Our summer has been incredibly busy as we have worked to get Makara to a condition that we feel makes her sea-worthy. Given that Makara is a relatively new boat, this may seem odd, but as we have spent more and more time on her there were many things that were either errors we made in the custom design of the boat, errors made in execution at the factory, repairs needed  as a consequence of last year’s lightning strike, as well as the long list of upgrades we knew we wanted to make. I am pleased to report that after hundreds of hours of effort that Makara is finally getting “Shipshape and Bristol fashion”.

This feeling that Makara is really becoming the boat we imagined was never stronger than last weekend when we finally anchored her out overnight for the first time after a long days sail. We were blessed by chance to bring Makara into a lovely spot called Aberdeen creek, only a few miles as the crow flies from her berth at Port Annapolis, but a world away in terms of beauty and serenity.

Backing up, a couple of months ago we made the decision to bring Makara south for the winter so that Judy and I could cohabitate in Atlanta. Beyond this, the value of a true shakedown cruise rounding the trecherous Cape Hatterus, and the benefit of not having to put Makara to sleep for another icy Annapolis winter was also compelling.

We hadseveral pre-conceived notions about where we should bring Makara. Savannah Georgia was high on our list as it is a large port and is only about 4 hours away from where I work south of Atlanta. We had also wanted to consider Charleston South Carolina as well. To get a feel for these places Judy and I drove the dozen hours down to Atlanta early one week, I worked for a couple of days, and then we headed east to the coast. Judy was able to contact a couple of the wonderful station chiefs from the SSCA (www.ssca.org) to get some local knowledge on where best to bring a boat of Makara’s size. The net of these conversations was, for a sailboat and for maximum protection against Hurricanes, neither Savannah (too far up river) nor Charleston (not well protected against hurricanes, and subject to onerous South Carolina taxes) was an especially good choice. We were told instead to consider Brunswick Georgia, which is just north of Jacksonville FL.

On a Thursday night we drove the five hours to the coast and south a bit to the small town of Brunswick. The next morning we began exploring this wonderful little town making sure not to overlook one of the truly great breakfast spots on the ICW - "Jim's Corner Cafe". We love breakfast (and sometimes second breakfast) and this place was absolutely worth the trip. After our repast and a little exploration we found the perfect new southerly home for Makara at Brunswick Landing Marina. With a new goal in mind, the real work started – getting Makara ready for the ocean voyage south.

Upon returning to the north, we spent the latter part of July and all of August putting in a couple of hundred hours working on several critical projects to get Makara ready . Some of the biggest projects were adding a new furling head sail to make sail changes in higher winds much easier replacing the movable headstay (courtesy of the great folks at Madden rigging), once and for all resolving the instrumentation issues that had been plaguing Makara - depth would not read consistently which turned out to be a faulty cable; getting the DC generator working properly – turns out the engine controller had also been damaged by the lightning strike; getting the engine alternator and tachometer working properly – both a bad connection at the alternator and improper wiring of the charge controller were the culprits; getting the VHF radio to work properly – again a lightning damaged antenna; and lastly fixing the Windlass control which also was damaged by lighting. Judy “ the mountain goat” Edwards did the honors up the mast need to fix the antenna. She is not afraid of heights and you would think she likes it up there. Indeed, she does. The view is great according to her as a shot of Makara from the masthead demonstrates. All this work, as well as a number of other minor projects were finally completed a week ago, and in satisfaction we sat back, looked at our boat and said, yes, she is finally ready for ‘a night on the town’.

In our last posting “High Five” we talked about our exploration of the Thomas Point lighthouse some five miles south of Annapolis. For our next jaunt, we decided we wanted to explore the next historic lighthouse about 10 miles down the Chesapeake from Annapolis – the Bloody Point lighthouse.  Bloody Point lighthouse, just at the entrance to the Eastern Bay on the way to St. Michaels on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake is a caisson style lighthouse built of concrete and iron plate. It suffered from a fire burning the internal wood structure and was abandoned by the Coast Guard.  Although in private hands now, it is an unusually impressive structure which guards the aptly named Bloody Point.

After a nice few hours sailing down and around Bloody Point we made for the Western shore of the Chesapeake in light winds heading for Harness Creek in South river. The wind direction and speed were light enough that by the time we arrived in Harness Creek, the first anchorage inside of South River, it was already getting full of boats anchoring for the night. Looking at the chart, and with a little prior local knowledge from our dock-friend Adam, we decided to continue up river to a spot called Aberdeen creek just before the #10 daymark. What luck this was.

Arriving in Aberdeen creek, we stressed a little bit getting through the narrow entrance passing a duck blind, but were immediately greeted with an idyllic spot occupied by only a couple of other boats. Judy navigated the creek taking soundings with the (now reliable) depth sounder and picked the perfect spot to drop anchor. I released the anchor and it dug into the muddy bottom perfectly, holding Makara securely for the night. That evening was simply perfect.

The temperature was a moderate 65 degrees, the sunset was a rosy glow, we were serenaded with Salsa music from one of the mansions on shore and had the most perfect evening we can remember since being in the Caribbean some years ago on a charter boat. The next morning the creek was filled with a dream like mist and a silence one only experiences on the water. After a breakfast of my “boat eggs” we motored Makara in light winds back up to Annapolis, and tucked her away, but with a satisfaction we have not felt in many years. All the hard work, all the focus and effort of the previous months was worth it for those wonderful hours in Aberdeen creek.