Tayana Gathering

Location: Solomons, MD
Date: October 20, 2006
Current location: N 38 19' 50 W 76 27' 32.32

After leaving Mill Creek because of bad connectivity, we picked up a mooring ball at Zahniser's Yachting Center. These were not available last year and when you pay for one, you also get the same use of the facilities as when you take a slip - at a considerable saving. Julie had heard they had great facilities and we needed to get some laundry done. Wow! Showers with bath tubs, a toilet and sink, all in its own private room - just like at home! In the world of marinas, this is the lap of luxury.

We have a shower on the boat but we have to conserve water, so showers are short and sweet and quite businesslike. At Zahniser's we got to just stand under the hot, never ending flow of water and bask in the luxury. Lovely!!

We spent the day restocking groceries and doing laundry, and took another shower. Decided to stay anther night at the mooring as the wind started gusting into the 30s. It's nice to get a good night's sleep and not have to worry about the anchor dragging. Oh and of course, we had yet another shower.

Location: Mill Creek, Solomons, MD
Date: October 26, 2006
Current position: N 38 20' 09 W 76 26' 08.44

A few times a year folk on the Chesapeake with Tayana sailboats (Rachel is a Tayana 37), gather to hang out and "show their stuff" (a "you show me yours and I'll show you mine" kind of thing). This weekend is the second of two fall gatherings this year.

Unfortunately, the weather pixies decided to bless us with 25-30 knot winds (again!) gusting to 40 (again!!) from Thursday evening through Saturday morning. When the wind finally let up a bit on Saturday morning, we slipped the mooring, motored all of 2.1 miles to our present location, dropped anchor, and later in the afternoon two other Tayana 37s rafted up with us.
Now we're on a different Mill Creek. We recently heard that there are over 40 Mill Creeks on the Chesapeake Bay and we're thinking that may be an understated estimate.

Despite the weather, we had a companionable weekend. The Tayana 37 is an interesting boat, they were almost all made to order and the 'floor plans' are all different. For such a small space it's amazing how varied the inside space can be. We all checked out each others boats and shared stories on work we'd done, fixes, sailing techniques and, of course, food, each meal shared on a different boat.

On Monday morning the last boat left and we decided to just stay at this anchorage. Our anchor was well set and with the predicted 15-25 mph NW winds we would be nicely protected. Those blasted weather pixies are a sneaky bunch, though. We spent the next 3 days enduring W winds, our most unprotected direction at this anchorage, 15-25 mph gusting sometimes up into the 40s. Now I know why sailors curse so much! It was frickin cold and bouncy with lows dipping into the 30s one night and the wind managed to eke it's way through any open pore on Rachel.

We had coffee and porridge for breakfast every morning, and looked for any excuse to cook a meal, make a roast, bake some bread, etc. - anything to keep the oven pouring heat out into the rest of the boat.

Snuggling up on Rachel

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel