The plan was for a two-night adventure leaving for the marina directly after work on Friday. But Friday turned into a real PITA and didn't get out of the 5-sided puzzle palace until 6:30 so I just went home and decided to start early on Saturday.
Saturday I was on the water with sails up at 8:10. Sailed and motor-sailed North from West River up to Sandy Pt State Park where I stopped for gas, coke and to meet up with Tony on his
at 10:30. The two of were back out on the Chesapeake with sails up and heading East and North around 11:00. We sailed to the Eastern shore on a nice beam reach off the Southerly breeze. Then we turned North and did wing-on-wing for nearly an hour. We finally did a very fast beam reach back West across the bay and into the Magothy River. We averaged over 5 knots for an hour sailing within a couple hundred feet of each other.
We sailed the Magothy for about an hour including some more wing-on-wing until decided to anchor behind Gibsons Island and go swimming. Unfortunately we both had some mishaps when we turned into the wind to lower our sails. My lazy-jacks broke...one of the lines attached to the mast above the spreaders to hold up the LJ's snapped...it was 5 years old and was pretty sun-rotted. And when I lowered my motor...which was disconnected at the time...the disconnect linkages snagged on the bolt attached to the steering arm and bent it. Tony had his sail hang up and when he looked up to see what was wrong his hat blew off into the water. I had to quickly drop anchor to gather up my sagging sail and assess my steering arm. Tony had a boat full of young ladies swing by and pick up his hat and deliver it too him...some guys get all the luck...
While I was cleaning up my mess Tony motored over into the crows of about 30-40 boats anchored on the lee of the island. Once I had things cleaned up and secured and confirmed my steering was okay I motored over and we rafted up together with both of us using his anchor. There was pretty much no wind on the back side of the island. We both went swimming. It was great. And two first for me...first time rafted up...first time swimming and using my swim ladder.
Anyway after about 45 minutes of this we decided to motor over to Deep Creek Restaurant which has some slips for boaters to use. We were going to have dinner there then spend the night. Found the restaurant and they had some empty slips. They used the short finger piers with free standing posts to tie off to. I backed in tied up with two lines to secure the boat initially then went over to help Tony who had pulled in forwards. After he had things under control I went back and started to get a couple more lines out and prepared to further tie off the boat. However, I seem to have lost my 25-year old mountain goat like agility and footing. While stepping from my boat back to the finger pier I lost my balance and fell in the water between the pier and the hull. I was holding on to something...the stanchion I think...and as I fell I pulled my left shoulder out of its socket. Lots of pain, lots of embarassment, floating in the water. Tony saw me and laughed. But some other guys came over and determined I was hurt and couldn't get out. They pulled me out by my right arm and it was pretty apparent my left arm was not right. It was about 2 inches longer than my right arm and you could see the ball of the upper arm bone poking against the skin about 2" below my now knobby looking shoulder bone.
So Tony and a couple of those other good samaritans finished securing my boat and Tony packed all my valuables into my back pack and brought it out. The outside dining customers got quite a show. The manager had called 911 and about 10 minutes later the ambulance and fire department showed up. I walked around the side of the restaurant and climbed into the ambulance. The pain was growing!!!
Got to the Anne Arundel Medical Center around 6:30 and to make a long story short. LOTS OF PAIN!!! But they eventually put me under and put everything back together. Instead of staying at the restuarant Tony took his boat back to Sandy Pt and came and picked me up around 10:10. We took his boat home them he drove me to my marina and then I drove home getting there at 1:15 this morning.
Then around 11:00 I met Tony back at my marina we drove to the restaurant and got the boat and I drove it home with him and his friend Jennifer helping as I only had one functioning arm.
Like I said...another great Cheasapeake Adventure...another mishap (see story about Tony loosing his mast last time we were sailing together back in early June).
Tony's boat with his repaired mast looking good sailing in front of Bay Bridge...
Tony enjoying water by jumping off our rafted boats...
Yours truly sitting in the ambulance. They ripped my nice Jacksonville Fl Marina shirt. Notice the interesting looking left shoulder...
Cheers,
Jim
. First one I did while sailing 
second one I did while moving funiture @ home by myself 
