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It was Saturday, April 8th.
Evil Waves was in Riverside, N.J. and we had to
bring her down to Havre de Grace. Everyone was excited. A new boat,
a bigger boat, a faster boat, this year held great promise for us.
The day started warm and calm, but by the time we got to the Ben
Franklin Bridge we had six foot seas and 30 knots or more on the
nose. Sailing the Chesapeake Bay you get used to the wind being on
the nose. It seems like it is always on the nose in the Chesapeake,
probably because the prevailing summer wind is from the south-west
and the upper bay runs north-east to south-west. I've been boating
in this area for ... well ... a long time and I've never seen the
Delaware so angry this far up the river. It looks like Evil Waves
is living up to her name.
We battled our way to Schaefer's on the Canal where we tied up
for the night and headed home. Sunday the weather report was 60 knots
and snow ... and it did! So we left the boat at Schaefer's until
Monday.
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Captain Mike!
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A thunderstorm just north of us!
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The crew had to go back to work so it was up to Janyce and I to
bring Evil Waves home to Havre de Grace on Monday.
It turned out a beautiful spring day, the temperature was in the
60's and the wind was 15 to 20 ... on the nose, of course, this is
the Chesapeake Bay. Janyce and I took turns motoring through the
canal and around the Susquehanna flats. We made port mid-afternoon,
cleaned up the boat and went to dinner at our favorite restaurant,
Mac Gregor's.
Giving up our proven pocket-rocket, Mad Max, for a boat that didn't
have a very good race record was a difficult decision for us. One reason
for trading up was that we wanted a boat that would be dryer in bad
weather. Braving the storm, our new boat showed that she certainly
could "tame those Evil Waves". Our first trip was rainy, windy and
rough, but we were dry and comfortable the whole way. I think she's
going to be a great boat for us!
In a couple of weeks we'll get to see if we can win a race on this
boat!
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