Camden, ME to Provincetown, MA, but stopped short in Tennants Harbor, ME - 8/29/01
The boat seems to be fixed and the wind direction was perfect - out of the Northwest, so we decided to make a try for Provincetown, MA.  Left around noon and things started out great.  But after passing Rockland, the wind direction started to change and was coming more out of the South which put it right on our nose.   So we were faced with having to sail upwind which would really lengthen our trip, or motor most of the way to Provincetown -- which was well over 120 miles.  The winds were over 15 knots so motoring into the 3-4ft. waves didn't excite us either.  In any case, considering the wind direction and the fact that we were both getting tired, we decided to turn into Tennants Harbor, ME and wait for a better day.   At the time, this seemed like the smart decision.  That was until we got closer to Tennants.  This place was filled with lobster pots....every where you turned.  So here we go again.  Playing dodge-em...more stress.   We were questioning our decision, but once we got past the pots and anchored, we knew we did the right thing.

We ended up spending several days in Tennants Harbor waiting for the wind to change and come more out of the northwest.  The harbor was definitely a fishing town.  We enjoyed watching one lobster boat after another come in, drop off their catch, spray down their boats, then off they go.  With this extra time, we decided to catch up on some chores - one of which was waxing the deck.  That took the better part of the day.  Ashore was a small grocery, bakery, but few other shops.  We had a nice long walk and actually saw a lobster pound.  We read about the pounds, but it was great seeing one.  This is where they keep lobsters during the off season and when some are needed, a diver goes down with a vacuum of some sort and basically sucks up the lobsters.  Being a fishing town and all, we found a great stand to buy seafood.  So one evening we enjoyed an outstanding lobster dinner -- 3 lb. soft shell lobsters.  They steamed them for us, then we took them back to the boat to eat.  The next day we had to try the scallops....bought a pound a cooked them up on the boat.  Another great deal and a great meal.  We're going to miss all this great seafood.

A Lobster Pound - Tennants Harbor, ME
 

Getting ready to enjoy our fresh 3 lb. lobsters.  yum, yum
 
 

Tennants Harbor, ME to Provincetown, MA - 9/1/01 - 9/2/01  (Overnight Sail)

It rained Friday night so we knew the front that the weather people had been talking about had gone through on schedule. So Saturday morning we anxiously listened to the weather forecast and looked at the weather faxes to see if this was the day to head southwest for 130 miles to Provincetown. The prediction was for 15-25 knot winds out of the northwest all night and throughout the next morning--perfect.  However, the weather faxes showed a very distinct line of wind pushing the clouds out of Canada, this kind of picture usually means more than 15-25 knots. Knowing that the wind would switch back to the southwest the following afternoon we knew we had to go now or wait a few more days.

Once we decided to go it was a flurry of activity for about 3  hours. Storing the dinghy, getting out warm clothes for the cold evening sail, heating up water and putting it into the thermos for hot drinks later, food preparation, rigging the stay sail in case we had bigger winds than predicted and ensuring everything in the boat was stowed so we wouldn't have any flying missiles if the weather got rough.   This would put us in Provincetown by noon the next day +/- 3 hours which means we would be arriving during the daylight.

The part of the trip we dreaded most was leaving the harbor and going out through the lobster pots again. We figured we would try a different approach this time. Instead of risking damage to our propeller and shaft, we would sail out. This made the boat slightly less maneuverable but without the propeller turning down there, we were less likely to catch anything. We sailed on reefed mainsail alone even though the wind was only 15 knots of wind. This kept our speed slow so we had more time to pick our route through this maze of colorful floats and lines. Our plan worked. We anxiously bobbed and weaved for about a mile until they started to thin out. Yeah, we made through without hitting or catching a single pot!

As we made our way toward Monhegan Island, the last piece of Maine, and land, before we hit Provincetown, the wind steadily picked up until is was a steady 20 to 25 knots. Under reefed main, stay sail and some genoa, Early Out sailed very well on a broad reach. If this is as bad as its going to get, no problem, or so we thought.

When we left Tennants Harbor it was overcast. Just before we got to Monhegan Island we could see the definite line of clearing that we saw on the weather fax. From previous experience we knew more wind was coming so we pulled in the genoa as soon as we saw the clearing and sure enough, we picked up another 5 knots plus a few extra gusts.

As the last bit of land (Maine) went out of sight it was a beautiful clear evening with 20-30 knots of wind and relatively  little wave action since the wind was coming from shore. The boat was sailing well and we were feeling good about the crossing. In addition to that NOAA weather said the wind would die down after midnight. Should be smooth sailing all the way to Ptown, right?.

Well that's not quite how it worked out. The wind wasn't done building yet. Shortly after sunset the wind picked up another notch to 25 to 35 knots. Now that we were a ways offshore, the waves began to build, short and steep, yuck. Soon we were blasting away under a double reefed main and stay sail at 8-9 knots. Surfing down one wave and ramming into the back of the next. It was actually a fun ride but it made it very difficult for Auto (the autopilot) to steer. So we decided instead of rigging the third reef in the main we would drop it altogether before it got dark. This turned out to be the best decision all night. We ended up sailing/blasting along on stay sail alone until almost 6 AM!

The wind and waves continued to build. Soon we had 6-8 foot seas with and occasional 10 to 12 footer.  It was a clear night with a full moon and looking around us with these mountains of water all around us in the moonlight was a picture I will never forget. The other image I will never forget was coming up the companionway into the cockpit and looking up at Debbie behind the wheel with a big smile on her face and a 12 foot wall of water right behind her! The power of these waves pushing around our 22,000 pound, 40 foot boat like it was a dinghy was incredible. We never felt out of control since we were on a broad reach and the waves were helping us, but we knew there was no turning back. We were going one direction only and that was where the wind and waves were going to blow us. The good news was, it was blowing the direction we wanted to go.

We pretty much kept to our watch schedule of two hours on and two hours off.   Neither of us got any sleep on our off shift but laying down and resting from bracing yourself all the time sure felt good.  The thing I liked best about the off shift was being able to take off the many layers of clothes I had on.   Unfortunately having to put it all back on when my shift started again was another story.  You just had to change fast because being down below with all the bouncing going on, made it easy to get seasick. The other piece of good news for the night was that Auto was able to steer in this weather quite well. Except for the occasional large series of waves from a different direction, Auto steered most of the night. This helped keep the fatigue down quite a bit.

At about 4 AM with a hint of sunlight in the east we both enjoyed watching a beautiful 'moon set'. The big ball of orange setting in the west with its reflection on the water was surreal amongst the flowing mounds of water. Finally, about 6 AM the wind began to letup to a measly 15-20 knots so we slowly began to put out some genoa to give us little more power in the waves that were still 4 to 6 feet. The evening sail was truly an incredible experience that both of feel very good about. Early Out always felt like she could take more, neither of us got sea sick (thanks in part to Bonine) and we never panicked or got scared. We just dealt with the wind and waves, the likes of which we had never seen before and sailed like crazy.  Having confidence in your boat sure takes a lot of worry out of the picture. And now we have more confidence in our own ability to handle the rougher weather at sea as well.

The sun came up and the wind died down but the trip wasn't over yet. We still had 25 miles and somewhere between 4 and 5 hours of sailing to go yet. The wind was now directly behind us, so we set a course where we could jibe back and forth yet stay on Stellwagen Bank, a great whale watching area. As we were reminiscing about our exciting night of sailing, off in the distance Debbie saw a big splash, a whale! We both looked over and shortly after the same whale came up and breached again about 1/2 mile off to starboard. So we jibed and started heading toward the activity. The whale watching boats weren't out yet so we had this big creature all to ourselves. This Humpback whale must have breached about 7 times and we kept getting closer and closer until the last one was only about 100 yards off our bow, wow are these guys huge!  What a treat this was.

The wind continued to die down and we needed to charge our batteries anyway so we turned on the engine and motored the last 1.5 hours. We went past Race Point, which is known for tricky currents, at slack tide (no current) which we kind of planned but it really just kind of worked out that way. Believe me, if the whales kept breaching we would have stayed. As we turned the last corner we could see that the mooring and anchoring area ahead of us was packed and full of activity since  this was Sunday on Labor Day weekend. Luckily, we found nice spot to put down the hook on the edge of the mooring field. It felt good to stop moving.  We had lunch and Debbie fell asleep in the the cockpit and I fell asleep in the forward berth. Next thing we knew it was 5 PM. We both woke up and felt like we had been hit by a train. A little wine and a little more reminiscing about our exciting sail and we were feeling good once again.

We got a slow start Monday morning and had fun watching all the weekend boaters leave the mooring field heading home. It didn't take long before the whole harbor looked completely different. After our pancake breakfast we decided to pump up the dinghy and head to town. It was another nice sunny day, but a little breezy. We headed over to the Pilgrim Memorial Monument.  This monument was built from 1907 to 1910 to commemorate the first landing of the Mayflower Pilgrims in Provincetown on 11/11/1620.  Its the tallest all-granite structure in the US and all the granite came from Stonington, Maine.  It stands 353 feet above sea level.  We climbed the 116 steps and 60 ramps to the top.  What a beautiful day and an awesome view from the top.   We could see for miles in all directions including the tower marking the entrance to the Cape Cod Canal (which we'll be sailing to in a couple days) some 25 miles away. The museum at the base of the monument was also nice explaining how things were for the pilgrims when they landed.

The Pilgrim Memorial Monument
 

Provincetown Harbor - view from top of Pilgrim Monument
 
 
 

Provincetown, MA to Hadley Harbor, MA to Nantucket - 9/1/01 - 9/6/01
Left Provincetown and sailed across Cape Cod Bay to the entrance of the Cape Cod Canal.  Timed entering the canal perfect as the current was going with us.  Boosted our speed from 6.5 knots to over 9.5 knots.  Came through the canal and into Buzzards Bay.  Had a great sail down the bay to the entrance of Woods Hole.  We stopped at Hadley Harbor for the night to wait for a more favorable current to go through Woods Hole.

Got an early start the next day and made it through Woods Hole with no problem.  Came into Vineyard Sound, then Nantucket Sound.  We made great time and ended up in Nantucket early afternoon.  Anchored just off the mooring field.  Cleaned ourselves and the boat up the a little and got in the dingy to check out the town.  Its has a quaint village with lots of open land and almost all the houses and buildings are made from cedar shingles and the downtown has cobble stone roads.  You won't find any Walmart or huge hotels here.  Apparently there's something called a Land Bank Tax that the island issued to keep the large department stores and hotel chains off the island.  You will however find lots of B&Bs and shops in the downtown area.  We rented bikes for the day.   They have great bike paths throughout the island.  After we got out of the downtown area, things were pretty sparse.  Very nice homes here and there, but still lots of open area and no strip malls!

We met Gary and Jean from Trawler Daisy.  They were anchored next to us - they couldn't bring themselves to pay the $55/day for a mooring either.  We shared some drinks with them on their boat.  Very nice couple.  Started out living on a sailboat, then moved to the trawler.  Their also heading to the Bahamas, so we'll be on the lookout for them as we head south.

Downtown Nantucket
 

Facilities we found in Nantucket:
* Nice, large grocery downtown - A&P
* Church - close to downtown - off India Street - St. Mary's Our Lady of the Isle - mass times: Saturday - 5:00pm, Sunday - 7, 8:30, 10, 11:30am and 7:00pm
* Library - close to downtown - off India Street
* Lots of bike rentals - $20/day
* Laundry facilities available at the same dock as the fuel dock -- very convenient, lots of machines, but again, rather pricey - $2.00/load
 

Nantucket, MA to Cutty Hunk, MA - 9/09/01
Transited from Nantucket to Cutty Hunk with Trawler Daisy.  Went ashore on Cutty Hunk to check things out.  Not much at all on the island.  In fact we noticed very few cars here.  People mainly get around on golf carts.  We only saw one pickup truck.  Walked a couple miles to a lookout to check things out.  What a great view!  Later we had Jean & Gary from Daisy over to our boat for drinks.

Cutty Hunk to Fishers Island, NY - 9/10/01....our first fish!
We left Cutty Hunk with Trawler Daisy.  They were heading to Point Judith.  We were continuing onto Fishers Island.  The winds started out pretty light, so we motor sailed a good portion of the way.  But something exciting did happen enroute.  We caught our first fish!!  We fish with a 100lb. test line that's tied to a bungee cord which has a hook on it and gets hooked to one of our back stays.  We know we have a fish on the line when the bungee cord gets quite long.  At the time we were fishing with a spoon that Bill Miller had made for us.  Fred looked back and noticed the bungee cord longer than usual, so the flurry of activity started.  First we slowed down the boat, then moved the dingy out of the way since we were towing it.  Fred put on gloves and started pulling in the line as I wound it around the spool.  We finally got the fish close to the boat and we both thought...now what do we do!  I quickly found my fish picture book and started going through the many pages to figure out what it was.  We determined it must be some sort of tuna - so since we knew it was ok to eat, the task of getting this fish to stop flopping around was next.  We reach for the spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol to spray in its gills.  We heard this was supposed to kill them instantly.  But it wasn't working.  We sprayed some more with no luck.  We then brought out the good stuff -- Rum.  Sprayed it in his gills and that did the trick.  He was either dead or too drunk to move.  We then got it in the cockpit....back to the fish book again...based on the pictures, we believed it to be a Black Fin Tuna.  I had the pleasure of cleaning it.  Thank goodness I watched my dad clean fish all those years!

The first fish caught on Early Out.....a Black Fin Tuna.  We guess it weighed around 4lbs.

We arrived in West Harbor on Fishers Island and thanks to the nice people on Starshine - Joanne & Tony, we picked up a free mooring.  Ended up sharing a gin and tonic with them on their boat.  Fun people...had a great time.  Later that evening, the fresh fish was calling us, so back to our boat we went and cooked it up.  yum, yum!

Fishers Island, NY (Long Island Sound) - 9/11/01....terrorist attack on America
We were scheduled to leave today to make our way to Stamford, CT to visit the Panny's when we got a call from Starshine telling us what had just happened.  We couldn't believe it - two planes hit the World Trade Center Towers and one hit the Pentagon.  Needless to say, we didn't go anywhere and we spent the rest of the day watching the events unfold with disbelief.  This is one day that none of us will forget.

In light of what happened, the coast guard was checking all boats on the sound and the east river through New York was closed.  So we stayed at Fishers Island for a couple days.  Had Joanne & Tony from Starshine over to our boat the next evening for drinks.
 

Fishers Island, NY --- Thimble Islands --- Stamford, CT -- 9/13/01 - 9/14/01
We needed to get on our way to Stamford, so we took off and made it as far as the Thimble Islands where we spent the night on a free mooring Starshine told us about....yea!  The Thimble Islands are pretty cool - although you have to watch the shallow water around them.  Basically its a cluster of small islands most of which contain a beautiful home.

The next day was another early start and we were off for Stamford where we were meeting up with Fred's sister and family.  Unfortunately it rained most of the day, but the winds were 20-25, with gusts to 30 so the sailing was great, just a little wet and cold.  Fred and I took turns at the helm, while the other stayed dry down below.  We made it to the Stamford Yacht club around 4:00pm.
 

Stamford, CT -- 9/13/01 - 9/16/01
Christa and Ryan picked us up at the yacht club and we went back to their house.  Had a great time catching up.  Saturday Fred and I went to see Ryan in action on the soccer field.  What moves he had!  Steve coached the team.  He had the kids doing drills and kept track of all their moves on his trusty clip board.  The game ended in a tie - 0 to 0.  Later we took everyone for a sail, or at least we tried sailing.  There wasn't any wind, so it turned into a power boat ride instead.  While in the sound you could see the New York skyline - boy what a change,  with smoke was still coming from where the towers were.  Still can't believe what just happened.  Back to the Panny estate for a wonderful dinner.  We ended up staying at their house the two days....thanks Steve & Christa for putting us up and letting us catch up on laundry!  It was great sleeping in a real bed that doesn't move and taking long showers!   Thanks for everything!

Christa & Fred

Ryan - the soccer dude!

Sailing with Christa, Ryan & Steve
 

Stamford, CT -- Port Jefferson, NY -- Block Island,RI -- 9/17/01 - 9/18/01
After church Steve, Christa and Ryan took us back to the boat where we said good-bye.  We had been paying close attention as to when the east river through NY might be open.  But the latest word was nothing was going to happen until 9/22 at best.  With all the uncertainty, we decided to head back out of Long Island and try to meet up with our friends from the NE600 rally that were getting ready to sail from Block Island to Annapolis.  We contacted Jim Favors who runs the Snow Bird Rally and he welcomed us with open arms.  So we high tailed it out of Stamford - made one stop in Port Jefferson for the night - then arrived in Block Island late on the 18th.
 

Snow Bird Rally -- Block Island,RI to Annapolis,MD
We arrived in Block Island just in time to go to dinner with everyone.  It was great seeing friends from the New England 600 Rally.   We have to give a big thanks to Jim and Marjie Favors for having us at the last minute.  They run Nautech Enterprises and coordinate several different rallies as well as educational seminars, etc.  Their great people and I'd highly recommend going on one of their rally's.  Its a great learning experience, not to mention all the terrific people you meet.

We had arrived Monday, 9/18 and the plan was to leave Thursday the 21st.  Tuesday was spent going over the route, reviewing navigation items such as identifying the different lights at night, etc.  Then a party in the evening that consisted of mouth watering appetizers such as stuffed mushrooms with lobster, baked brie and spinach over bread, pasta and more.  The food was wonderful and we had a great time meeting the new participants as well as catching up with the folks we knew from the previous rally.  Tuesday the ladies walked into town to check out the shops while the men did manly things....whatever that may be?  That evening we enjoyed a fabulous dinner - five course meal - no one could hardly walk from the table after all the great food.

We ended up not leaving Thursday because of weather.  A storm was coming in and nobody wanted to get caught out there in it.  Fred and I spent the day cleaning up the boat and getting things ready for the trip.  Friday came - it was raining in the morning, but was scheduled to clear in the afternoon.  We left around 1:00pm

Here's some pictures from the rally:

Pictures from dinner...yum, yum!!

The other half of the table......

The first night out.....the sun was beginning to set.  What a beautiful sight!!
 

Jim and Marjie Favors who run Nautech Enterprises
 

Leaving Block Island the sky was quite overcast and it looked like it could rain at any time. As we made our way south towards Montauk, the eastern most end of Long Island, the sky began to clear and the wind picked up to 15-20 from the southwest. The forecast for was for the wind to go west in the morning so the fleet decided to go west now toward the Barnegate Inlet in the middle of the coast of New Jersey and then head south on a nice reach when the wind shifted to the west.  We had a nice close hauled sail along the southern coast of Long Island until sun down.

The forecast for the night was scattered thunder showers. The wind direction held for the most part but lightened up so we needed to turn on the engine to keep up with our sailing partners Georgeann and Garrett on Entre Nous. We decided to buddy up together for the trip and stay side by side the whole way. Entre Nous is a Royal Passport 47 which is much faster than Early Out. So it was very nice of them to stick with us even though we were slowing them down quite a bit. Afterwards though, they agreed it was nice to see us by their side all night long and share perspectives on the shipping traffic coming our way.

We watched the storm cells on our radar. It was a dark night with very little moon so the only way to keep track of the storm cells besides radar was watching the lightning on the water which you can see for miles and miles. It seemed like all of the lightning was staying in the clouds and did not strike the water, but it was a bite erie watching the light show from your boat 40 miles offshore.

Probably the biggest danger of this passage was crossing three major shipping channels going to and from New York harbor. Since the disaster of 9/11, the shipping has been slow down which played to our advantage. We only spotted a few tankers the first night and stayed safely out of their path. When morning broke we also had fog. This made watching out for ships even more critical. Again we were lucky in that it was Saturday which also limits some of the traffic but we made sure to check our radar regularly so no big surprises came out of the fog at us.

We modified our night watch schedule from 2 hours on and 2 hours off. Since there were only two of us for a two day passage we had to make sure we each got our rest. We decided to go as long as we felt comfortable and then wake up the other person. This ended up extending our watches to 3 to 4 hours giving the off watch person a much better rest/sleep. This worked out well and we will try it again.

Once the fog lifted the sun came out and it was a beautiful day. The wind was 10-15 knots out of the southwest and we needed to slow down a bit so we hit the entrance to the Delaware Bay at day break the next day. This gave an opportunity to shut off the engine and put out the sails, yeah!! We had a great day of sailing. We also decided to put the fishing line in the water. As it turns out it was a productive day, 2 black fin tuna and a small dolphin (mahi mahi, not flipper).  We kept one of black fin and Debbie once again did a great job cleaning the fish.
 

     
Debbie with one of our black fin tuna                          Our sailing partners and security blanket Entre Nous
 
 

The second evening found us motoring directly into a light southwest wind about 10 miles off Atlantic City. Again the fog/haze set in and we really couldn't see the bright lights of Donald Trumps playground, but we could see the glow. Entre Nous stayed by our side the whole time which was nice since we did have some strange traffic. The way to identify what type of boat is coming at you at night is by the lights. For instance, a tug with a tow less than 200 yards behind has two white lights on top of its cabin.  At about 2AM I could see a large vessel off in the distance. It is impossible to get any depth perception at night and some of the larger vessels move pretty quick so I went down to check the radar. From the radar you can tell what direction the boat is heading. Sure enough this one was on a collision course with us and it had a very strange lighting configuration. Neither Entre Nous or us could figure out what it was, all I knew was it was big and heading right at me. First I veered to port and it appear not to help so hard to starboard and that did the trick. When the vessel went by us closely we still couldn't figure it out. It was very upright and had some bright white lights on it but no real identifing  lights. Shortly after passing it, I saw a red blinking light coming at us even faster. This turned out to be a coast guard helicopter coming in for a close look at us. He circle around us once and headed back the way he came. Probably part of the increased security along the US coast.

We arrived at the mouth of the Delaware just as it was getting light. The only problem was we had only 1/2 mile visibility due to fog. With several shipping lanes coming together and lots of traffic this turned out to be the most stressful part of the passage. We stayed within visual contact with Entre Nous so we had two sets  of eyes on the radar instead of just one, which made us feel a little better. Also, Entre Nous had made this journey 5 times before which also helped. We avoided any incidence or even close calls but there was lots of large images on my radar nearby that I never really saw.

The sun finally broke out and burned off the fog. We had some great winds from the west and a very nice sail up the Delaware Bay to the C&D (Chesapeake & Delaware) Canal. We were feeling a little tired but not to bad as we alternated taking naps. Apparently we weren't the only ones that were tired. A little finch stopped in our cockpit for a rest of about 15 minutes. We tried to feed him but nothing seemed of interest.

Our feathered friend -- taking a rest on our boat

We hit the canal entrance just as the tide was changing in our favor. By the time we got ten miles down the canal to Shafers Marina, here the group was staying for the night, the current was pushing us 2 knots making our speed over the ground 9 knots. We arrived at the marina about 4:30 PM and we were greeted by some of our rally members that arrived earlier. We were all glad to have arrived safely. The women quickly pulled together an unplanned pot luck dinner featuring pizza, quesasadeas, grilled chicken breasts, sushie, salad and fresh brownies and cookies, yum, yum!

The hard part of the journey was over, so we thought. All we needed to do was finish going thru the C&D Canal and sail south on the Chesapeake 40 miles to Annapolis. Unfortunately we had two challenges that we were aware of right of the bat. When we woke up and listened to the weather, we not only had thick fog but also the winds were predicted to be out of the south, right on the nose. The C&D Canal was officially closed to traffic, we didn't know this until we were almost out of it already. However, we stuck together as a group and made it through without any major incident. The only minor mishap came when one of the boats up front mistook an island for a barge and took us into shallow water. All of a sudden we saw all the boats in front of us turning sideways in different directions. Before we could find out what was going on our depth alarm went off. Sure enough, we had veered outside of the channel. We were back on our way shortly.

Once we cleared the canal, the fog lifted and we started off on a nice sail. In about an hour we went from no wind to 15-20 knots from the south. Since the wind was only getting stronger and the forecast was for the weather to get bad in the late afternoon we decided to divert to Baltimore with Entre Nous and Mahina Aka who keep their boat there at Hendersons Wharf Marina. The wind kept building but fortunately Baltimore and the Patapsco River, that leads to the inner harbor, are oriented so we could keep the sails up for a beam to broad reach making for a great sail. Once we got to the marina we had help from Georgeann, Garrett and the dock person to land Early Out safely. It wasn't perfect, but any time we dock in 20 knots winds and nothing gets damaged we consider it a success.  About 1 hour after we tied up our lines a tornado hit just south of us and our wind instruments were registering gusts to around 40 knots. Glad we got in when we did!

We hung out with Georgeann, Garrett, Marjie and Jim (Mahina Aka) for the next couple of days. They drove us down to Annapolis for the arrival party at Mears Marina to conclude the Snow Bird Rally. We met some great people and really enjoyed their company. We hope to see them all again in the future.

Calling Ambrose pilot, Ambrose pilot...  (inside rally joke)
 

Baltimore to Annapolis - 9/26/01 thru 10/6/01

After a great stay in Baltimore visiting some of their fine establishments on Fells Point like the Dead End for burgers and beer and the fabulous French pastry shop for breakfast, it was time to move on. We did not know where we were going to end up in Annapolis, but we knew with the boat show just ten days away boats were starting to stack up in all the anchorage's already. We left bright and early from Baltimore just in time to see our friends from Starshine leaving a marina nearby. It was nice to catch up with them going side by side down the Patapsco River. It was a cool, but sunny day with winds coming out of the west for a nice sail down to Annapolis. The winds were a bit puffy but it is always better to sail than motor.

When we arrived at Annapolis we grabbed mooring with a red flag on it which meant we could only stay for the night since they were going to start pulling these moorings for the boat show. We asked harbor master if we had any chance of getting a mooring for the boat show and he said they were all spoken for but there was plenty of room to anchor up Spa Creek past the draw bridge. So we dropped the mooring and headed over to the bridge which was scheduled to open in about ten minutes. We waited for the opening with about 4 other boats and as soon as the bridge was up the race was on for the best anchor spot.  Fortunately there was still plenty of spots for us and these boats but there weren't many left after that.

So here we are in Spa Creek with 10 days until the boat show. We have a long list of things we need to do and books we have been wanting to read so we are really looking forward to staying put for by far the longest time since we started cruising.

For the boat show we have the Gegners and Steve coming in and staying with us and after they leave Max and Roberta will be joining us for a short while on our journey south down the Chesapeake. Should be fun!