Took a step toward Gunkholing this month.

Uh, Tom, what is Gunkholing again?   Glad you asked. According to Wikipedia

“Gunkholing is a boating term referring to a type of cruising in shallow or shoal water, meandering from place to place, spending the nights in coves. The term refers to the gunk, or mud, typical of the creeks, coves, marshes, sloughs, and rivers that are referred to as gunkholes. While not necessary, gunkholers typically seek out the serenity of isolated anchorages over the crowds of marinas and popular bays, and a minimal draft is preferred, since gunkholers tend to go as far up and into the gunkholes as possible, seeking ever more inaccessible destinations.”

One bucket list item is to gunkhole around the Chesapeake Bay for a month or two. September and October would be nice. To do this I need to be a better sailor (or get a trawler).  Three years ago I took the ASA 101 Basic Keelboating course which combines classroom instruction on sail trim, rules of navigation, and terminology with two days on the water. Since 2011, I have over 50 days on the water in sailboats, a combination of day cruising and racing. Good start but there is a lot more to know. 

I was walking around the vendor booths at the Annapolis Sailboat Show in April and happened upon The Maryland School of Sailing and Seamanship located in Rock Hall, Maryland, on the Eastern Shore. Rita Hanson, daughter of Tom Tursi, the founder, convinced me that MDS would be a good school for two more ASA certifications, ASA 103 Basic Coastal Cruising and ASA 104 Intermediate Coastal Cruising. A great foundation for gunkholing alone or with friends, the latter certification good for chartering in the Bahamas.

Heck, with “Seamanship” in the MDS name it had to be good. Turns out Tom Tursi is a major contributor to the ASA 105 Coastal Navigation and ASA 107 Celestial Navigation courses. MDS strongly believes in its tagline, A Serious School for Serious Sailors. Everything they did was extremely professional and all the skippers are US Coast Guard licensed captains. 

I signed up for consecutive courses, four days of 103 followed immediately by five days of 104. Many sailing schools do three-day and four-day courses respectively, some even fewer, basically diploma mills. I wanted the knowledge, not the quick certificate, so each additional day is a commitment to learning.

I have an undrawn cartoon in my head. I’m standing on the deck of my floundering sailboat, sinking in a storm, thrusting a piece of paper toward the sky, and yelling to Neptune, “This can’t happen, I have a certificate!!!!”

ASA 103, Basic Coastal Cruising

My ASA 103 shipmates consisted of John McDonald from Lumberton NJ, Javier Salguiero from Havertown PA, and Sally Marks from Saint Augustine FL. Sally drove up from Florida specifically for this school. Yeah, MDS has that good of a reputation. Our skipper, Doug Riley, lives in Vermont but teaches sailing at MDS. We sailed daily, Monday, May 7 through Thursday, May 11 on the 32 foot Island Packet, Scholarship, in the Chester River, practicing all the skills for handling a boat safely … sail trim, docking, motoring, etc. I lived on board each night.

ASA 104, Intermediate Coastal Cruising

My ASA 104 shipmates consisted of Dan Kohler of Chestertown MD (not too far from Rock Hall) and Ken Homick from Alexandria Virginia. Our skipper was Jochen Hoffmann. We sailed aboard the MDS sister ship, AcaDame, also a 32 foot Island Packet sloop.

Day One, Friday, May 12th – We spent the morning practicing dock line handling and learned some good seamanship techniques that I had not seen. Then we practiced launching and motoring a dinghy. The next step was provisioning the boat for five days and four nights and reviewing all the boat systems from mechanical to electrical. Later in the day we sailed down Davis Creek, crossed the Chester River, and nestled into a pretty gunkhole on Queenstown Creek. Dinner in the cockpit listening to the birds and watching the sunset.  

Day Two, Saturday, May 13th  – I was Skipper for the day. We charted our course and sailed out into the Chester River where we practiced MOBs (Man Overboard drills) before sailing out into the Chesapeake Bay. After crossing the Bay we sailed under the Bay Bridge and into Annapolis Harbor where we moored for the night. A Water Taxi took us to the City Dock where we had dinner at Buddy’s Crabs & Ribs. We had to watch the clock though as thunderstorms with a tornado watch was coming. We returned by Water Taxi to the boat about 20 minutes before high winds and rain hit. Inside the boat was very warm and dry.

Day Three, Sunday, May 14th – That morning we learned how to call a pumpout boat, a skiff with a large vacuum pump to empty waste from the holding tank. Hadn’t seen that before and didn’t know they existed. The weather turned cold, wet, and foggy as we sailed out into the bay and down past Thomas Point Shoal Light, the last of the Chesapeake Bay screw-pile lighthouses. We settled for the night at Pirates Cove Marina in Galesville eating at the restaurant and using the shower facilities. 

Day Four, Monday, May 15th – Dan and I spent an hour taking the ASA 104 written exam while Ken and Jochen worked on navigation. (Ken had previously taken and passed 104.) It was a mostly windless day, so we motorsailed back across the Chesapeake Bay to Eastern Bay, rounded Tilghman Island, and found another gunkhole in Tilghman Creek. Lots of geese and, of course, another thunderstorm came through. Thanks to weather radio we were well prepared with a “forked mooring”, two anchors 60 degrees apart.   

Day Five, Tuesday, May 16th – I was skipper for the morning and took us up Eastern Bay, past Parson’s Island to Kent Narrows. This was a good experience as we had to contact the Bridge Tender and go through procedures to pass the Kent Narrows’ bascule bridge. Yeah, I hadn’t heard that term before either. It refers to a typical drawbridge. Bit of a challenge since the current is swift and the channel narrow. After the Kent Narrows, we came up the Chester River and back to Lankford Bay Marina to end the course.

Swiss Cheese

Prior to 103 and 104, each student was asked to discuss their sailing experience and goals for the course. I told them I wanted to fill in my “Swiss Cheese” sailing knowledge, solid in some ways but full of holes. For example, I could trim the sails and man the helm, but I had never (in 50 days on the water) docked, anchored, used a VHF radio, cooked in a galley, went through a drawbridge, crossed a busy ship channel, practiced man overboard drills, or used a chart. There were many “best practices” that I didn’t know.

You need a great teacher for your Swiss Cheese. 
Joe Hoyle expresses this better than I. 
So does Sal Kahn of the Kahn Academy. 

Great teachers fill gaps, push you out of your comfort zone, enforce discipline, and reveal things you didn’t know you didn’t know. Both my Captains were very good at this, teaching with patience and good humor. How many other aspects of life do we have Swiss Cheese? I think most of them. 

What Comes Next?

Need to buy a boat but I’m very reluctant to do so. They are expensive toys that take a great deal of care and feeding, particularly a challenge for someone not mechanically inclined. Still, I would like to have the experience of gunkholing the Bay once in my life and I have an eye on a 27 foot Island Packet, just the right size for two and can be comfortably handled alone. My racing friends sneer at these boats because they are not fast. I like them though, very roomy for the length, and very comfortable for cruising. 

There is an ASA 106 Advanced Coastal Cruising course that circumnavigates the DELMARVA peninsula, up the Bay to the C&D canal, out into the Atlantic, back in through Hampton Roads and returns up the Bay. Turns out the MDS version is not a simple pay your money and show up. They only accept boat skippers with experience so I don’t qualify. Another reason to get a boat and get on the water.