Magnolia and crew had a great sail over the Memorial Day weekend. Our friends Patricia and Brian joined us for the weekend. They previously sailed with us last Labor Day weekend and they STILL had the courage to come join us again! We departed the West River (Galesville, MD) Saturday morning with light south winds forecast. As it turned out we were much closer to a nice easy reach all the way up the bay arriving Little Queenstown Creek (Queenstown, MD). Magnolia sailed in the company of “Capriccio” with our friends Brenda & Wes onboard. As is often the case when two sailboats are near each other a friendly competition broke out as we headed into the Chester River above Kent Narrows. Did I mention that when we purchased Magnolia she had mounted in the saloon a Trophy Plaque indicating she won her class in the 1991 Biloxi, MS Regatta? Let us just say, she has lost nothing in the twenty years since! She averaged well above 5 knots and several times strutted her stuff above 7 knots. Our girl is not just good looking, she is fast too! The wonderful thing is we sailed out of the West River and right to the entrance at Queenstown (28 miles). I have to say, for a guy from Detroit, doing that is pretty darn cool.
Capriccio with her slightly shallower draft scouted the anchorage and found us a great spot to drop the hook (anchor) and then moored a long side. Another group of friends, Peter and Ann and family on Wind Song, sailed in aboard a charter catamaran and joined us in the anchorage. Everyone arrived well in time to enjoy a “sun downer” and a great pot luck aboard Magnolia. After a tour of the area in the dingy, firing of the cannon at sundown, and a cigar it was time to call it an evening.
Sunday morning greeted us with bright sun and a nice cool breeze. The breeze coming through the cabin made for a wonderful wake up call! After a filling breakfast (Did I mention that Patricia is French and learned to cook and bake the most wonderful food?) the “fleet” headed back south towards Annapolis and the Severn River. Sunday offered us a bit more wind (18-25 knots) affording us to really sail Magnolia. As we found coming from Florida, give her 23 knots, a double reefed main, a little jib and she gives you the easiest fast sail you could ask for! We did have a little challenge coming south in there was a fair 3-4 knot current to fight coming under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. We were forced to make a couple tacks right before and under the bridge which the crew executed flawlessly. (There was no way we were going to start the engine to simply sail under a bridge and the crew did not disappoint!) Entering the Severn River, we set the sails to for a wing-on-wing configuration (using a “preventer” line to force the main sail off the port side and sailing the jib on the starboard). Again we had a wonderful anchorage in Chase Creek with a “sun downer” and a wonderful potluck again aboard Capriccio. We took a swim and dinghy ride.
Monday we awoke to what we knew was going to be a really hot day so the boats wasted no time in getting underway. Again the “Lucky Duck” (that’s me) won again with a great sailing wind out of the south east. We had an easy sail back to the west river with just a couple of tacks to miss ship and barge traffic. It was a great weekend with fun people, what more could you ask for?