Weekend cruise to Hart-Miller Island

[Crazer]

Well we finally undertook our long delayed weekend cruise to Hart-Miller Island last weekend. It was touch a go whether there would be any sailing involved as my furler continued to jam and wrap the halyard, leading to me ordering a new furler from Alado in Brazil. It barely cleared through customs in time and inevitably did not arrive until the day of departure, meaning we didn't get off the dock until 9:30 Friday night...sigh. It's a boat, after all.

For this trip it was me, my co-owner and close friend, and another friend of ours for the first night. Our trio would be joined by my fiancee and our two dogs Saturday. We spent Friday night anchored at Brown's Cove just off Whitehall Bay, a half hour north of Annapolis. It was pleasant except for about 5 AM when there was a lot of fishing traffic heading out of the creek which woke me up. It's always a good idea to quiet all the halyards, close any doors and compartments, etc. before settling in at anchor, but I was out of the habit. We headed out by 8, making our way to Young's Boat Yard in Dundalk where we would pick up my fiancee and our dogs. Ant, the owner of Young's is a very generous and kind man. I highly recommend this marina as long as you aren't expecting too many amenities. In addition, Ant is the only person to date to have sailed around the world in an open boat. With light wind and high temperatures we motored from Whitehall to Dundalk, picked up our new passengers and headed for Hart-Miller just north of the mouth of the Patapsco River. The island was created by the spoils dredged from Baltimore Harbor, and is in fact still "under construction." It now has a small beach, some trails and a ranger station. It's a very popular destination, mostly for power boats from the Baltimore Area. The wind picked up once we were in the bay and we had a really nice sail up Hart-Miller, jibing around the north end up the island before reaching back down to the anchorage. We arrived just as people started clearing out, which was perfect. With a relatively deep draft we couldn't get too close but did manage to dinghy to shore to walk the dogs and stroll on the beach. We had a pleasant evening socializing and swimming. We ended up being one of only two boats to overnight at the anchorage. The temperature dropped overnight and we had a lot of wind, but never the less I slept far better than I did on shore. After a brief shore excursion in the morning, we raised anchor and headed back to Young's. This time we went south through a channel south of the island. We cast off from Young's around 12, just as the wind started to build. It was right on the nose for our trip home but we managed to have a pleasant sail none the less. We followed the giant SS Antares, a navy logistics ship, out of the channel and started sailing just south of the river. The wind was initially light but built through the afternoon until we found ourselves with the rail in the water, which was a lot of fun. We took three long tacks to get to the bay bridge before firing up the motor and motorsailing under the bridge to save some time. I had to get home to work on our house ahead of an appraisal (I hate when real life interferes with sailing, but so it goes.) We arrived back in the slip by dinner time.

The good news was the furler worked excellently. It's heavily built and pretty easy to install. I highly recommend an Alado to anyone looking for a new furling unit, especially for those interested in serious cruising versus racing. I do wish we had more time relaxing at anchor and less time motoring, but hopefully we'll get that during our August cruise in just a few weeks. We hope to make it Solomon's, St. Michael's and the Chester River, depending on which way the wind takes us.

If anyone is interested in learning more about Ant and his voyage around the world in Dudley Dix designed open keel boat, there is a documentary on Youtube about it.

The Alado furler is available from Alado USA: http://www.aladous.com/

I'll post a write up about that and some other summer projects in a week or two, when we get back from vacation.

[Godot]

You are in my stomping grounds! I keep Seeker on Frog Mortor Creek just a few miles up Middle River. I've anchored overnight at Hart-Miller more than once (I actually think it used to be two natural islands, Hart Island and Miller Island that were joined by the dredge material into Hart-Miller...but I could be wrong). It's not terribly protected, of course. If you are in the area and the wind is not cooperative, there is a nice, well protected, anchorage in Sue Creek. It's a bit shallow; but I anchor there semi-regularly.

Not this year, of course. Life got in the way. But I'll be out next year for certain.

We should arrange a SailFar Chesapeake rendezvous next year.

[Crazer]

Didn't really realize how close you are. We should absolutely do a rendezvous next year-it'd be a lot of fun for a few of us Sailfar folks to meet up in person and show off boats, share stories etc. Thanks for the info on Sue Creek-I was considering that as an alternate anchorage if the weather wasn't favorable. You're right, of course, about Hart-Miller having been two natural islands at one point. Here's hoping you get out on the water again soon.

[Captain Smollett]

Cool write-up.  You guys out there logging sea miles are keeping the dream alive for us armchair folks.