Six hearty crews from Aquila, Adventure Bound, Elsie's Phantasy, Narsilion, Paisano and Silent Running braved the elements and sailed to Worton Creek on Saturday 4/5 to attend the first raft of the 2008 season. This was an excellent turnout for a raft-up so early in the season.
Well, maybe not such bad weather... Saturday's weather was much better than the weather forecasters guessed. The wind was 10-15kts out of the North. A beam reach for those of us coming from Middle River and a run for those coming from the North.
The first of the boats arrived at the anchorage about 1400 and set the anchor. There were a few hours to enjoy the unexpected weather as the rest of the boats arrived.
The festivities commenced on Narsilion at 1700 hours. Everyone brought hors d'oeuvres and drinks to share. We also helped Bill celebrate his birthday Thanks to Clem from Paisano for providing ferry service between the rafts.
After the party, the main raft broke up, due to the forecast of small craft warnings starting at 0200 Sunday. The forecast proved accurate. The wind and rain started just after midnight and continued though morning. The weather for the sail back to our home ports was not quite so nice as Saturday. We had 15-20kts out of the NE, with gusts near 30kts. The seas were 2-3 ft. We all got a chance to try out our foul weather gear.
All in all, it was a great start to the sailing season!