Silver Sailors Updates by Martin, Sokoloski

The Silver Sailors Club, SS Club, has naturally divided into the "Mid-week Division" and the "Week-end Division". It turns out that some of our Silver Sailors refuse to retire! The club's home port is Canton, Baltimore where we lease boats from Getaway Sailing, Ltd.

The Mid-week group overnight sail got underway about 10:00am April 27 and 28 from Canton with Nick Georgis as the skipper and Irenaeus and Sally Kamantaukas and Frank Smith as the crew. The wind was blowing about 20 Knots and gusting into the 30's. The Silver Sailor, a 31 foot Hunter, motored out to the Key Bridge where we set the jib. It was decided that the sail would be confined to the West Shore of the Bay because beating against the Northwest wind on our return trip was not something we wanted to look forward too. The sail took us south of Bodkin Creek, our destination for the night, we experienced heavy wind, some rain, spray off the whitecaps, but the waves were not too high because we were close to the mouth of Rock Creek.

After docking, everone enjoyed a great dinner and conversation at The Windows on the Bay Restaurant. The night on board was a windy and cool one but we made it through till the morning. After breakfast onboard we took quite a walk on shore, hoping the gusty Northwest wind would let up. We motored out to the Patapsco, set just the job and sailed from Rock Creek to North Point until the early afternoon. On both days with just the jib we hit 5 knots and with both sails on the first day we were over 7 knots, but with the gusty wind we were not pushing it.

Meanwhile, the week-end division set sail for our overnighter on the sailing vessel Silver Sailor on Saturday, June 26th. On board were Bob and Norma Baker and Marty and Bonnie Sokoloski. It was the best 2 days of sailing weather we had seen on the Bay. We motored to just beyon the Key Bridge and put up the sails, averaging about 4 knots to the mouth of the Patapsco River. At this point we lost our 5 to 10 mph winds out of the west and motored directly towards green can no. 3, south of Rock Hall, arriving at about 2:45pm. As we turned to head up into the Rock Hall harbor the wind picked up to 15-20mph out of the west and we raised the sails and flew to Annapolis Bay Bridge, again doing around 7 knots. We turned around and arrived in Rock Hall at about 5:15pm. The wind was still blowing strong and we had small white caps in places. Had a great meal at Pruitts Restaurant and vaster the rebuilt Waterman's Crab House after dinner.

The SS Club had a mid-season meeting at the First Mates Baker's house starting off with drinks and snacks followed by London broil, corn on the cob, not to mention a great desert baked by Mate Liz Kilby. Part of our meeting agenda was viewing the video, "Sailing in Heavy Weather" and managed not to get sea sick.

Our final meeting in 2004 was held at the SS Club home port watering hole, Simon's on Butcher's Hill. There we enjoyed sharing stories about our 2004 season and planning for next years sailing.

Silver Sailors Club Members at the 2004 season final meeting in Simon's Pub and Grill in Butcher's Hill, Baltimore. From the left, Bob Baker, Bonnie Sokoloski, Norma Baker, Liz Kilby, Marty Sokoloski, Phil Dopkowski, Frank Smith, and Sally and Irenaeus Kamantauskas.