Rest days. Yeah right. You think you need a day of rest from a big sailing adventure, cuz you’re a tad weary, and wake up the next day to discover that the winds are favorable. It would be a sin to waste favorable winds…on rest. Time to prep the boat — for sailing.

We departed from Solomons at a leisurely 8AM, with freshening winds blowing from the west. I admit, I’m in some sort of hurry to restore my endorphin-depleted lifestyle. When Paddy looked at the forecast and suggested that we might want to reef the main due to projected winds of 25 knots….I said no. Hard to imagine. This never happens. Usually, Captain Wuuus (moi) wants to sail only with the SS Handkerchief. Not today. We will get every bloody speck of wind that Cat Maudy can capture.

We motored at most a mile out of the Patuxent River – when the west winds took over. I hoisted the FULL mast sail, and we unfurled the FULL jib. No hankie sails today. With these winds — it was setting up to be a fast sail to either Annapolis, or possibly Baltimore if we could snag 10+ knot average. Thunderstorms are projected for the afternoon – so we needed to be “in some port” by 3PM. It is so completely foreign that I think about “how fast we need to sail” — I can only attribute it to my severe lack of endorphins. Visions sprout in my head about riding my speed bike cross country…or running my next road race….or just getting the jiggle out of my wiggle would be a good start after 1000+ northbound miles on a sailboat. I digress.

The winds were stronger than I expected, and Cat Maudy loved every bit of it. She raced around Drum Point at the mouth of the Patuxent, and like a stealth machine cruised past all of the other sailboats. Probably because they were all reefed down. Probably because they weren’t so desperate for endorphins.

No sooner had I started to calculate our arrival time into Annapolis at a 9+ knot rate – the winds QUIT. Just like that. One minute – they are blowing 25 knots…and the next minute, it’s all over. Completely over. It ended. No more winds AT ALL.

We complete our 40 mile mostly motor hop to Annapolis, and pony up to one of the mooring balls in the Annapolis Harbor. 30 minutes later, Cat Maudy self cleans – as we are greeted with 2 hours of rain and thunderstorms. Tomorrow winds will be light. It could be a rest day. Then again, maybe not.