Sailing Adventures

[Paula Arvin]

I leave my home on Thursday last week for a trip that would either make, or break me. It was late, and the trip rather long. So we stayed at a Motel that night. Then left early Friday morning for the last leg of the journey. I really wasn't sure what to expect. We stopped in Baltimore for a bit to explore the Chesepeak Bay harbor area there. Quite the fast paced lifestyle. And all the HUUUGE cargo ships. I'd never seen anything like that before in my life. Ships, yachts, sailboats of verying sizes. Everywhere you looked. Masts, some single, some double. And a Pirate ship excursion. After we headed to Middle River near Essex MD. The Marina where the sailboat was near by. Called Riley's Marina. I wasn't sure what the boat would look like. I knew it was small. But not sure how. About 26 to 28 feet. Not too bad. Rather cozy. We of course couldn't go out right away. The sails weren't even on it yet. So we wandered around town for awhile. Got some supplies. And tookI me toto a Nature Center where athe femaleyear Mallard duck thought myI hand needed bit. Then a beach, where I got stung by a baby jellyfish that washed up on shore. It was new, I had to check it out. Over the next 4 days we got the parts that were missing to get the sail on. We finally got it to the point we could use the main sail anyway. We motored out to the mouth of Middle River. Which was wild.. I sat at the bow soaking up the sun and the wind. The salty spray, whenever the boat was turned into the wake of the faster powered boats. We anchored that night off a man made island with a small park on it. The moon was full. The sun setting was amazing. It got a bit interesting that night, surrounded by storms on three of the four sides. Choppy water. Gusty winds. By morning sunrise, I had coffee on deck. It was quite the adventure. A week of firsts for me. I found my calling, that's for sure.