Five students and one instructor met aboard the sailing vessel, Celestial, on Wednesday June 27 at 5:00 p.m. to review our itinerary for the next 8 days.  We went out to dinner together at the Waterman's Crabhouse to discuss a menu and prepare a provisioning shopping list.  Early the next morning we went food shopping then brought everything aboard to stow away.  Eric Petterson, our instructor, proceeded to show us from bow to stern, below decks, all of the equipment aboard the boat, so we knew where it was located and how to use it.  After a quick lunch we went above deck and again worked from bow to stern checking anchors, rigging, sails, lines, life raft and man overboard equipment.  There was a quick lesson to demonstrate how to safely send a crew member up the mast  in a bosun's chair to check rigging.  That evening we were assigned roles which we would rotate through over the next 8 days:  navigator, student captain, bosun, engineer, and emergency coordinator.  In addition, we  were assigned  "watches" of 3 hours duration during the day and 2 hour "watches" overnight  on a rotating schedule.  We worked in pairs on these "watches" with one person as duty officer and the other person at the helm.  As one watch ended, the helmsman went off to rest,  while the duty person became helmsman, and a new duty person would come on.  There were lots of chores as duty person to conduct.  The critical chore was to check our position along the course established by the navigator by taking bearings on objects ashore like radio towers or water tanks or lighthouses.  This is called "dead reckoning".  I  reckon you're dead if you screw up!  We were not allowed to use GPS and chart plotters!  The Coastal Navigation course we took last Fall was put to good use on this trip! This task became much more stressful at night when you could only see flashing lights of buoys or  solid lights of approaching ships.We learned how to take bearings on ships, and if the bearing didn't change over time we learned we were on a collision course and had to take decisive steps to avoid the collision.  Eric was very good at not jumping in, and telling us what to do.  Instead, he sat back and  supervised our decisions and was there to offer suggestions if we felt we needed them.  

But I'm jumping ahead...we left early on the Friday morning.  There was no wind so we motored up the Chesapeake Bay to the C&D canal.  We stopped overnight at the Summit North marina.  A huge thunderstorm passed through overnight, but I was so exhausted from the stress of navigating for the day, I slept right through the hail, high winds, thunder and lightning!  The next day we motored down the Delaware Bay, reaching the Atlantic Ocean late in the afternoon.  And so we began the offshore portion of our course.    There was more wind on the ocean, and a slight swell (3' seas) so the sails were set and we headed offshore and generally south toward the Chespaeake Bay entrance.  We sailed all night Saturday, all day Sunday and overnight to reach the entrance to Chesapeake Bay at dawn on Monday morning.  We motored into the marina in Hampton around noon.  After tying up it was a dash to the showers in the marina and then to bed to catch up on sleep. We woke up in time to go out for dinner in town and then back to prepare for our next stage -200 miles up the Chesapeake Bay.  Walter & Chris were navigating that portion. Walter was captain for the first half and then I was captain for the second half.  As we left Hampton on Tuesday morning, Walt observed 4 military vessels in a convoy approaching us outside of the shipping channel.  Realizing they were on a collision course he hailed them on the VHF radio, but they did not respond.  Following the navigation rules, he altered course to pass them port-to-port.  (Just like 2 cars approaching head on, you alter course to the right).  At that point, they did an abrupt left turn cutting across our bow.    An interesting experience...

The winds were light  from behind...perfect for flying a spinnaker.  We had 4 hours of being pushed up the Bay before an approaching thunderstorm prompted us to take it down. Overnight I became captain and awoke to being told that we had 3 ships approaching...2 in front and 1 tug overtaking us from behind.  I learned very quickly how to use AIS (automatic identifiction system) to identify the ships' names, see their courses and their closest point of approach.  In hailing the ships I was lucky to have each of them respond and we established courses to take to avoid collision.One very friendly tug captain even acknowledged me as "captainess"!  The wind picked up overnight and we had a good sail up the Bay reaching our destination of the Magothy river in the early afternoon of  Wednesday.  We anchored there and once again crashed to catch up on sleep.  That evening there were fireworks celebrating the fourth of July Independence Day.  The next day we motored back to our home port of Rock Hall.  Walter & I found it was an excellent experience.  We gained new skills, new knowledge and new friends! The confidence gained from the experience has also added new options to our future cruising plans which are still in a state of trying to be figured out.

Donna and Walter

Part of the six person crew of Celestial, with our instructor, Eric, on the far right

Sunset on Delaware Bay before the first overnight in the Atlantic

Do you think Donna is having fun?

Four hour spinnaker run  up Chesapeake Bay

Knot tying classes while running with spinnaker

Final dinner aboard  at anchor in the Magathy River

Later the same evening watching 4th of July fireworks

Donna's creative camera

It's up the bosun's chair to check the rigging

Celestial with storm trisail rigged for demonstration purposes

Celestial heading out into the Atlantic