Spring Sailing- Local Sailing News

Today was sunny, temps in the mid 60s, and blowing NNE 20-25knots.  Seasonal sailors dust off the cobwebs and throw off the bowlines and begin to play in the southern Bay. Unfortunately this time of year accidents on the water tend to be fairly common.  Today brought the news of a local sailing vessel experiencing problems at Little Creek inlet.  The inlet has rock jetties but the approach is pretty straight forward.  In today's case it is assumed the vessel lost power and the wind pushed the vessel into shallow water and the rocks.  Luckily the three people on board were uninjured and rescued.

Our approach when entering an inlet is to always have at least one sail up.  If engine trouble develop we can still maneuver the boat and hopefully sail her out of harms way.  We practice this often by usually sailing the boat all the way to the marina slip.  This practice has come in handy on more than one occasion.  One event I can recall we were entering Little Creek Inlet on a breezy summer day.  Ray went to start the engine and it did not turn over.  We already had full sails up so without panicking we continued our approach as we have done numerous time before under sail.  We made a turn to port toward the marina and then dropped our head sail. This allowed our boat speed to be reduced, and with the main still up we were able to keep Janus moving and maintain steering control. We then made another turn to port and began heading into the marina.  Now in tight quarters we dropped the main sail and using our tiller moving it back and forth we were able to scull Janus safely into her slip.

Here I am with Janus on a typical spring day. Hope you enjoy the short video.

Happy Sailing  from Nikki and Ray

Sunrise on the water

The sun rising as we were heading east out of the Chesapeake Bay into the Atlantic.  Entering the ocean you can feel the bay chop turn into a rolling swell.   15-20 knot breeze,  a double reefed main,  jib to port and main to starboard, wing and wing running before the wind;  Janus sailed effortlessly toward the horizon.

There are many great places to explore and sail on this planet. One of them is where I am living, the southern Chesapeake Bay.  I have the luxury of bay and ocean sailing.  Steady breezes most of the year.  Mild winter weather allows for even great winter sailing and a chance to see migrating whales off the coast of Virginia Beach. Spring is almost here.  Warm and steady southerly breezes will be plentiful. I am looking forward to weeks and months of great sailing ahead.  The first of many planned adventures is coming in April. More info on this soon. 

A video we made. I hope you enjoy.

Happy Sailing  from Nikki and Ray



What’s in a Name

In Roman mythology Janus was the god of beginnings, openings and doorways.  January was dedicated by the Romans to their God of Gates and Doors, Janus.  Janus has a distinctive artistic appearance in that he is commonly depicted with two faces...one regarding what is behind and the other looking toward what lies ahead. Thus, Janus is representative of contemplation on the happenings of an old year while looking forward to the new.

Sailing is new to me and with Janus I anticipate the opening of many doors I have yet to walk through. I know lots of adventures are forthcoming.  Places I have only dreamed about visiting, exploring the ocean around me,  making new friends will all be part of that future. The plan is in the works.  The what, where, and when will be detailed soon.  Stay tuned.

Happy Sailing  from Nikki and Ray

And Just Like that we got A Boat

Well it may not have been that easy.  The idea was to find a boat locally around 30 foot or less capable of offshore sailing.  We wanted something that had a simple setup and could be easily sailed by one person.  Wanted the draft to be under 5 feet, so we could easily  explore the Chesapeake Bay and beyond.  That does not seem like too much to ask for right?



Ray had already owned a sailboat, a Cal 2-27, which he sold to pursue sailboat racing. He began to crew on other boats from J24 to large offshore racing boats. Eventually Ray sailed the Bermuda Ocean Race, 750 miles, from Annapolis to Bermuda. So as you can see, Ray knows a thing or two about sailing and boats.  I on the other hand  knew nothing about sailing or sailboats.


After several years of racing on other sailboats Ray wanted to be captain of his own vessel again and from there the search began. One of the many great thing about living on the southern bay is there are many boats looking for new homes.  After extensive searching through the Internet, speaking to brokers, walking through marinas she was found.  In Deltaville, Virginia the 1970 Alberg 30 was discovered.  After boat inspection, haul out, test sail and some negation we became the owners of Janus.

For more information and photos of Janus please visit our boat page.

Happy Sailing  from Nikki and Ray
 

The Spinnaker

We are just getting started on the blog, so stay tuned for more up updates.

Sailing with the spinnaker can make light wind sailing a lot of fun.  A pole, topping lift, down hall, guys, and sheets can make it a bit overwhelming.  So how about without a pole. Simplifies the process and on light air days works just fine.  Here we are flying our spinnaker without a pole. Wind speed 5-8 knots. So does anyone else out there have experience sailing their spinnaker this way? Interested in your comments. There will be more on this topic soon as we are looking to purchase an asymmetrical cruising spinnaker.



Happy Sailing  from Nikki and Ray

First Post

This is a story of a 40 year old sailboat.  A past that is unkown.  A future that has yet to be determined.  This is a Sailing Seafari.

We rolled the dice
We set the date
Without delay
We blasted our way down the Bay

We left at night
We lost our spotlight
But Everything was A OK 

The wind was hard
The sails were filled
But it was such a thrill
To be on an even keel

The sun began to rise
And we could see with our eyes
How close we were to the prize

Then finally at last
After a 12 hour blast
Janus came to rest
At her new home address

Happy Sailing  from Nikki and Ray