The idea of attending the Annapolis Sailboat Show via sailboat tickled the fancies of a dozen Club sailors, who gathered in Rock Hall on a pleasant Thursday evening in preparation for crossing the bay. After checking out their boats, Steve Krakauer's crew aboard Gambol and Mia McCroskey's aboard Intentiona convened for dinner at Club favorite The Harbor Shack.

The next morning crews enjoyed a pleasant crossing, although more wind would have been a plus. In fact, more wind was in the forecast for later in the trip: Hurricane Matthew was working its way up the eastern seaboard. But the predictive models mostly had it heading back out to sea or dying out before reaching the lower Bay, and we were not venturing much further south than the Bay Bridge, so we weren't worried. Well, we weren't terribly worried.

In order to take full advantage of Saturday at the boat show, we took slips at Mears Marina in Eastport for both Friday and Saturday nights. With good facilities, helpful staff, and a complimentary weekend breakfast, it proved to be a pleasant choice. The walk from Mears to the boat show in Annapolis's harbor was a mile, or the water taxi service was running continually throughout our stay.

Saturday morning dawned drizzly, and conditions soon deteriorated. It seemed that Matthew was still coming north. While a few crewmembers opted to skip the show and explore Annapolis, most made their way over on foot or via water taxi. Foul weather gear was the dress of the day, and water-resistant bags for purchases.

The Annapolis Sailboat show is one of the largest in the US. Many manufacturers bring their best models for attendees to tour, touch, admire, and drool over. Temporary floating docks pen in the boats, providing a web of easy access for visitors. Around the edge of the harbor, hundreds of vendors are housed in enormous tents. To visit most boats and at least walk by every vendor is a full day's work. Because of the rain, the show was less crowded than it often is, but because of the shelter they provided, the tents were particularly busy. Because the boat manufacturers don't allow shoes on their show boats, many attendees - including several Club members - spent the morning walking barefoot in the rain along the floating docks from vessel to vessel. Few got away from the show without purchasing some new gear - after all, you can't beat “boat show” prices. But nobody reported buying a boat.

The planned joint barbeque at the marina was extinguished by the ongoing rain. Nonetheless, Grillmaster Bruce Gollob got a big blaze going in one of the large grills so that both boats could cook their steaks. While Bruce and Mia cooked, the crew of Gambol gathered around the grill during a convenient, temporary pause in the rain, while Mia's crew opted to stay dry aboard Intention.

Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny with gale force winds predicted. Jackie from Haven Charters called and offered us a free day on our charter if we didn't want to return the boats in those conditions. “I know the boats can take it,” she said, “it’s your crews I’m worried about.” Well, that was a challenge we couldn't ignore! In all seriousness, both crews agreed to make a go of it with the understanding that if it was too rough out there we could always turn back.

Leaving the Severn River we found a strong - twenty-plus knots - but manageable northerly. The hurricane had moved offshore far to the south of us, but it was a huge system, and this was the backside of the spiral, which can be as powerful as the leading edge. Also, nobody was mentioning the fact that tornadoes tend to form on the back side of a hurricane

Jibs were deployed to reach out into the bay and make as much northing as possible toward the Bay Bridge. Unfortunately, we couldn't point quite high enough to make the main span and after almost an hour of pleasant sailing we had to resort to the iron jenny to get us where we needed to go.

North of the bridge conditions changed. The breeze amped up to the promised gale, and the wind-driven swells became bigger and less organized. The boats pounded onward, making four knots, sometimes less, under power, when we'd typically get closer to six. With each slam of the bow into an unexpected wave we reminded ourselves that Jackie had said the boats could take it. With each crash from below as a drawer crashed came open or someone's bag fell to the floor, we reminded ourselves that we could do this.

Needless to say, nobody went below to make lunch on either boat. We just kept on pounding until we could finally turn east north of Love Point. This put us on a slightly better angle with the swells, and as we got closer to the eastern shore the land noticeably reduced the wind velocity.

Jackie from Haven reached Steve by phone and told him to skip the required fuel and pump-out stop. Low tide was approaching, and in addition the wind was blowing the water out of Swan Creek. “When you get to marker five, have everyone lean out on the starboard side. Tilt the boat as much as you can and power through. There’s a shallow spot there.” She instructed.

She wasn't able to reach Mia and Intention, coming a few minutes later. So Mia pulled in at Gratitude Marina's fuel dock, a favored stop because it can be easier to get on and off that dock than the one at Haven. The northerly blew the boat into the fuel dock hard, requiring heavy reverse with the engine and quick hands with the dock lines. The fuel dock is open to the north, and even with the short fetch from inside Swan Creek, the water was choppy. The boat swayed at the dock, its spreaders banging against the shingled roof. Crew up on deck doing pump out were showered with bits of shingles.

Once fueled and pumped, Gary took the helm to back out of the slip. As he was fighting to turn the bow into the wind, the crew heard a shout from the fuel dock they'd just left. Jackie was there shouting not to back up so far, it's too shallow. Yikes, we usually have no trouble turning there! Gary got things sorted out, though, and Jackie was making the universal hand to ear “call me” gesture as we headed toward the marina.

Mia received the same instructions as Steve, with the addition that it was already too shallow in their usual slip, they were to go to the very first Haven Harbor slip they came to. Mia organized the crew along the starboard rail, adding several demands of “no, don't sit on the cabin, get up and lean out. Way out...” while Gary steered. Sure enough, just after marker five Gary felt the keel touch bottom. Everyone held on tight, and held their breath, as he revved the engine and kept pushing through the soft mud. And then they were floating again, and they could see a whole bunch of people standing on the finger pier at the very first slip in Haven's complex.

Gary pointed her at the slip and hit bottom about half way in. Crew passed lines to the Haven team on the dock, who heaved while Gary revved it once again. Gradually they dragged the boat in to the slip. The only casualties were several cereal bowls that had crashed out of a cabinet on Intention and the refrigerator door on Gambol. For some crew this was the roughest they'd ever experienced. Assistant Trip Leader Gary Brubaker put it this way, “It was the worst I've ever seen, at least I've never been out in worse.”