Our Last Week in Baltimore

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Monday, October 26

It was rainy lightly as we awoke but the rain gradually cleared up as the day progressed. The sky was overcast all day and it was relatively cool, reaching a high temperature in the low 60's in the afternoon.

Today is the beginning of our last week in Baltimore.  We will be motoring to Annapolis on Sunday, starting our 5-month winter stay in Annapolis.  (I have lived in Annapolis for most of my life and consider Annapolis my adopted home town.  It will be nice going back home for a while.)

I ran the engine for a while today and we moved the (deflated) dinghy's position on the foredeck so that we could see a little better from the helm.  Little by little, we are getting ready to move our boat and face a cold oncoming winter.

The Upcoming Election: A Battle for Truth, Decency, and Morality

We must still be in Trump world!

The above graphic represents how I view what we are hearing out of the White House.  We are told we are "rounding the corner" on the coronavirus epidemic but statistics produced by Johns Hopkins University clearly shows cases on a steep rise in most of the states. We are constantly bombarded with nonsensical tweets, like one of the recent retweets about Osama Bin Laden not actually being killed by NAVY seals--what is the purpose of this craziness?  When confronted with his "craziness" on yesterday's 60-Minutes interview, Trump walked out.  

Even though this is a sailing blog, I can't ignore the "craziness" going on all around me.

Tuesday, October 27

The day started out overcast and cool.  We decided to move some of our onboard stuff to our storage area in Annapolis in advance of our boat trip there.  We carted a dock cart full of stuff from our boat to our car and then to our storage unit in Annapolis.  While we were in Annapolis, we had a nice lunch at Italian Market, arranged for our in-town parking permit for the winter, bought some crab meat at Annapolis Seafood, and purchased some groceries for this week.  (I saw some very nice steaks for $25/pound--I didn't buy these.  I thought these were priced way too high and I usually don't even consider looking at prices when I shop for groceries.)

Winter parking in downtown Annapolis
cost us $100/month.  We paid for
all five months in advance.

By the time we returned to the boat and put away all our groceries it was happy hour.  We toasted to our boat neighbors, Roy and Sharon, who left for parts south today on their first cruise of retirement.  Their boat's name is s/v Lappwing.

Wednesday, October 28

Since heavy rain was expected tomorrow and Friday, this was the only day we could work outside (without getting wet, that is).  So, I undid the taping and preparation for refinishing the stern toe rail--I couldn't finish it in time.

We drove to Annapolis and went directly to Davis' Pub for lunch.  One end of Fourth Street was closed off so that Davis' Pub could use outdoor seating on the street--it was a nice arrangement!

We had delicious hamburgers.  Then, we ran an errand or two that we forgot yesterday.

Signs of our times: a face mask and an iPhone.

We got back to the boat in Baltimore at about 3:30 PM after our somewhat casual outing.

Thursday, October 29

It was raining from the get go today, heavy at times.  The rain was from the remnants of Hurricane Zeta which was traveling through the mid-Atlantic area, days after it pummeled Louisiana. 

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We ordered a heavy comforter this morning on Amazon--I think we got rid of our old one, thinking that we would not need it again.  (What were we thinking?) 

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We decided to do some cooking today--Maggie was making (sugar-free) brownies while I was focusing what little cooking talent I have on making Maryland crap soup (a vegetable soup containing crab meat).  As our day progressed, the smell of baked brownies and the heat from the oven/stove produced an atmosphere much like Thanksgiving of years past.

My Maryland crab soup.  (The white
flakes are crab meat, which is put 
into the soup at the very end.)

Maggie's sugar-free brownies, 
prior to cutting them.

We didn't do a lot today because of the rain.  Our afternoon was absorbed by some TV, book reading, and relaxing.

Friday, October 30

The rain continued into the morning and the outside temperature was significantly cooler.  Northerly wind occasionally rocked our boat sideways in the slip.  At 10:30 AM, the sun peaked through the overcast sky.  

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I am still trying to rent out our Baltimore slip for the next 5 months.  I've had a guy stringing me along for a while now (he's working on his boat on the hard somewhere nearby), still not making a deposit of any kind--so, I'm thinking he won't come through.  I had another call this morning which I hope turns out to be a realistic renter.  Time is getting short.  More on this later...

The sun breaks through the clouds in the middle
of the afternoon in Baltimore Harbor.

At the end of the day I heard back from my urologist about the results of my recent needle biopsy--cancer was detected in one small spot on my prostate.  The most likely treatment is radiation therapy but I will find out more details later.  Even though having cancer is a downer, I'm glad that it was discovered early and is treatable.

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Our next blogpost will cover our preparations on Saturday, our trip to Annapolis on Sunday, and our first day or two at Annapolis City Dock.  Stay tuned...and stay safe!

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