Departed the Baltimore Harbor at 9AM along with a fleet of Schooner Sailors – who were en route to the start of the annual Schooner Race, just south of the Bay Bridge on the Chesapeake Bay. We were accompanied by our friends salty sailor Dan, and professional photographer Randy Santos. The winds were light and out of the south, so it would be a 3 hour motor-sail to the Bay Bridge. Three hours at 6 knots of speed, gave us plenty of time to trade stories about eating healthy, getting fit, losing weight, eating 5-6 times a day and with all this talk of FOOD….it was time to FEAST! While Randy captured hundreds of photos, the remaining time was spent eating multiple helpings of fruit-veggie salad, BBQ chicken, fresh apples, pasta, tabbouleh – and a special “sail-mix” consisting of cashew nuts & dried cherries.
OK, back to the Schooner Race. It was a rather confusing start. Schooners appeared to be moving in all different directions…. Every time we heard the RACE HORNS go off – it didn’t appear that the sailors were moving toward any goal. What are they waiting for? A few minutes later, another RACE HORN blast…and still no synchronized movement other than mass confusion from these multi-masted yachts. Maybe we could get closers to the yacht-ies, so that Randy could snag some good pictures? We maneuvered to a very nice spot of open water – with no other boats within yards of us – and close proximity to the schooners. Did I say this was a VERY nice spot? Maybe a little TOO nice? The Coast Guard was now heading our way. You guessed it – we had to move. We were positioned directly on the starting line.
As we made our way toward the Schooner yacht “The Pride of Baltimore” for a photo op – one of those RACE HORNS went off again – and now, all of the sailors decided to head south on the Bay. The race had started. And there we were, in the middle of it all. See Randy’s schooner pics!
