Sailing Topics
Mike Repass and I departed Town Creek for the
ICW and Ft. Pierce, FL at 10:00AM on Friday, October 8, 2004. We first
stopped in Solomons, MD to top off the fuel tanks at the Calvert Marina fuel
dock. By 11:00 AM we were motoring out of the Patuxent River down the Bay.
 The
weather forecast called for beautiful clear skies and no wind. The forecast
for once was dead on and we ended up motoring to the Great Wicomico River
(chart on the left) just south of the mouth of the Potomac River on the
western shore of Virginia. We arrived around 5:30 in the afternoon and
dropped the hook in the open basin behind Sandy Pt. |
 Mike is checking his Blackberry as we motor out of the Patuxent River with the Thomas Johnson Bridge in the background. |
 The only waves we saw on the bay were those made by passing fishing boats and freighters. |
 As we approached the Great Wicomico River we encountered a fleet of Menhaden fishing boats out of Reedville, VA. |
 The proximity of these fishing boats allowed me to play with the target tracking feature of the Raymarine radar and chart plotter. If you click on the image on the right you will get a full resolution image showing the target tracking (MARPA) feature on this unit. On the screen I am tracking two fishing boats out of Reedville, VA. The targets are shown on the screen by small red circles. The direction of movement is shown by the line attached to each circle. They were heading back into port on the Great Wicomico so our courses were converging. On a clear calm day such as this a collision avoidance tool was not required. However, I try to use these situations to practice with the electronic tools on Sarah for the time when conditions are less favorable. |