I was down in Maryland for another reason and took the Reenie K with me. My older son and I put in at th Bear Creek Ramp near Dundalk on August 10. Weather was a little unsettled and after a week in the area, I saw how fast storms can come up in the area. It was overcast and threatening rain, so we used the motor to run over to Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
The bay is really busy! We got caught up in some traffic and had to dodge a couple of tugs that were running about. It got interesting, to say the least.
Cool place to visit! We saw the Constellation - old square rigged ship, a Coast Guard cutter that is the last surviving ship form Pearl Harbor and a really cool wooden square rigged boat sailing out of Philadelphia.
On the way back, we ran up the sails, which also was interesting. Most of the sail back was uneventful, running a combination of broad reach and wing and wing. The fore stay is a bit loose, I think and needs to be tightened, but the jib furler stood up well. The wind picked up about 2/3 of the way back and we ended up turning into the wind to get things back under control. With a slightly loose fore stay and the wind at our stern, I was really worried about a gibe that could have been a serious problem. We furled the jib and sailed most of the way back under only the main, with our single casualty being Rob's hat went overboard.
We are gonna be in a few scrapbooks. I did see a couple of tourists take our picture! We also saw a huge cruise ship on her way to berth, from about 100 yards away. That was plenty close enough thank you very much!
We tried going under a bridge (major highway - Route 695) under sail but the wind was not from the right quarter, so we dropped the sails and motored the last 1/4 mile.
Good time, but the bay can get pretty busy and pretty choppy. Next time I go out, I am going to avoid "tugboat alley" however.