Catalina 22  Fleet 10                                                                    2010 Moonlight Cruise

                           Fleet 10       2010 Moonlight Cruise

 

The 2010 Moonlight Cruise was held this past weekend, and this year we actually went for a sail together in the moonlight!

 

On Friday night, Alice and I on Key Largo met Augie and Lori on August Moon at Broad Creek, off the Magothy River.  By the time we got there it was dark, but still hot.  We joined Augie and Lori for a nettle-free swim behind our two boats that we had rafted together.  Later we were joined by Richard and our son, Danny, who sailed Shaba from Richard’s marina on White Hall Creek.  We told them by VHF to watch out for skinny dippers as they approached our raft, but didn’t tell them which boat the skinny dippers were swimming off of.  Here’s a photo of the skinny dippers swimming in the moonlight:

 

 

 

 

 

Richard and Danny circled our raft several times before they tied up on the other side of August Moon.

 

 

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           Saturday morning we spent a relaxing time swimming around the boats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We anchored in a beautiful setting in front of the “Glass House” 

Augie and Lori took their dog, Charlotte, for a morning dinghy ride to shore, which she seemed to enjoy very much.

If you listened to the weather report for Saturday, you would have been afraid to go out of the house for fear of dying

due to the heat. We had a good laugh at that, as there was a nice breeze, and it was great to be out on the water.

We had to break up the raft earlier than we wanted because of a motorboat that circled us, towing kids on a tube.

 

We then sailed for Augie and Lori’s house on Dividing Creek

 

 

 

 

                                                   August Moon

 

 

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                                         The Pasquale’s “Front Door”

 

 

 

After we tied-up to their dock, we climbed the steps and went into their house

 

The air conditioning in their house felt great and we all drank many drinks to rehydrate ourselves.  We then shared digital photos from our Fleet’s Summer Cruise on the Potomac River , and watched them on the TV.  It was great to see photos from different perspectives as taken by  members of our fleet.  Augie, the Wengstrom’s, Richard, and Dan Leonida had also sent photos to me that we viewed. 

Richard’s wife, Pat, joined us at Lori and Augie's, and Lori and Pat prepared a great meal for us that included chicken and burgers cooked on the grill.  Our dinner conversation was very animated, especially the story of Richard and Pat’s first sailing adventure, and another conversation about running aground.

 

After we ate, Alice and I tinkered a little with the roller furler on Key Largo, which still isn’t working perfectly.  By then, it had gotten dark, but the moon was up and the sky clear while we motored out of Dividing Creek and into the Magothy.

 

  

 

                                                                       Danny and Shaba

 

 When we reached the mouth of the Magothy, we pulled up the sails and sailed across the Bay, then tacked and sailed under the Bay Bridge to White Hall Bay.  The bridge was lit up brightly with red and green lights, and it was a bright night for our Moonlight Sail.  The wind was perfect and the waves were very small, with the air still a little warm.  We arrived at White Hall Bay around 1:00 AM.  We anchored separately there, and Alice and I took a sun shower to cool off, before a good night’s sleep.

 

On Sunday morning, we left the anchorage around 9:00 AM.  Augie and Lori explored White Hall Creek.  Alice and I sailed under the Bay Bridge and north to around Gibson Island.  There we started to motor because the wind was dying and thunderstorms were predicted for the afternoon.  We made it to within a few hundred feet of our marina when the storm hit Middle River.  Alice and I had to motor around and eventually anchored for about 20 minutes after getting completed soaked by the cold rain, but the rain did thoroughly cool us off.

 

Lori and Augie’s hospitality was great.  Sailing at night is definitely a little different, and things that you normally do on the boat without even thinking during the day, may be a little more challenging at night.  I certainly recommend sailing at night, and hope that we have a bigger turnout for next years Moonlight Cruise.

 

Aldo