Day 53 - Tue 19 May 2015
Moored - Annapolis, MD

[photo: a four ship formation - one of the better photos I could take without a fancy telephoto lens camera]

We had quite a rain shower last night, but we were very secure and calm here in the Spa Creek mooring field. Robert from Ariel rowed by around 0700 and said it was a lot choppier over where they are. My first priority of the day was to try to resolve the problem with my smartphone. With nothing seeming to work, I used the Wi-Fi booster to connect to a paid service, only to find it is extremely slow - aggravatingly slow.

It did allow me to send an email to Tick and Andree asking for their mobile (cell) number so I could call them from Diane's phone. They replied quickly and now we are at least setup to meet at a better time to watch the air maneuvers from Ariel. The weather is not great at the moment, so unless it clears somewhat, that may all be for naught. We'll see.

First, we went through the mail held by Bill and Linda. Next, I installed the new protective covering Diane bought for the wood shelf that forms our bar. It is a much better material than we had before and the coloration will not show the occasional spot of liquid that so easily marred the white cover we had. After that, I tackled installing the new windshield wiper motor and the only challenge there was that all the wiring was different so I had to sort it all out by trial and error.

It was almost 1030 when I headed ashore with the phone and my shower gear. The local Verizon store was only a few blocks from the dinghy dock (amazing) and there was no one in there but me and the staff member (doubly amazing). The good news is that I left with a working phone. The bad news is that he was not able to diagnose a thing about the old phone, so my only choice was to upgrade. I really did not want a Samsung since this was the second Samsung phone to fail in 3.5 years. I had no choice, however, based on what they had in stock. The rest of the bad news is the $265 it cost.

I stopped to shower on the way back and then go to Diva Di as the first of the Blue Angels were doing some loose familiarization flying to identify their visual points of reference. It was still exhilarating to watch as I putted back to the boat. I was so distracted, however, that I stepped off the dinghy and carried my bag into the boat, missing the step about tying the dinghy up. I was down in the galley when Diane alerted me that my dinghy was floating away.

The choices were to start the engines, drop the mooring, and use the mothership, or strip down, throw on a bathing suit and go swimming. I elected the latter and was surprised how warm the water was (maybe 72F or better). Getting to the dinghy was easy, but trying to climb in was not. While snorkeling, I could use my fins to thrust upward and get in, but had no fins today. I have also set up the boat with a rope to grab and pull yourself up, but did not have that since we are not snorkeling. I finally gave up and just towed the dinghy back, but I was pretty temporarily exhausted at the effort.

It was embarrassing but the circumstances were pretty benign, so no big deal. I quickly rinsed off with the stern shower, dried, and got dressed again. I grabbed a quick bite that Diane had made for me and then it was time to head off to Ariel. I dropped Diane and our goodies off at their boat and then went to the dinghy dock to pick up Tick and Andree. They were right on time, and we made all the introductions.

The practice session was already going on, but not in earnest. We got our beverages and snacks out and chatted about this and that until the formation practice began. We all enjoyed it immensely. Moving the boat a half mile would have improved the viewing angle for a few maneuvers, but we were perfectly happy to stay where we were.

After the show, we remained a while longer and then said goodbyes. We will definitely see Ariel in a few days, but won't see Tick and Andree for a bit - at least a year. We tried to keep the farewell quick and light. They are off to another party and will be the first to admit that they did not expect to be quite so popular or busy during this 3 week visit.

Back onboard, the boat was really hot, so I ran the generator and turned on the A/C for almost an hour. I have to keep telling myself that the cost of running the generator a few hours a day is not very much compared to taking a marina slip here at $100 a night or so. The folks that have generators but never use them are the ones asking for trouble.

Despite the snacks, we were both hungry for food, so near 1800 I got supper ready. It should have been cold chicken salad on greens, but we had planned on hot dogs, sauerkraut, baked beans, and Brussels sprouts, so it was a rather hot galley in the broiling sun with little ventilation through the boat. Diane wisely suggested we eat on the transom with folding tables in the shade and whatever breeze there was. Unfortunately, the breeze was so light and variable that the boat would swing a lot and we were often back under the broiling sun. In my opinion, it is definitely time to head N again.

After supper, I got a beverage and took off in the dinghy to visit some boats and retrieve the forgotten soft cooler from Ariel. I stopped at Sea Bear to chat with Mark on a Nordic Tug 32. They will be moving slowly through the Loop, but we may see them more along the way. Next, I stopped at Golden, a PDQ 34 very much like ours, including the 75HP engines. Mike and Paige and I traded a lot of observations about our boats and we all had the same lament that for as much as we love about the boats, there are a few important things we wished we had known before the purchase. They plan to do a portion of the Down East Circle and will likely see a lot of us well into Canada before they turn around.

Our plan is to head NE to Rock Hall tomorrow, but the weather forecast is for a bit of strong wind out of the NW. One option, besides staying here, is to move to another anchorage nearby. Another is to hug the W shoreline to keep the waves small as we head N, and then when abeam Rock Hall, turn across the Bay and put the waves behind us. That would probably add a few miles to the passage, but would be well worth it if more comfortable.

By 2000, the sun was very low in the sky and it was getting comfortable. I checked weather for tomorrow to see it had hit 95F in Annapolis today. That was probably not true right on the water, but it was darned hot, we can tell you.