A Week in Annapolis

Apr 26 thru May 1

—Blogpost written by Bob

We arrived in Annapolis yesterday (Thursday) afternoon and got a mooring buoy for a week.      Maggie fired up the dinghy and we went into town and got some ice cream at Storm Brothers to start our stay in Annapolis.

We arrived in Annapolis on Thursday
and got a mooring buoy
for the week

First Stay Over Day in Annapolis

We had a light breakfast at the City Dock Cafe this morning (Friday, April 26), taking our dinghy onto town.  After breakfast we bought tickets and visited the spring boat show on its opening day.  It was about one-third or one quarter of the size of the boat show in the fall.  The wind was very strong and the rocking of the boat show piers made it difficult to maintain our balance at times.  We went on several boats, all larger than ours.  We boarded a Lagoon 42 catamaran that was too big for us and a Sabre 402 (used) that wasn't much bigger than our boat.  We were very impressed with a Hylas 48 but its price tag was way out of our league.

We stopped by the Sailrite booth and selected a fabric for our new cockpit cushions.  The Sunbrella (upholstery) fabric that we originally selected would not have served us well after discussing it with the people in the booth.  We ultimately selected a vinyl covering called Nauga Soft in a color called "Mint Leaf."

The color of the vinyl covering for our new
cockpit cushions along side the
"toast" color of our canvas.

We also purchased a hot knife for cutting the material, some closed cell foam (for the new cushion backs), and a snap installing device.

We came back to the boat when it started to rain again and the thunderstorm threatened.  Shortly after we got to the boat the thunderstorm hit hard with high winds and heavy rain! We had leftovers for dinner onboard and a relaxing evening.

Second Stay Over Day in Annapolis

The weather was sunny, windy, and cool when we pulled ourselves out of the v-berth on Saturday, April 27.  Our cats always wake us up at sunrise or shortly thereafter--they want to be fed.  In the morning, the wind was blowing from the northwest and we were pretty well protected from wind from that direction.  The cockpit was facing the sun.

Lola sitting in the warm morning sun in
the cockpit while on a mooring
buoy in Annapolis.

Last night I finished reading a book entitled Rooftop Terror by Joseph Bellande and is available on Amazon at this link.  It is a very well written book, though somewhat simple in language.  The book provides insight into the people of the New Orleans area, why they stay in the area, and how they relate to each other and, of course, the impact of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.  

The book cover of Rooftop Terror

This book is an excellent inside account of the horror of Hurricane Katrina from someone who lost their house and their business to the disaster and rode out the hurricane stranded on their roof.  I highly recommend reading this book!

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We got much needed showers this morning at the Harbormaster's office.  Following our showers, we had lunch (pizza) at Mangia along Main Street.  Then we went window shopping along Main Street.

We dinghied into the city dock which
is locally known as Ego Alley.
(Our dinghy is tied to the dock 
at the lower right side of
this image.)

Shops and restaurants line the lower
portion of Main Street
in Annapolis.

Third Stay Over Day in Annapolis

It was nice and cool last night--great for sleeping!  This morning the sky was overcast as we mortared the dinghy into town for breakfast.  It even drizzled a little bit on Sunday morning, April 28.

These trash cans were lined up along
Dock Street early in the morning.

By mid-day the sun was out in all its glory as went walked up to Maryland Avenue for Spring Fest.  We spent most of the early afternoon walking up and down Maryland Avenue.

Street vendors were along one side of Maryland
Avenue and all the shops were
open for Spring Fest

Shutter locks on the bottom of dark blue
shutters on a light blue house
along Cornhill Street--one
of the small details of
local architecture.

We came back to the boat at 2:30 PM and relaxed with the sun shining into our cockpit.  We grilled pork chops for dinner but had a difficult time keeping the grill lit due to the high wind.  We ended up finishing them on the stove inside along with the fresh steamed asparagus.

Fourth Stay Over Day in Annapolis

The best description of Monday, April 29, was cool and dry.  The sun came out and warmed things up a little in the afternoon.  I can't wait for the warmer temperatures of summer!

When cruising, our rigid hull inflatable dinghy
is like our car--well, more like
our pick up truck.

We ventured into Annapolis to do a load of laundry and to go out for lunch.  We tried a new Thai restaurant along Main Street, Tarin Thai Cuisine--the food was delicious and it's now my favorite Thai restaurant in the area.

The garnish on my Thai dish
at lunchtime,

During the short time we've been on a mooring buoy here in Annapolis, a duck has laid her eggs in a coil of dock lines laying on our cabintop.  At first, it was two eggs and, finally, it was three eggs.  It was driving our Maine Coon cat (Lola) nuts.

A wild duck laid three eggs in a nest of dock lines
on our foredeck just in the three days
we've been here in Annapolis.

I checked the weather forecast in the afternoon and it now appears that we can leave Annapolis on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.  I am anxious to get back to Baltimore and get the myriad of boat projects started.  We will maintain our original plan to leave on Thursday for our 4-1/2-hour trip to Baltimore.

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Late in the afternoon I picked up Dan of Annapolis Custom Yacht Canvas (from the dock near the Chart House) to discuss our upcoming replacement of our dark blue canvas of the dodger and bimini.  When we discussed the fact that I have to level the hard dodger before patterning, (Our hard dodger currently slopes aft.) Dan mentioned that it is customary to have the dodger slope forward by as much as one inch (hard dodgers, maybe less).    We also discussed the struts I want to add under the aft solar panels and he mentioned that I might want to make the middle bimini frame a little higher in the process to promote rainwater drainage.  The meeting was very beneficial.

Fifth Stay Over Day in Annapolis

We were up early after a somewhat restless sleep last night (due to the boat motion).  We went into town for a light breakfast at City Dock Cafe.  Hot showers were next on our day's agenda.  As I sat on a bench outside the showers waiting for Maggie to finish her shower, the warm sun beat its way through the light cloud cover.  It was a nice peaceful moment sitting in the warm sun in my adopted hometown of Annapolis.  It was Tuesday, April 30, and the world couldn't be any better than it was at that moment.

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We now have four duck eggs in the makeshift nest of rope on our cabintop!

A painted version of packs of sweeteners
on our table at lunchtime.

We went out for lunch at Carroll's Creek Cafe and ate outside on their deck.  It was a continuation of the day's perfection.  After lunch we went into town and did some shopping, picked up ice cream, and picked up ice for the boat.

In the afternoon I scheduled our annual summer haulout at Hartge's Yacht Yard for July 15 through July 19 and also scheduled our week's stay at the Hartge Guest Cottage at Hartge's Yacht Harbor in Galesville.

Sixth Stay Over Day in Annapolis

It was rough sleeping again last night for me.  I got up once because the mooring line was wrapped around the back of the anchor and it was making "rubbing" and "clanking" noises and another time because the swim ladder was making noise as the boat hobby-horsed in the wind.  (It was quite windy last night.)  This morning I noticed that our spider plant had fallen onto the cockpit seat--it was hanging from the dodger.  I don't recall a spring with as much high wind as we have had this year.

The sky was overcast in the morning and it was cool--57 degrees.  The wind had calmed down to 10 knots out of the east after the sun came up.  This was our last day in Annapolis, (Wednesday, May 1) for this trip.

We went out for a delicious lunch at the Boatyard, docking our dinghy at the dinghy dock at the head of Third Street in Eastport.

Boats work their way out
to the starting line.

A pretty red spinnaker is flown as this boat
sails past our boat on the mooring buoy.

The last leg of the race was a
spinnaker run to the finish line.

Wednesday night racing is big in Annapolis and we had a front row seat on our mooring buoy.  What a nice way to wrap up our stay in Annapolis!  Tomorrow we leave for Baltimore...


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