DelMarVa Peninsula
Circumnavigation
(ASA-106)

Once you have some chartering or cruising experience under your belt, it's time for the next step - offshore sailing at night!  The ability to travel after the sun goes down removes the restrictions on your cruising grounds and traveling offshore at night allows you to cut days off your transit times.

 

This eight and a half day course will challenge your abilities while building the skills necessary to work with a crew in open waters.  You will spend between 36 and 48 hours transiting down the Delaware Bay and along the Atlantic Coast of three states.  Then, after some time in port to rest up and recover, you will spend 24 hours working back up the Chesapeake Bay, where the open inshore areas will alternate with some of the busiest shipping areas, all while you are traveling at night.  Whether by the silver glow of the full moon or in the starlit darkness of the new moon, you will learn how to identify, communicate with and avoid some of the biggest vessels in the world.

 

This course starts with a Zoom conference call a month or so before the trip, where you will meet your shipmates, the Captain and the Mate for your trip.  You will learn the route, be given specific assignments to research and develop the meal plan for the trip.  Then, during the first day and a half of the class, you will spend time learning about the boat, walking through crew tasks and developing the actual navigation plan, under the guidance of the instructors.  Once underway, you will spend a day doing on-the-water training, while transiting to your first marina.  Traveling up the Bay the next day to the C&D canal, you will practice navigation techniques such as two and three bearing fixes, distance off calculations and running fixes.

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After spending the night at your second marina, you will be underway for the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, by way of the Delaware Bay.  Generally, you will enter the Atlantic Ocean near nightfall and sail down the coast, tracking your progress by the lights ashore until they disappear over the horizon and you are alone with your crew.  After you watch the sun come up, you'll continue down the empty ocean, watching for the signs of the tip of the DelMarVa peninsula, where you will turn westward and head for Cape Charles City Marina. 

 

After catching up on your sleep, you'll head out in the afternoon and make your way back up the Bay, crossing from one side to the other as you head for Annapolis.  You'll spend the night in Annapolis, then it is back to Rock Hall and Lankford Bay Marina.

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During the offshore and Bay overnight legs, you will be standing a six hour watch as part of a two-person watch team.  You and your watch mate will be operating the boat, both on the wheel and as the navigator/lookout/rover.  While the Master and Mate will be with you, it will be your watch.  We’ll provide you with a copy of our training plan, unique to our school, with step-by-step instructions on how to work together with your crewmates. 

 

Due to the nature of this course, you will be staying aboard our 40 foot Island Packet, Navigator, except for the first two nights in port.  After we depart Lankford Bay, all meals aboard will be provided as part of the course and you will learn the best techniques for preparing, eating and cleaning up.

 

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