The Sailing Club, Inc.

Baltimore September 20 – 22, 2008

Bopping into Baltimore Late September provided excellent weather for a final Chesapeake weekend.   Three crews made the trip to Rock Hall to enjoy it. The crews continued the Club’s campaign to sail “green” by using refillable water bottles and, in a couple of cases, bringing only one really big beer (those Heineken mini-kegs are very convenient)! After a day of sailing and motoring the fleet rafted on Saturday in Bodkin Creek.   The evening’s theme was the music of the 1950s, with a competition for boat “atmosphere,”a “talent” contest, and a trivia contest. Crews undertook all events, including the usual appetizer party, with enthusiasm that resulted in two ties and one clear win. Atmosphere was a tie between Into the Mystic and Nimbus, each with hanging 45 records and ‘50s banners in the rigging.   What must the neighbors have thought? Two groups entered the talent contest: the bowling team from Into the Mystic, plus one from Winnefox, performed “Hand Jive,” a ‘50s rock and roll and blues dance. The crew of Nimbus donned mouse ears and white shirts with their names on the chests to perform a rousing rendition of the Mickey Mouse Club March (1956). Finally, the trivia contest started evenly, but Nimbus quickly took a firm lead due mainly to quick contributions by the usually laconic Dave Stark. Several crew had family in the Baltimore area, so the fleet had many visitors to the Inner Harbor East Marina on Sunday evening. Those who didn’t entertain guests walked to Fells Point for a great dinner at the famous Bertha’s Mussels, and some geocache hunting. Monday's sail back to Rock Hall was not to be missed! Two boats worked on tacking down the Patapsco River from Baltimore, and once out on the bay everyone enjoyed better than ten knots of wind and boat speed hovering around seven knots. The wind out of the northeast gave us a single tack ride to Can 1 off of Rock Hall. The only disadvantage was that the wind seemed to blow the water out of Swan Creek.   Winnefox, drawing 5' 6" and arriving after Into The Mystic (drawing 4' 9") went aground in the channel approaching Haven’s docks and followed up by attempting to remove a little bump in the bottom across from their slip. Haven used its “push/pull tug” to maneuver them into their slip – where they came to rest on the bottom.