The Rapture

Of a great sailing weekend--did a distance race from Annapolis to Gibson Island on Saturday (little to no wind) & then on Sunday did an around the buoys race on the Magothy River.  Kinda nostalgic for me because Dobbins Island is there.  When I was a little girl we used to sail to Dobbins & anchor out, row over to the island (back then you could go on the island--now it's eroding so people can't go there), gather sassafras that my grandmother would brew into tea as we continued our cruise down the Chesapeake.  In fact, when I was in first grade I drew a picture for my grandparents of us at Dobbins.  See it above.  In it, Dobbins is in the background, a sailboat with "26 Footer" written on the mainsail, and me & my cousin swimming in the bay.  Also included are the requisite sea nettles which have wrapped themselves around my cousin while I swam ahead of them.  I gave this picture to my grandparents & it hung in their house until they died.  Now it is mine & I treasure that memory.


Saturday evening after-race party was great, part of the crew had her boat brought up as a "floating hotel" and they rafted next to Bump. After drinking the requisite Dark n' Stormy, having a hot dog, & saying hi to many people from the J/30 fleet that I've come to know, we all settled down below & decided that we were the left behinds after the Rapture.  Which makes sense because we're a bunch of rowdy sailors.   I don't think I've laughed that hard in quite a while.

Great wind on Sunday, especially the second race.  We came in third--for me it was a busy day as I trimmed jib & spinnaker so I had no rest on the upwind leg or the downwind leg.  Not complaining--just sore.  In fact, I loved that I was so busy--it feels good to be active all the time but I'm sure that if I had to maintain that over a three-day regatta I'd be in serious trouble I think.  Sunday was particularly nice because Xing Fu joined us--trimmed main.  I always enjoy sailing with him--makes doing what I love just that much more fun.  


  I'm glad it's sailing season again--as the sun set on Saturday, a man stood at the end of the center dock at the Gibson Island Yacht Squadron & played the bagpipes--what an amazing image to remind me of a great weekend with my awesome sailing friends!