the Chesapeake Bay Wayfarer Cruise 2008
post-cruise comments, etc.
...
----- Original Message -----
From: Gary Hirsch
To: uncle-al3854@cogeco.ca ; Tony Krauss W4105/276 ; Richard Harrington ; Hans Gottschling W938
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2008 4:53 PM
Subject: Chesapeake Cruise

Al, Dick, Hans, Mary & Tony,

Jeremy and I arrived home safely yesterday and I have mailed off a CD of the 360 pictures that we took (majority by Jeremy) to Uncle Al.  I did no editing of the shots that didn't turn out thinking it best to get them all into your hands as quickly as possible.  We will leave the choices and exclusions to your good judgment.  I hope some will inspire someone else to make it to an event like this.

Thanks for everyone's help again!

This trip will be forever in the memory books for us.  Since we were unable to stay for the post sailing debrief and libations, I must add that the last day included more wind and wave than I needed for my 4th day ever sailing a Wayfarer.  However, it is a testament to the seaworthiness of the boat that some newcomers could cope nicely and enjoy most of the ride around the top of Smith Island and to Crisfield in the conditions that we found.  We thought it amusing to see the big cruisers in port checking their anchors to make sure they were holding in the blow while we went surfing along in the wind and waves.

Until the next event . . .

Gary (W1321)


On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 7:00 PM, Al Schonborn <uncle-al3854@cogeco.ca> wrote:

Hi, Gary and Jeremy:
 
Well said! You two are a wonderful addition to our gang, and it was a pleasure to be and sail with you. And talk about speedy! I just turned on the computer to send you my mailing address and to urge you to send the pics a.s.a.p. This is indeed beyond my greatest hopes. My own editing has reached the morning we left Crisfield and includes time taken up agonizing over the fact that I erased all of my Saturday pics from the camera before copying them into my archives. My day brightened considerably when I discovered that my File Recovery programme brought all 26 pics back to life - including these two:
 
W4105 Free Range Pussy Cat getting delivered back to the marina after the rudder break (Tony, can you provide me with his name??!!)
 
view astern just after we took down our main on The Nuts Hell and began the run into Crisfield's harbour
 
Thanks to all of you for making this a great trip for me.
 
Best regards,
 
Uncle Al  (W3854)


----- Original Message -----
From: tmk-W4105  Tony Krauss
Cc: Gary Hirsch ; Richard Harrington ; Hans Gottschling W938
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2008 9:14 PM


Al,

i can see the copyright infringement suit coming from Richard Johnson (Free Range Chick'n) now.

All i caught was Bray (or Brey, probably the former), which took several repetitions upon his part.  Didn't get his surname at all. A very pleasant soul, doubtless chuckling still over the 'fern-ers', and i'd be wading a fair piece if he had not interrupted his work day.

Glassed one of the old W276 rudders to some 10 cm below the bottom of the head stock, so Sat i'll drag my self back down to Smith Island and make another attempt.  Or not, if it's blowin'.
...
----- Original Message -----
To: Al Schonborn ; Pauli Zmolek ; H ans Gottschling W938 ; Tony Krauss W4105/276 ; Gary Hirsch W1321 ; 
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 6:15 PM

Al et al:
 
Attached are a few my photos from this year's cruise.  With all of you so busy shooting up a storm I didn't take that many pictures.  The good stuff is when it gets nice and windy, but sailing single-handed, I was pretty limited in ability to take pictures under those conditions.  However, having so many terrific windy sailing days this year was fantastic.....it was the most I've had to reef for a long time.  Following this, I will visit the CWA web site to see what embarrassing shots have been attributed to me.  In that vein, I must say I really regret not being on the ball enough to catch both of my comrades, the Hirsches plus Uncle Al & Hans, fouling the big boats anchored and hiding from the stiff breeze in Crisfield Harbor upon our return.  Wow, what a missed opportunity!  Coming into the harbor that day I was planing straight down wind in big waves at breath taking speed....under a reefed main and the storm jib.  An accidental jibe would have been the end of it.  On the other hand, just seeing the looks of amazement on the faces of the big boat skippers inside the harbor as I flew madly between their boats made it all worth while.  The wind was blowing a solid 20 knots and gusting higher at that point.  Sometimes one gets lucky!
 
DICK
...       
Hi, Pauli:
 
Just got back from Rock Hall on the Chester River last night, where my crew and I won the Wayfarer US Nationals after we lost the 2007 Nats on a tie-breaker. This time we left no doubt, and won all eight races. By the way, Jim Heffernan (the Wayfarer who visited with you last fall? in his big boat) came in 2nd - see http://www.wayfarer-canada.org/08RockHall/08RH_index.html.
 
A minute ago, I posted the last of this year's cruise pics. I especially like the picture you took of me in my "Rat's Ass" shirt - about half-way down the second-last pics page.
 
More below in green.
 
Best regards,
 
Uncle Al  (W3854)
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 12:40 AM
Subject: Re: Wayfarer cruise pics posted

Hi Uncle Al,
   
I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures from this year's trip to Smith Island.  As always, I really enjoyed having you and Hans, Mary and Tony and Dick and meeting Gary and Jeremy.

Do you have Tony and Mary's email address?  Tony came back the following weekend with his brand new hand made rudder and I only saw him for a second because I was swamped with work. By the time I went out to see him, he was gone.
The email address is tony.krauss@gmail.com
 
What a weird day that was when you left. You guys just flew out of here. I was  impressed. And then surprised to see you back with Tony and Mary in tow.On top of that I was suddenly hit with a violent 24 hour flu.  I hope none of you got it. It hit me just as you were leaving.
As far as I'm aware, we all came away flu-less! Glad it was only the 24-hr. variety.
 
The preacher (Pastor Rick) was so concerned about you in your "little boats" leaving in such a strong wind that he stayed on the radio with me until we had friends in Crisfield saying that they saw you coming into the harbour.  I tried to explain to him that you were all very experienced, but, I must admit, I was a bit worried , myself , until I heard that you were safe on the mainland. That was a strong wind wasn't it?
Our boats are tough, and really easier to sail than the big boats which have to stay in the channels. I got a few pics from the trip home where things got slow and boring along the west side of Smith, so that we put up our spinnaker to help out the "trysail" we had left with in anticipation of the 15-25 knots of wind being forecast. As we rounded the north end of Smith, the wind got so feeble that we took down the trysail and put up our regular sails. Hans and I were very lucky insofar that we could just lay Crisfield on one tack. About half-way across, the winds began to increase but also to very conveniently swing around clockwise, so that by the time they reached 20-25 knots we were sailing well off the wind and had a lovely ride to the mouth of the harbour at Crisfield. We could easily have planed and gotten a really wild ride, but memories of Tony's rudder having snapped off, made me a bit leery of tempting the fates by really pushing the boat. Too bad, because it would have been a great ride!!At the mouth of the harbour, we took our mainsail down and ran into the harbour and into Somers Cove under jib alone - see pics at http://www.wayfarer-international.org/WIC/Cruise.Logs/2008Ches.Cruise/08ChesCr52.html. By the time we got tied up to the dock at the ramp, it was blowing hard enough to blow my half-full can of beer off the dock!
 
We had storms while Mary and Tony's boat was here and I didn't have a chance to see if everything was ok. Or even say so long.
Tony told me on the weekend (he and Mary also sailed the US Nats) that the trip back to Crisfield was fine except for a boring lack of wind (about 3 knots) which made them feel the heat excessively.
 
Tell everyone that I enjoyed having you, as always and have a great summer and we'll look forward to seeing you when we do.
I am copying the whole gang to pass on your kind words which I also expect to post as a post-script to the pictorial report. I'll be working on captions next week when my wife and I will be at her parents' cottage north of Toronto after sailing the Canadian Wayfarer Nationals on Lake Nipissing, 200+ miles N of Toronto.
 
Thanks for everything and take care,
Pauli
It is we who owe thanks to thanks to you for your lovely hospitality.
 
PS: Did you get the mural done and delivered???
 
 
Pauli Eades
Chesapeake Sunrise B&B
smithisland.us
Smith Island Marina
return to 2008 Chesapeake Cruise index