Rappahannock River Yacht Club

Friday, August 12:  We were not sure where we were going, today.  We wanted to go as far as we could, so we can make it to the RRYC picnic at the Timm’s house tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm.  The winds, however, were forecast to be N 5 to 10 kt.  Even with 10 kt, the wind was nearly behind us, so the best we were going to do was 5 kt of boat speed with 5 kt apparent wind over the boat.  Not great, but OK.

We weighed anchor from Solomon’s Island at 7 am and set out into the Chesapeake Bay.  It was a nice day.  Warm, mid-80s, a mix of sun and clouds.  We were able to raise our sails coming out of Solomon’s Island this morning and, a short time later, fly the spinnaker a good way down the Bay.

We first thought we might just make it to Reedville or maybe Dymer Creek.  But, even though we were not going very fast, we were making steady progress and by afternoon realized that we could make it to our sailing club in Carter’s Creek.

But, half-way to Windmill Point, the wind died and we had to motor.  After we turned the corner, cutting way inside the Windmill Point Light, we were able to motor sail the rest of the way.  We got to our club right at happy hour.  Sheila met us at the docks and we broke out a bottle of bubbly to celebrate the end of our trip.

Stephanie & Lance called to invite us over to their house for a steak dinner, so the four of us jumped into the dinghy and headed up Carter’s Creek past the four-star Tides Inn resort to where we thought Stephanie lived.

Wrong!  We went up the wrong prong!  We had to backtrack to the other side of the Tides Inn, because that is where Stephanie & Lance actually live.  The only problem with this was that we were in Ted’s dinghy with the “all green” electric outboard – and we had just about used up all the juice in the battery.  We just made it to Stephanie’s dock before the battery died.

They have a beautiful home and garden, and a nice wine cellar.  We had appetizers and drinks, and then dinner out on the screened veranda.  It was a wonderful meal – Lance grilled the steaks to perfection and served an excellent red wine to complement them.

After dinner, Lance volunteered to drive us back to the club, so we wouldn’t have row the dinghy.  We will bring Bottlenose over in the morning to collect the dead dinghy and pick up Stephanie & Lance to go to the Timm’s picnic.