Our Current Location
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Cowes
Arrived on
9th Sep 2012 |
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6°c
clouds.
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Blog updated: 24th Jan 2013
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Random Photo
Canada to New England 2012
Us in the USA Lakes 2011
Canadian Lake Huron 2011
Canal boats in winter 2011
Catskills to Canada 2010
East Coast USA 2010
Caribbean Island Hopping 2010
Atlantic Crossing 2009
Iberia 2008
Isles, Iles etc 2007
Scotland, Scandinavia etc 2006
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7th Jul 2010 - 10th Jul 2010 - East Coast USA 2010
Anchored in Annapolis
This is our 100th blog entry according to GetJealous so I hope, dear reader, your journey with us has not been a tedious one.
The morning after our arrival in Annapolis, we struggled out of bed and decided to go ashore in the mid afternoon when it was getting a bit cooler. After the 100F of Solomons Island, the 97F really didn’t feel any better so we inflated our small 2m dinghy and set off for the shore. Annapolis and Eastport, the district we were heading for, have a useful feature for boaters in that when a street ends at the water there is a municipal dock to allow landing and tying up a dinghy. As we neared the jetty a man sitting on the bench above climbed down and helped take our line. It turned out he was waiting for a friend from a yacht across the creek to come and pick him up. We offered to run him across as it was only 2 or 3 hundred yards. The admiral elected to wait on a bench in the shade on shore for the Skipper’s return. On returning to the jetty she held out our passenger’s cell phone for return to him - he had left on the bench: so it was back across the creek for a second time to return the phone to its owner. He was very happy to be reunited with it as he had only bought it that morning to replace one that had fallen out of his pocket into the sea!
At last we managed to set off to explore Eastport. This is part of Annapolis now but until about 70 yrs ago it was a separate town. Spa Creek separates it from Annapolis and every year a 1500m rope is slung across the creek and the two communities have a massive tug of war!
A week or so ago the Admiral had got fed up with her hair in the heat and gave herself a haircut. Not the most successful of outcomes although it was DEFINITELY short now. While strolling through Eastport’s leafy avenues we came across a beautifully renovated period property that was now used as a salon for hair and beauty specialists. It boasted a Vidal Sassoon trained stylist so we went in and we think they took pity on us because we were fitted in almost immediately. The hairdressers were an English/Scottish husband and wife team who had emigrated about 40 years ago and had become well established in Annapolis.
After the restyling and a long chat, we left to continue our stroll. Oddly enough we managed to find a pub and enjoyed a beer and crab-cakes in the setting sun
The next morning we upped anchor and moved round to Spa Creek. This entails passing through an opening bridge. Despite being impeded by a huge host of Optimist dinghies, we managed to time our trip so we didn’t even have to slow down for the bridge. Looking for a suitable spot we eventually found a place right at the head of the creek in 7 feet of water, giving us 6” of water under our keel at low water. It proved very shelter and we were unaffected by the thunderstorm that passed over during the night.
Ice-cream was the object of our trip ashore the next day. We had been instructed by some English friends at home that we must not miss the ice-cream parlour at the top of Main Street. Now, since we are known for always doing as we are told, we had to visit this establishment and indeed we made it at lunch time. They certainly make excellent ice-cream and fortified indeed, we set off to explore Annapolis. It is the state capital of Maryland and thus has a capitol building where the State Legislature meet, a University and the Annapolis Naval College which occupies an enormous site on the riverfront.
These buildings are surrounded by leafy streets of timber and brick buildings most of which seem to be of historical interest. It is a most delightful town and with the busy harbour area as well it has much to offer a visitor. We rounded off our visit by listening to a guitar concert in a Starbucks Coffee House, in the basement of an old hotel.
As we have no navigation lights on our inflatable, we had to be back on Mous’le by dusk and we deflated our dinghy in readiness for a 7.00am departure to catch the 0730am bridge opening. No fleets of maniacal pirates were out and about at this time in the morning and we had an easy trip out into the Chesapeake bay until we turned north to pass under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge the heavens opened and we were suddenly a pair of drowned rats! The rain managed to recur only on the Skipper’s watches and he has been heard to mutter about ‘unfair influence’ on the part of the Admiral and her ‘direct line to the heavens’!
The wind freshened enough to allow us to sail most of the way to Havre de Grace and the visibility cleared as we meandered up the long and winding entrance channel through the mudflats that were famous for duck shooting until the nineteen-seventies when pollution and over fishing put paid to their habitat.
We were soon tied up in our marina and after preparing Mous’le for an invasion of youth. (The Admiral’s nieces were arriving the next evening for a few days and were sleeping on board)
We were visited very shortly after our arrival by relatives of the Admiral's sister who live in Havre de Grace, Sarah and Bruce. They gallantly undertook to take care of us during our stay and started the ball rolling with drinks on board before returning to their house for a crab soup dinner on the deck.
We ate a late dinner and retired to re-energise ourselves for the next day when we were to join our hosts for a visit to the National Decoy Museum where duck decoys that were the mainstay of life here until the nineteen seventies are exhibited. There are also exhibits about how they were made and used and the famous carvers who created them. We then went to join Sarahs husband for a crabfest in the Susqhahanna's premier crab place, followed by ice-cream in Havre de Grace's best ice-cream parlour. We retired to Mous'le and. it is fair to say, slept the night away before the Admiral's sister and family arrived in the morning.
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Diary Photos
| 7th Jul 2010 Sharpe Island Light |
| 7th Jul 2010 South River Light |
| 8th Jul 2010 Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse |
| 8th Jul 2010 Havre de Grace street scene |
| 8th Jul 2010 Eastport, Annapolis |
| 9th Jul 2010 Annapolis duck |
| 9th Jul 2010 A capitol spire |
| 10th Jul 2010 Hi -its raining again |
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