile ahead of us by the time we got to the light house.  And the wind out here was around 6-8 knots.

At Wolf Trap we rounded and set the A2 spinnaker and headed downwind. We sailed this spinnaker for a bit hoping the wind would build into its range, but it didn’t come and we decided to do a spinnaker change to the A1. While Kevin, Len and Carrie got the old spinnaker down, I grabbed the tack and halyard and got it hooked to the new spinnaker and after Kevin wrestled the chute into the hatch and Len hooked up the sheet I jumped the halyard on the mast and we had the new spinnaker flying in just over a minute.

Another new trick for this race was having the chart and instruments on the iPad. We also set up some time graphs with one of them being VMG and so after we changed spinnaker we were able to see from the chart that we were getting at least a tenth more VMG.

We continued North to the Piankatank, saw a huge pod of dolphins  and eventually rounded into the river where we went somewhat upwind to the finish off Gywnns Island. On corrected time we would be about 14 minutes behind Afterthought.

All in all it was a good day of racing. Learned a few more tricks on the boat and had fun racing with Kevin, April, Carrie, Todd, Len, and Ann.

RESULTS | PICTURES | VIDEO

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Portland Head Light
Portland Head Light

On our final day we got Lobster Rolls in Muscongus Bay before making the drive to Portland where we checked out the Portland Head Light before catching our flight home. Driving through Portland – we were surprised at parts of it reminded us of the architecture in Church Hill in Richmond. It was certainly a fun trip and thanks to Laurie and John for having us along and showing us around!

PICTURES

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Saturday we raced Wavelength at Fishing Bay Yacht Club to the Wolf Trap Light House and back.  Wolf Trap is a memorable place both because I’ve sailed my own boat there and because it was the first race I ever did on a ‘big boat’ on Wavelength in 1998 after joining FBYC and getting my drivers license.

The weather was perfect for a race with winds 12-19 out of the SSW and mostly sunny skies.  We had a good start and were 2nd boat around the short windward mark.  The next leg was a little less than a mile downwind and chose not to go with a spinnaker and lost a couple spots to the boats behind us.

Nereid at Wolf Trap Light House
Nereid rounding Wolf Trap Light House just behind us

On the close reach out to the Milford Haven mark we had a full main and a No 1 up which was more sail than anyone else and held our ground and may have even picked up on some of the faster rated boats.  From Milford Haven to Wolf Trap was a beat with a heavy current behind us.

Once around Wolf Trap it was all downwind directly into the current.  As we got closer to the Piankatank the wind moved forward and it became a close reach again.  The final leg was a beat up the Piankatank and we ended up 2nd in the 4-boat PHRF-A fleet behind Nanuq.

Results | Pictures

Course:

 

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This weekend is Southern Bay Race Week in Hampton VA and today I was helping Sam Mitchener deliver Double Eagle to Hampton for us to race on.  We had a cool overcast day with winds out of the Northeast ranging from 10-16.  The 43nm trip in lumpy conditions was otherwise uneventful and we made it in just over 7 hours motoring the entire way.  Tomorrow the rest of the crew joins us for 3 days of racing and hopefully some warmer weather.  I’m looking forward to my first time at Southern Bay Race Week!

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Jon on Laser in front of Wolf Trap Light House

The conditions were perfect on Sunday for a nice long sail to Wolf Trap light house – 27 nautical miles round trip.  At the beginning the wind was out of the SSW at 10-15 which meant after one tack in Fishing Bay by the marinas I was able to lay Wolf Trap 2 hours and 40 minutes later on starboard tack.  As I approached the light house the wind dropped to 5-8 and moved to due South.  On the run home it kicked back up to 10-15.  Total trip time 5 hours 45 minutes.

Sailing to Wolf Trap route
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With racing complete, I had one final day in Key West for sightseeing before my flight out at the end of the day.  I visited the Hemmingway house and saw the 6-toed cats and the studio where he wrote most of his books.  I also visited the Key West lighthouse and walked up it to see the views of the area.  I made another stop to the shipwreck museum.

Hemmingway House

Key West Light House

My trip to Key West wouldn’t have been complete without more problems with flights.  All week the winds hadn’t been over 10 knots which didn’t make for great race conditions.  But today there were high wind warnings and so the plane flying in to fly me out wasn’t able to land because of it.  My flight was cancelled and Delta didn’t have another seat on a plane out of Key West until Monday.  So they put bunches of us in cabs and drove us 190 miles to Miami where I was put up in 2-room king bed suite at Embassy Suites.  My trip goes on another day…

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