St Michael's Maryland Family Fun F32~Liberty Call

[thelast322]

I just wanted to share some good times we had at St Michael's last weekend. It is our favorite port of call. To me, it is a very beautiful relaxing port that offers all family members something to do. We always go to the Harbor inn on the left. We grew fond to that particular marina. It has a very nice pool and bar, hotel continental breakfast with cook to order omelets. The offer free bikes, shuttles, towels and clean rest rooms. The docks are very clean and meticulous.
So here is how the trip started. We left on Thursday morning from Georgetown "Sassafras River" and headed straight down through the narrows. The wind was kicking up to 15-20 knot winds causing the snotty 2-3 foot chop the Chesapeake Bay loves to give. Luckily we were directly heading into the chop once we entered the bay from the sassafras. We had to batting down the hatches due to the spray breaking out of the bow. It wasn't terrible but I was a little perplexed due to coming down to a 14.5-14.8 knot crawl to get my 20 gallon an hour burn. Yeah, I have flow meters and I always tweak to run the boat as fast as I can before the 4 barrels open. That all changes on weather conditions, humidity, hot temperature, loaded boat, loaded tanks.....you name it. I was getting a good mid 17.3 knots before hitting the open bay. Best I can achieve is high 18 to low 19.2 knots in the best conditions. and that is probably before it gets hot and the bottom gets a little hairy. That being said, we finally tucked in enough from love point and got a little break from catching the quarter seas. Boat ran good and I was enjoying getting the wife and kids wet when the occasional wave spray broke through our center isinglass curtain that was up. We slowed down to go through the narrows and had no issues due to no other vessels trying to get in. We passed Mears and Harrison's slowly and I took it all in. I love the area! As a kid, I was lucky to have parent boaters and we stayed in that area when I had my favorite 1st love. She was a 64 balsa cored 13 whaler. I had some good memories when I was 13-14 years old. I guess you could say nostalgia. So then I called my favorite bridge tender "Mr Grumpy" to ask for him to open the bridge. He told me it would open in 13 minutes. I really had no patience at this point so, I have in the past went under it on the fixed location but I wasn't so sure and certain if I had enough water to pass through. A minute or so later the marine police boat went under the location I was eye balling. So I quickly dropped my vhf antenna and proceeded with a little throttle. With 16" inch wheels, the liberty call doesn't dig in like you would want her to at times. She is no 63 F&S sport fisher with 2000 hp MTU's if you know what I mean. The current going through there can whip you around if you let it. I took no changes and powered through with ease and about 22 feet below my keel. I at that point could feel a little relieved of some stress. I was through the perils of my voyage. Now all I had to negotiate was the shoal that is in the middle of the eastern bay past Tillman Island point. I really don’t think it is as bad as it looks but I can honestly say I like my running gear where it is located. I just don’t know too much about it but it looks like a sand bar on the charts and the buoys make you go around it on either side. Maybe someday I could go discover it in the dingy. So, I did take my time going that way and tried to take it all in. The Bay is beautiful and I only see it 1 time a year. We finally pulled in around 1400. It took us an extra 45 mins Total 4 hours but the liberty call ran like a top. She is an awesome running machine for 25 years old. I just get amazed on her ability to run so good. Trojan definitely knew how to engineer them with good components. Hail to the 350 Crusaders as well. My port engine is original with 925 hours of good service on her. Starboard was rebuilt in 2007. When the engines were out for the stringer job in 06-07, I performed a compression leak down test and realized that I needed a head job. With the engines out and a little excited to get everything perfect I decided to rebuild my Starboard block. So off to the machine shop it went. The only difference is it sounds better. Yeah, I know...kinda of weird but it is a little throatier at idle. Besides that, they both spin up to the manufactures recommend RPM and run good. Very impressive for 1991 edition. They run great. As we all know, even new boats sometimes don’t run that good. It just puts a smile on my face with what a little preventative maintenance can do for an ole classy lady.
To fast forward to what we did was eat at Ava's , Carpenters Salon, Swim,drink and I got a coat of varnish and did some bright work done too. Can honestly say I loved every minute of it. I can't agree the other Non-older boat owners thought the same. "Who cares" There is a lot of money that goes there on a regular basis. Not too many older boats if you know what I mean. I think I heard a few compliments. "Wow, Trojan really built a good boat, they don’t make them like that anymore" It was a good trip. We even saw some stingrays swimming around when we went out on a dingy ride. Maybe we all could meet up there again next year. It would be nice to get the group together.Here are some pics from the trip.[/color][/color]

[prowlersfish]

Great post Butch . I see Higgins over you right shoulder .Glad you all had a great time

[WayWeGo]

Looks like you had a great time - thanks for sharing! We really like St. Michaels also.

Since we never got anything going on a rendezvous this summer, maybe we can do something next summer?