The Sailing Club, Inc.

The boats were nearly identical: three Beneteau 38's, all with roller furling mains: Sea Sister (skippered by Don Shelton), Satyricon II (skippered by Tom Davies on check-out with Steve Krakauer as senior), and Victoria (skippered by Dave Steward on check-out with Ray Gray as senior) Two had three cabins and one had two cabins. All three were fairly new, clean and ready to go. Boat checkouts were completed on Friday morning, taking longer than was really necessary. No major problems were found and all three boats were under way by noon.

Friday's trip - due South to Mobjack Bay and into the (second) Severn River - was a bit slow for some, but it was sailed most of the way by all three boats. It was a good chance to learn each boat's behavior as well as the Southern Chesapeake Bay area. An evening raft was assembled in about fifteen minutes, and an extended hors d'oeuvres party covering two boats was quickly assembled; Steve grilled up about three pounds of kielbasa. This was followed by dessert - Julio's great flan - on the third boat, Don Shelton's boat Sea Sister.

Saturday was the great adventure. Forecasts called for breezes of five knots growing to fifteen, out of the north. It was over fifteen before we were out of Mobjack Bay and grew to peaks over 25 knots. Sailing was close hauled, of course; the wind was actually out of the northeast, and it only took us five hours, more or less, to reach Cape Charles. This was an outstanding day for the diehard sailors, a tad too much or too long for a few others. But all arrived safely and found refuge in the brand new Cape Charles marina. Most had dinner at Rebecca's while a few went to the Chesapeake Cafe. All had a good and reasonably priced dinner, although Don had to visit another emporium for his traditional ice cream.

Sunday morning was a rather slow start, with additional tours of the small but newly popular town, and the acquisition/reading of Sunday newspapers. The boats departed between 9:30 and 10:30 AM. Winds were predicted from the south at five growing to fifteen knots; they actually averaged around five knots, with much less at times, which brought a horde of flies some with jaws the size of Rodan, and the appetite to match. Some "iron wind" was used to create a breeze to rid us of the little buggers, and another raft was assembled - ten minutes for this one - up the East River off of Mobjack Bay, just north of Put In Creek. Two boats had lasagna while the third had chicken dinner.

Monday's destination was planned for a marina on Gwynn's Island in the Piankatink River, but it was learned that all of the Gwynn's Island restaurants were closing early on the last day of Memorial Day weekend. The nearest available restaurants were back in Deltaville, so the simple solution was to sail back to the charter marina where free docks and showers awaited, along with cars to take us to dinner. Winds were ideal; ten to fifteen knots from the South for a combination of close and broad reaches and some wing-on-wing, maintaining boat speeds at around seven knots. The ever vigilant crew of Victoria kept a watchful eye while wing-on-wing: Ray, parked on the stern rail seat, was immersed in a Robert Ludlum novel, while Bob Lipman cranked a few zzz's below. Davies/Krakauer seemingly were about to fall off the edge of the earth east of us, and Shelton, et al followed several miles astern.
Two boats went to Riva's in Deltaville for dinner; Satyricon II ate on board, then hosted a dessert must-go party with fifteen people in the salon, inhaling some delicious cherry and apple pies. A la mode, no less, thanks to a thoughtful stop at Sue's grocery on the way back from dinner ashore!

Tuesday morning the three boats sailed out for a cruise on the Rappahannock River, going up-river for about nine miles to the bridge and returning for fuel and pump-out stops before final docking. Boat cleanup, car packing and charter de-briefing were completed and most cars on the way by about 5PM. Hilary Z decided to sleep on-board and drive back Wednesday morning.

We suffered through 5 days of clear to partly cloudy (the fluffy kind) skies, perfect temps and reasonable to awesome winds. The southern Chesapeake, like 3 and one-half years ago, did not disappoint us.

Ray Gray and Dave Steward