104 - Kent Island Circumnavigation - May 14 to 18

The ASA104 is the most–how do I say this in a friendly way?
Of the ASA classes, the ASA 104 is the most “precarious” of all. What I
mean with that is that a group of people will arrive at the school, oftentimes
from all over the country, and will spend three nights together in unknown
circumstances. In the ASA101 and 103 we return to the marina at night, but
the Maryland School requires three overnights: one mooring, one in a slip
and one on anchor. Students for the 106 and 108 are recommended and
thereby vetted, but for the 104, anyone can sign up. And I mean A N Y O N
E.

In other words, I always feel somewhat anxious before we meet on the first
day, because one never knows. There is actually a maritime-based
expression in Dutch referring to that situation when a socially difficult
situation occurs, we say: well, we’re all in the same boat. In other words,
we will have to figure it out together.

Rick and Matt are father and son. I remembered Rick from the docking
class he took a year before. Dave met Rick in the ASA101 class they took
and remained friends. Rick lives on Davis Creek and is our neighbor.
Whenever you see a jetski flying by, that’s probably Rick. Matt, his son lives
in Philly. They are planning to sail together in their recently acquired vessel.
Dave is from Milwaukee and is an avid sailor. He has a lot of experience
racing and daysailing, but signed up for the class, because he was
interested in cruising.

My anxiety on the first day of class, that morning of the 14th of May, melted
faster than an ice cube in a cup of hot Earl Grey. Of course after we first
met, there were a few awkward, testing moments, like it always goes when
you meet new people, but we were quickly to trust each other and did not
waste much time chatting or getting to know each other, we went to work.
First business of any day on the water is a thorough boat check, the
Germans have a better word for that: “gründlich.” It refers to fundamental,
as in, we depend on this vessel for our lives, we have to make sure
everything is in working order.

Since Matt and Rick just purchased a sailing boat with a diesel engine, we
spent a lot of time discussing the, what I call, ins and outs. We have air
coming in and out, diesel coming in and out as exhaust but also returning
to the tank, hot, cooling water coming in and out. Then we have the cooling
liquid, lubricant, oil filter, belts etc.
After studying the engine, we took our time going over the information
available to us on paper: notices to mariners, the light list, tide tables, maps
etc. This set us up for the afternoon activity, plotting our course in life for
the next four days. We at the Maryland School insist on plotting our course
manually, using pencils, dividers and parallel rulers. Here is that word
again: gründlich, we are all about teaching the fundamentals. We’d make
Joshua Slocumb proud.

While the students were plotting the course, I went to town to purchase the
desired provisions.

We decided to leave early in the morning. The plan was to sail about 25
Nm to St Michaels and the wind prediction didn’t seem optimal. To our

surprise there happened to be a very nice breeze, and we sailed almost at
hull speed on the genoa.
We reached the entrance of the channel towards Kent Narrows around
11:00 hours. We dropped the sails and almost immediately ran aground in
the channel. Apparently, there had been some recent shoaling in the
channel we weren’t aware of, and there were no markers either.

Sailing through any bridge requires concentration because there was a
strong current and therefore no room for mistakes. The current made
“hanging” in front of the bridge while waiting for the opening somewhat
challenging, but Dave had a good grip on the wheel.
After we went through the bridge, the weather changed somewhat; we lost
the strong breeze and came into light winds.

I like to do surprise man-over-board exercises by picking up floating trash
(and help clean up the bay, of course.) This time it was of my own doing. I
tried to crash a soda can (takes up less space in the trash can) but failed,
and it landed in the water. We immediately called man overboard! and
safely rescued the can from its eternal demise on the muddy bottom of
Prospect Bay.

The wind slowly left us to entertain other sailors, and we were left to use
the combustion device to bring us in. We were supposed to dock bow in at
E1 at the Chesapeake Maritime Museum, but to our chagrin, someone else
was docked there illegally. Afterward, we found out the motorboat had
engine trouble, but still, it was an annoyance. Now we had to back in
because only E1 is along the quay, which allows for easy deboarding. All

the other slips have tiny fingerpiers. With the help of the dockhands we
were able to back in relatively easy and tied up for a night at the museum.

The next morning we seemed to run the same scenario as the day before:
low wind expectations versus a generous dollop of air. We had a great sail,
mostly close reach all the way to Annapolis where we were supposed to
stay the night on a mooring ball. Since it was a weekend, we decided to
leave early in order to secure a ball in the basin. Even though we made
good time, all the balls were taken and we had to wait for the bridge to
open hoping to find a ball at Spa Creek in front of the Church (you never
know). There happened to be a ball available. We moored like pros and
took a brief moment to relax before we called the Annapolis Water Taxi to
go to town.

We showered in the mobile shower the next morning and enjoyed a
copious breakfast that would sustain us the rest of the day.

Before we left our ball, we called the Annapolis Harbor Pump Out boat to
empty our holding tank. The operator, after seeing our Maryland School
flag decided to grant us with a free pump out lesson and a barrage of poop
jokes.

Since we had a relatively short trip to our anchorage, we decided to go on
an adventure and sail around the Annapolis harbors. It’s great to gain some
steering experience in very crowded areas, from superyachts to inflatable
kayaks; you will find it all in Annapolis.

We had to motor to our anchorage close to Eastern Neck Island because
the wind was not as kind to us as it had been earlier. At the anchorage, we
enjoyed a meal and a spectacular sunset. The next morning the water was
flatter than a penny on a slab of marble. After we pulled up the anchors–the
night before we played with different forms of anchoring, we slowly made
our way back to Lankford Bay Marina. Since we had some time on our
hands, we finished the written test the night before, we decided to spend a
few hours practicing docking.

Looking back I’d say this was more than awesome experience with these
guys, I recommended them all for the 106.