When sailing in the Chesapeake at the end of June, there is no guarantee about favorable conditions.  Indeed, with the prevailing June heat wave in the east, we were prepared for the unexpected.  However, the unexpected was not weather related.  The Saturday before the trip, Bob Rainey, the assistant trip leader, experienced a “major cardiac event”.  When trip leader Mary Ann Gordon spoke with him 5 days later, Bob still had every intention of sailing that weekend.  But life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans, as John Lennon once said, and doctors requested Bob’s presence for another week while they did required repairs.  Fortunately, a wait-listed skipper was still available, and Steve Krakauer joined the trip.

The weekend began, as most Rock Hall based trips do, with a group dinner at the Harbor Shack Restaurant.  Sitting outside turned out to be quite pleasant, as by dinner time, the sun was screened by some large trees.  Saturday morning, after boat check-outs, we grudgingly disconnected the electrical cords, thus shutting off the air conditioning – incentive enough to get underway quickly, which we did.  Out on the bay there was a nice northerly breeze, which was a perfect direction for our course to our first night’s destination.  Rock Creek is at the mouth of the Patapsco River, just west of Bodkin Creek.  Julio and the crew of Bay Poet cut across Swan Point shoal, but Steve and his crew on Winnefox, with a deeper draft, chose the safer route of continuing down to Can 3 before turning west, also hoping to get a better angle on the wind.  By lunchtime the wind had started easing, and by mid-afternoon there wasn’t much left, regardless of how many M & M’s were offered to the wind spirits.  So motors were turned on.  Bay Poet reached the anchorage area first and after some time spent doing “anchoring drills”, they found a spot that the anchor was happy in, and the crew quickly prepared for the long awaited swim.  Winnefox was spotted about 10 minutes later, the swim cut short in order to grab lines for the raft-up.

 The theme of the trip – Hell’s Galley cooking competition required both boats to prepare a meal within 70 minutes from ingredients supplied that evening.  Mary Ann laid out a fine selection of vegetables, rice and some really small red potatoes.  The chefs, Merrill Tucker and Molly Werner got some of the ingredients they wanted, and made minor adjustments in their recipe when required.  The main ingredient this year was tuna steaks.  Each chef prepared their meal for taste testing by the judges appointed that evening - Paul Werner and Julio Menendez.

Merrill and his team on Bay Poet prepared their tuna in a skillet with a soy sauce based marinade.  Supporting his presentation were roasted baby potatoes, diced mango with a slice of lime, and asparagus with bell peppers.  Molly and her team on Winnefox grilled the tuna on the barbeque, and also prepared it with a soy sauce based marinade, and accented with an orange peel garnish.  Accompanying her tuna was a colorful display of some basmati rice, carrots, and sliced tomato.

The judges took their role very seriously, and spent some time deliberating the pros and cons of each entrée.  Either that or they were very hungry, and the longer they prolonged the decision, the more they got to eat!  In the end they felt that the Bay Poet side dishes were better, but the Winnefox tuna was moister, and was selected the winner.  Everyone agreed that both chefs did a marvelous job, and once again proved that preparing a delicious, well-plated meal on a boat was fun for all and not difficult.

Prizes were awarded as follows:  An entire bucket of M&M’s for the Winnefox and a half bucket for the Bay Poet crew... creating an impromptu dessert!

On Sunday, after a leisurely breakfast, Julio and Steve chose the Corsica River as the evening’s destination, as the wind forecast was for south to southwest.  But, as often happens, the forecast was wrong!  The wind stayed out of the southeast, making it necessary to motor most of the way up the Chester River.  Again, the wind did not last the day, but we had some good sailing across the bay, with fits of lulls here and there.  Julio selected a nice anchoring spot with no other boats around, and we commenced the evening of the club’s favorite meal of sharing a wide selection of appetizers.  Everyone clustered in Winnefox’s cockpit and enjoyed great food, good conversation and more than a few jokes were told.

On Monday, the wind had worked its way around to the west, so we had to wait until we were past the Kent Narrows channel to raise sail.  The winds were light at first, but it turned out to be a fine day for sailing, again until the late afternoon.  At about 3:00 o’clock Winnefox decided to lower sails and head in.  As she was heading into the wind to lower the main, all of a sudden a 20 knot breeze developed.  Tempting as it was to continue sailing, Winnefox skipper, Steve, turned for home.  Both crews joined together for a big Get Well Card for Bob Rainey and everyone agreed it was another successful Club trip.

P.S. – Bob Rainey is doing fine.  He is home and has hardly missed a beat, so to speak, since his hospitalization, although he admits to an occasional nap these days.