The Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race October 4, 2008

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE DAY!

We had such a fantastic time on this trip that we are now adding it as a 'standard' to our annual schedule.

For those of you who are not familiar with this race it has quite an interesting history and the variety of vessels that particpate is absolutely phenomenal!

"The Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race (GCBSR) was founded to promote public awareness of the Chesapeake Bay's maritime heritage and to encourage the preservation and improvement of the Chesapeake's natural resources. We accomplish this goal by donating the proceeds of the race to one or more charitable organizations involved in conservation of the natural resources of the Chesapeake Bay. To date, $104,600 has been donated to support children's education programs of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
The race begins in Fells Point, in Baltimore, Maryland, and ends 127 nautical miles down the Chesapeake Bay in Portsmouth, Virginia. Entry is open to all schooner-rigged vessels.

We started out from Tilghman around 10am and headed North up under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in hopes of catching some of the fleet as they came down from Fells Point to the start line. Our timing was perfect and we were able to get quite a few 'pre-race' photos of some of the 'big girls' as they traveled South.

While all entrants in this event must be schooner rig, this does leave quite a bit of leeway as there are many types of schooner rigs of various sizes. The contrast between some of the participants was just amazing...like the Behemoth Mystic (170 ft. overall length) sailing side by side with The Martha White (65 ft. overall length). It was also a blast to see the 'personalities' of the vessels as brought about by the crews...some in crisp matching uniform, some 'come as you are' and some just down right bawdy and having a terrific time in pirate costume or crazy hats with noise makers.

The weather was perfect including a dramatic disappearance of the wind right at the start of the race. There was about a 15 minute window during which all vessels were becalmed...when the wind did finally pick back up it made the start pretty interesting. It did take us a bit of time to figure out the starting horns for the different classes...the huge number of vessels all vying for a place at the start was almost overwhelming....In addition to the vessels in the race there were also a large number of boats, such as ourselves, who were there as spectators..it made for some interesting navigation at the mouth of the river.

We traveled with a list of all participating

vessels and their photos and had great fun looking them up as we spotted them, determining home ports and reading the histories.

After watching the start of all classes we had the privilege of traveling south in the company of The Virginia , The Pride of Baltimore and Woodwind as they sailed neck-n-neck down past the tip of Kent Island. Once again the photo opps as we traveled with them were just incredible...the late afternoon sun from the western shore really gave us some nice silhouette shots.

Look for the 2009 Great Schooner Race on our Trip schedule and phone early to book your 'berth'!!

You can learn more about the history of this event and pre-race activities at http://www.schoonerrace.org/