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A sunny day at Baltimore’s Anchorage Marina

The first Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race (GCBSR) was held in October 1990 and is now a yearly event.  Because of their speed, schooners were ideal for coastal sailing and became one of the favorite commercial watercraft in the United States and Canada in the latter half of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century.  Cargo-hauling schooners regularly sailed the Chesapeake Bay and the faster the schooner the better the price it fetched for its services.  Today the GCBSR serves as a reminder of the trade rivalry which once existed between the ports of Baltimore and Norfolk.

In 1988 Captain Lane Briggs and his Norfolk Rebel, a sail-powered schooner-rigged tugboat, challenged the newly launched schooner Pride of Baltimore II to a race from Baltimore to Norfolk.  The challenge was accepted and in October 1990 the first GCBSR was born with seven competitors.  While cargo-hauling schooners are a thing of the past, there are many schooners in use today as privately owned cruising vessels, state-sponsored goodwill ships, charter vessels and floating classrooms.  As many as 56 schooners have registered to compete in a single race!  All proceeds are donated to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for use in its youth education programs aimed at saving the bay.

While Lazy W was docked in Baltimore’s Anchorage Marina on Monday, October 11^th, the first of the competing schooners were arriving at the docks of the neighboring Baltimore Marine Center.  We soon discovered that on Tuesday Canton’s O’Donnell Square would be hosting “Sail Around the Square,” a party to benefit the GCBSR.  We had frequented many of the fine establishments in Fell’s Point and along Canton’s Boston Street, but O’Donnell Square?? We just had to check this party out!  So off we went to JD’s Smokehouse to register for the poker run.  There were ten bars/pubs participating and each had a designated dealer handing out a playing card in a sealed envelope.  The best five-card hands to arrive back and be opened at JD’s by 8:30PM would receive one of three prizes.  

Neither of us ended the evening with anything even close to a winning poker hand but we thoroughly enjoyed meeting the host of characters hanging out at Looney’s Pub, Nacho Mama’s, Fins, Mama’s on the Half Shell, Speak Easy, Claddagh Pub, Portside, Te Amo!, and Sauté.  Ten pubs in one night!  Whew...

The rain arrived just in time to dampen the Wednesday afternoon Parade of Sail.  The hearty schooner crews left their slips in Canton, unfurled their sails and paraded up to the Inner Harbor and back. 

The weather had not improved much by Thursday morning when the schooners castoff for the starting line of the race, 21 miles south near the Bay Bridge and Annapolis.  We waited at Anchorage Marina for the fog to lift before starting Lazy W’s engines only to find that she really did not want to leave her slip in Baltimore!  Frank spent a few hours in the engine room coaxing her port engine back to life and, despite the delay, we arrived at the Bay Bridge in time to see all the schooners milling around waiting for their 1:30PM start. 

Schooner Sultana approaching the Bay Bridge

Schooner at the Bay Bridge

A dreary day for the start of the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race

We continued south on the bay another fourteen miles to the Rhode River.  Shortly after dropping the anchor the sun came out and we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon anchored among a few sailboats.

What a difference in weather!

The following morning we made the forty-four mile run south to Solomons and up the Mill Creek to a beautiful anchorage at Brooks Cove.  Just before turning up Mill Creek we noticed that the schooner Sultana was docked at one of the marinas and we wondered what had happened to keep her from finishing the GCBSR.  Only later did we learn that of the almost forty schooners that registered to compete in the GCBSR, only fifteen managed to finish the race in the allotted time.  It is hard to sail south in a southerly wind!

The autumn view at Brooks Cove from Lazy W

This anchorage afforded us great protection from the gusty 30 knot winds that were forecast to blow out on the bay so we hunkered down here for another day.  We launched the dinghy and took a short but choppy ride into the docks at the Calvert Marine Museum.  The friendly, hospitable staff was more than happy to share their knowledge of skates and rays, mermaid’s purses, terrapins, river otters and starfish with us on what was a slow visitor’s day at the museum. 

In addition to wonderful displays on the natural resources of the Chesapeake Bay, the Calvert Marine Museum does a wonderful job of relating the history of Solomons Island.  In 1865 Isaac Solomon purchased what was then known as Sandy Island near the mouth of the Patuxent River and proceeded to assemble an oyster fleet and to build a cannery and a shipyard.  His dream of building an oyster empire crumbled ten years later when creditors forced him to sell his island.  It was left to other entrepreneurs to turn Solomons Island into one of Maryland’s commercial hubs of boatbuilding and seafood harvesting.  It is amazing to realize the huge impact that the small oyster had on so many communities along the Chesapeake Bay!

Drum Point Light at Calvert Marine Museum

The wind on the bay had calmed down (for awhile anyway) so we pulled up anchor on Sunday morning.  Heading due east into the bright morning sun made it difficult to distinguish a crab pot marker from a floating seagull so we made our way cautiously back to the Chesapeake Bay where beautiful calm waters awaited us.  Our fifty mile cruise to Pitman Cove near Kilmarnock was smooth and uneventful.  NOAA was again forecasting winds gusting in excess of 30 knots for the remainder of the afternoon and overnight so we let out plenty of chain when we dropped anchor for the day in what we thought would be a well-protected cove.  Were we ever wrong!!

The gusty southwest winds started blowing at 9PM and our anchorage gave us little protection.  We set the anchor alarm but unfortunately it cannot be heard from inside the boat – one of those seemingly minor flaws that was to be remedied before we left Portsmouth in June. Fearing that we would drag anchor, Frank remained at the upper helm all night long vigilantly watching our position.    Luckily we did not have a repeat of our Atlantic City anchor dragging! By 8:30 in the morning there was just a slight breeze and the water was as smooth as glass.  On very little sleep, we pulled up anchor and headed to Portsmouth knowing that we would really appreciate being tied securely in our slip on ‘B’ dock that night!

As we approached Thimble Shoal the familiar naval and commercial chatter came over the VHF.  Outgoing Warship 60 requested that all traffic keep their distance; the Coast Guard informed all that they were repairing buoy 18 on the Elizabeth River.  The navy shipyard and the cranes of the marine terminals were welcome sights.

 

USCG prepares to relaunch buoy 18 on the Elizabeth River

 On Monday, October 17^th, after spending 124 days ‘at sea’ and cruising over 1,500 miles we tossed Lazy W’s lines to the smiling dockhand waiting for us at Ocean Marine Yacht Center’s slip B27.  Rod welcomed us back and filled us in on all the news.  It was good to be back home...