My 'Sales Pitch' Trip to Cheaspeake Bay . . .

[capcook]

Just returned from my “sales pitch trip” on an FP Orana in the Chesapeake Bay. The objective of the trip was to sell the other half on the cruising life. It was a partial success, she is at least a bit more engaged now and asking the right questions, we will see… but here are a few thoughts from the trip..
- Chesapeake Bay is an amazing place with so many beautiful anchorages; you really could not see them all in a life time, if you have not been there you should go…
- We managed to pick a week that, in all of recorded history, it had never been hotter! That didn’t help with the sales pitch… it was 105F in St. Michaels when we were there.
- The fireworks were just GREAT from the boat at Rock Hall on the 3rd and Baltimore Inner Harbor on the 4th… we managed to get front row dock space and had a really great time.
- The Orana 44 was setup with 3 cabins and 3 full heads, I don’t understand why each cabin has to have it’s own head and when we get a boat, we will have just 2 proper size heads.
- Electric toilets are really cool, but they were so small. I don’t care if I have to use half a hull, I will have a full size elongated toilet in my 2 heads.
- Heads need powered vents, especially when it is 105 outside…
- The AC was sufficient, but one of the units stopped working.. in fact this was a fairly new boat but already had a rather long list of repairs needed: AC, Wind Indicator, Pressure Water Line, Water Heater, Lights,
- Pressure water is really nice, but on this boat they used maybe 8 ft sections of pressure hose with compression connections, one came apart and we had to spend the better part of an evening getting it fixed as it was in a very difficult place to reach… I have no idea why they didn’t run continuous hose ….
- The Orana is a really, really nice boat for a big, slow CAT… we really liked it…
- Since what little wind there was always seemed to be on our nose, we raised the sails for shade and motored everywhere we went, running the ginny too most of the time for the AC. I was really pleasantly surprised at the end of the week to see we only used about 31 gallons of fuel…
All in all a great trip, we really love Chesapeake Bay and will be back…(hopefully in our own boat)..
Cheers

[YOGAO]

...go in the fall! Late September or after the boat show can bring some really great times on the Chesapeake, including wind(!).

July and August can show off the triple Hs (hazy, hot and humid) and make you wish you never have to step outside and leave the AC behind.

Fair Winds,
Mike

[capcook]

I would love to go back in the fall... I bet the trees are just beautiful...

I should also mention as a learning that I can see why some folks have custom mattresses made for the bunks... I think they would be worth it...

Cheers

[ArmyChief]

capcook,

St. Micheals is awesome. Hope you had some crabs on the deck for me! <G>

[YOGAO]

How did you travel between Rock Hall and St. Mike's? Did you go through the Kent Narrows, or did you go the long way around Kent Island?

It's funny, when we had a mono, we almost always went around because our 6' draft lead to several soft groundings. When we got our shallow draft multi (2.5'), we went around because we were worried about fitting our 23' beam through the Kent Narrows drawbridge.

The 3 head/3 bed set-up is to attract charterers so that everyone has their own head. We did a charter with a 4 head/4 bed set-up - it sounded good on paper, but man were the heads tiny!

Fair Winds,
Mike

[capcook]

Originally Posted by YOGAO

How did you travel between Rock Hall and St. Mike's? Did you go through the Kent Narrows, or did you go the long way around Kent Island?

We actually motored up to Baltimore directly from Rockhall to see the fireworks up there... when we came back down we spent the evening in Sillery Bay just on the north side of Gibson Isl... then down to St. Mikes... I don't think we went through any narrows.. That Gibson Isl and bay is just beautiful ...

Cheers