Date: 22 Oct., 2005
Location: Mill Creek, Great Wicomoco River
Current position: 37 47.575 N 076 19.378 W
We left Solomon's Friday to attend a Tayana get-together at Mill Creek on the Great Wicomoco River. Another Tayana, "Mistress", had arrived at Solomons the evening before, also bound for Mill Creek, so we decided to sail down together. Rain and cold weather were predicted, but these guys seemed ready to go, so we decided we needed to suck it up and go, too.
We left at 7:30 in the morning - it was just getting light. Mistress pulled in next to us as we were raising our anchor, dressed in our full foul weather gear, ready for the wind and rain. She is beautiful black boat with wood cabin sides. And a full cockpit enclosure. We looked again. Yep. Her cockpit is entirely covered in canvas and plastic. It's warm. And dry. No wonder they weren't bothered about sailing 40 miles in the rain! They're even wearing shorts and tee shirts. Sheesh.
We had rain, very limited visibility, and 20-30 knot winds out of the Northwest with a temperature of about 50 degrees. Luckily we were heading primarily South and Southeast, so we were on a broad reach for most of the trip and the 4-6 foot waves made for a good surf down the bay.
We decided to turn on the radar - we haven't used it much, but with the limited visibility we wanted to have as much warning as we could of other vessels, obstructions, etc. It was pretty cool. We were able to see a tug w/ barge in tow and a big container ship long before they were visible. We saw other sailboats as they approached and passed, and we watched a thunder head come toward us from the East, then slowly fall behind as we passed in front of it. The only visible indication was a darkening of the sky - it was nice to know that we'd dodged that bullet.
After a long, wet, and bouncy day, we finally arrived and got safely anchored in Mill Creek. We had traveled all day in our foul weather weather gear sitting on wet teak and getting wind and rain blown. When Mistress arrived a few minutes later, her crew stepped out onto deck in shorts and sandals. Muttering soggy obscenities under our water-laden breath, we welcomed them and helped them tie up to us. We shared dinner, eventually warmed up, and made an early night of it.
On Saturday we were joined by "Adventure Bound", owned by friends from our home marina. We all had a great time inspecting each other's boats, noting the similarities and differences, and the obvious compromises that were made during design and building.
For instance, Rachel has a separate shower compartment in the head. For obvious reasons, this is a wonderful thing. On the other hand, Adventure Bound has a much more open settee / dining area that is more conducive to socializing. The extra space seated six of us quite comfortably where we would have been a bit crowded on Rachel.
This extra space, however, comes at the expense of a separate shower, so we invited the others to take showers on Rachel if they wanted. And so it went - what was found to be desirable on one boat was clearly shown to be available only due to the compromise of a different but equally desirable feature on another boat. It was a great experience for all of us and we're going to plan another in the spring that will hopefully be better attended.
Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel
Location: Mill Creek, Great Wicomoco River
Current position: 37 47.575 N 076 19.378 W
We left Solomon's Friday to attend a Tayana get-together at Mill Creek on the Great Wicomoco River. Another Tayana, "Mistress", had arrived at Solomons the evening before, also bound for Mill Creek, so we decided to sail down together. Rain and cold weather were predicted, but these guys seemed ready to go, so we decided we needed to suck it up and go, too.
We left at 7:30 in the morning - it was just getting light. Mistress pulled in next to us as we were raising our anchor, dressed in our full foul weather gear, ready for the wind and rain. She is beautiful black boat with wood cabin sides. And a full cockpit enclosure. We looked again. Yep. Her cockpit is entirely covered in canvas and plastic. It's warm. And dry. No wonder they weren't bothered about sailing 40 miles in the rain! They're even wearing shorts and tee shirts. Sheesh.
We had rain, very limited visibility, and 20-30 knot winds out of the Northwest with a temperature of about 50 degrees. Luckily we were heading primarily South and Southeast, so we were on a broad reach for most of the trip and the 4-6 foot waves made for a good surf down the bay.
We decided to turn on the radar - we haven't used it much, but with the limited visibility we wanted to have as much warning as we could of other vessels, obstructions, etc. It was pretty cool. We were able to see a tug w/ barge in tow and a big container ship long before they were visible. We saw other sailboats as they approached and passed, and we watched a thunder head come toward us from the East, then slowly fall behind as we passed in front of it. The only visible indication was a darkening of the sky - it was nice to know that we'd dodged that bullet.
After a long, wet, and bouncy day, we finally arrived and got safely anchored in Mill Creek. We had traveled all day in our foul weather weather gear sitting on wet teak and getting wind and rain blown. When Mistress arrived a few minutes later, her crew stepped out onto deck in shorts and sandals. Muttering soggy obscenities under our water-laden breath, we welcomed them and helped them tie up to us. We shared dinner, eventually warmed up, and made an early night of it.
On Saturday we were joined by "Adventure Bound", owned by friends from our home marina. We all had a great time inspecting each other's boats, noting the similarities and differences, and the obvious compromises that were made during design and building.
For instance, Rachel has a separate shower compartment in the head. For obvious reasons, this is a wonderful thing. On the other hand, Adventure Bound has a much more open settee / dining area that is more conducive to socializing. The extra space seated six of us quite comfortably where we would have been a bit crowded on Rachel.
This extra space, however, comes at the expense of a separate shower, so we invited the others to take showers on Rachel if they wanted. And so it went - what was found to be desirable on one boat was clearly shown to be available only due to the compromise of a different but equally desirable feature on another boat. It was a great experience for all of us and we're going to plan another in the spring that will hopefully be better attended.
Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel
