Visits to lighthouses
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!
Our first day in Maine we visited Muscongus Bay Sea Food and picked lobsters, visited Pemaquid Lighthouse and then finished the evening with dinner out with Laurie and John.
Following Southern Bay Race Week Jess and I joined her parents in Kitty Hawk for some beach time. In the two days I got to stay we spent a day at the beach and visited Manteo including a tour of Outer Banks Distillery.
On the way home I picked up the J/70 left in Hampton and returned it to Deltaville.
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.
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.
Course:
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!
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 4o 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.
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.
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…
