Some folks may have though we were crazy, but today's 1st Annual Adventure Island Polar Bear Sail was a lot of fun. Glenn_SouthRiver & I spent about two and half hours this afternoon sailing on Spa Creek & the Severn River, off Annapolis, MD. What's more, while we were the only AI's out there, we were far from the only boats on the water today. We counted about 30 other sailboats participating in the Annapolis Yacht Clubs annual Hangover Regatta. John, the assistant manager at Backyard Boats in Annapolis had planned to join us, but unfortunately a broken arm kept him off the water.
The weather was beautiful. Well, for January in Maryland, anyway. It was nice and clear and sunny. According to my infrared thermometer and the weather buoy, the air temperature was about 30 degrees, while the water temperature was about 35 degrees, with 10 - 15 knot winds. A little more wind would've been nice, but that would also have increased the chop on the water.
Here's a few photos we took of today's fun...
Glenn_SouthRiver & Jim_L preparing to launch at the Backyard Boats dock
Glenn_SouthRiver on the Severn River just off Spa Creek & the Annapolis Harbor. You can't see it in this photo, but just after this was taken, Glenn noticed that he had a coating of ice around the toe of his one water boot. He would've taken a picture of it, but he'd already passed the camera to me.
Jim_L on the Severn River just off Spa Creek & the Annapolis Harbor
Jim_L sailing with a few of the boats in the Annapolis Yacht Club Annual Hangover Regatta
Tried to get a shot of the whole Hangover Regatta fleet, but with so many boats, this was the best we could do. There were about 30 boats in the race fleet. This is looking North, up the Severn River, towards the Rt 450 bridge.
This is going to be an annual tradition, so plan on joining us next year. Who knows, maybe we'll even get t-shirts made.
Happy New Years everybody, and Happy Sailing!
- Jim_L