First Three Days in Annapolis

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Saturday, October 31

Last night we reviewed the weather forecast carefully and decided that today was a much better day to travel to Annapolis than our planned Sunday trip.  We departed Baltimore at 10:30 AM under an overcast sky.

As we were approaching the Key Bridge a car carrier
ship was being guided into port by tug boats.

The temperature was cool and the sky was much more partly cloudy than partly sunny (as predicted).  It was nice being on the water again after spending about 3-1/2 months stationary in a slip!

Lola wasn't particularly happy about this
trip--her expression seemed to
say "whatEVER."

We arrived in Annapolis between 2:30 and 3 PM.  We motored into Ego Alley to turn around so that our prop wash in reverse (when entering the slip) was in our favor.  It worked perfectly.  (My biggest concern was wiping out our onboard barbecue grill when backing into the slip but we cleared fine.  This was one of my finest docking maneuvers!)

When we arrived in Annapolis, the tide was high (because of the full moon, actually a blue moon).  We were greeted by four witches in costume (today was Halloween) on paddle boards.  The Halloween festivities didn’t stop at four witches as many people were walking the streets of downtown in costume.  (We were concerned about possibly being in the middle of a coronavirus super spreader event but everyone was wearing face masks as required.)

We spent a lot of time with our dock lines, making sure that we had reliable spring lines since our boat overhung the slip by more than six feet.  At high tide, we stepped down about 18 inches from the boat onto the finger pier.  (At very low tides this means that we will be stepping up onto the dock by about 18 inches.)

Penn State (currently #18) played Ohio State (currently #3) at 7:30 PM.  Even though the game was scheduled to be on ABC we couldn’t get good enough TV reception in Annapolis to watch and hear the game—we ended up listening to the (excellent) audio on Sirius satellite radio and watching the (broken up) video on our onboard TV.  My beloved Nittany Lions lost (38 to 25) to Ohio State this evening, with the game ending just before midnight.

I don't see why all of our clocks have to be
changed at 2 AM every time we change
to Daylight Savings Time!

Sunday, November 1

We woke to an overcast sky and a mild temperature (low 50’s) but our boat stayed nice and warm (thanks to the reverse-cycle A/C!).  We noticed that there was a lot more boat motion in our Annapolis slip than we ever experienced in our Baltimore slip.

S/v Rainy Days in Slip #10
at Annapolis City Dock

In the morning, I joined Annapolis Wireless for WiFi since my iPhone's hotspot doesn't always work.  While the system seemed slow, it worked for our needs, at least for now.

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We walked to Starbucks on Main Street for coffee and a breakfast sandwich--City Dock Cafe, our regular in-town coffee shop, was closed until further notice.  From there we walked around Ego Alley and captured the following couple images:

Items in a shop window along Main Street.
I love the sign in the center of this image:
"Wine! Because no great story ever
started with eating a salad."

This tape was applied every six feet along the dock on
the southwest side of Ego Alley. (There has been
a city-wide mask mandate in Annapolis
since the beginning of the
pandemic.)

We ended our stroll around Ego Alley at about 10 AM.  As we were sitting in the boat's enclosed cockpit, it started to rain.  (I'm so glad that we decided to travel yesterday and NOT today!)

As the overcast sky became darker,
it started to rain and it continued
for the most of the day.

I am very glad to be in Annapolis--this is where I feel that I belong.  Maggie even stated "Now we are on vacation!"   These are exactly the feelings we sought by spending the winter in Annapolis this year!

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The rain stopped at about 3 PM and the sun came out for the remainder of the day.

Monday, November 2

Last night I was awoken by 35-knot gusts out of the northwest—the high wind was impacting on the boat broadside, pushing us away from the finger pier.  When the rail started rubbing a piling (one I hadn’t even noticed previously) on our port side, I went topside and tightened our starboard stern line--the bowline used to fasten the line to the piling had come undone.  A bit later we were both up adjusting bow lines in the cold wind.  (I hate doing this in the middle of the night!)

At daybreak, more dock line adjustment was required with the outside temperature a chilly 42 degrees (without considering the wind chill).  The tide was very low in the morning--I had to step up about a foot onto the finger pier.  Fortunately, the sun was out in full force.

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Our main goal for the day was to retrieve our car from Baltimore.  We rented a car here in Annapolis so that we could drive back and pick up our car.  Once we achieved our main goal, we returned the rental car and ran a couple errands (to our storage unit and a few other places).  As the day progressed it got a little warmer...

As we head into election day tomorrow, I am 

reminded of the words of Stormy Daniels 

"Let's get this over with!"

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