IMAGE- afternoon yacht racing

ANNAPOLIS was a good stop for us. As this was our second visit to Annapolis we already knew the run of things and could make the most of our time here.
In our 1st anchorage in Back Creek we were close to 2 free dingy docks - one to walk into town to connect up with the local bus service, and the 2nd dock at the head of the creek was near ALL the repair and chandlery facilities. Back Creek anchorage was crowded, with up to 5 boats - and busy with all the boating traffic from the surrounding marinas. Our 'accident' with the motorboat here was a result of poor boat handling skills by the powerboat owner, combined with the crowded small anchorage and busy marina area. West Marine, and a local chandlery Fawcetts (with very helpful and knowledgeable staff) were a 1 mile walk away.
We achieved a few items off our to-do list. We were able to get our stern arch off the boat and repaired quickly (at a high price). We finally found a kill switch for our little Mercury outboard engine, and the 3rd chandlery on the northside of town- Bacons Sails - have a vast 2nd hand treasure trove, which came in very handy indeed. James finally found a good inflatable repair facility and got the correct glue to fix our dingy that had been deflating since Jamaica!
Food shopping at the large Giant supermarket was a long hike - but with our little hand trolley to carry the load it was all OK. The local bus transport was great and we were able to get around to everything we needed and wanted in the many large shopping malls via the $2pp day pass. We spent a few hot afternoons off the boat at the local library - a long walk, with an excellent internet service. At Back Creek we could watch all the racing boats coming and going for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night twilight racing. The racing fleet is very active here in Annapolis.
Our 2nd anchorage in Spa Creek was very enjoyable indeed - with a very different type of boat traffic - SUP's canoes, dragon boat rowers, the local river taxi and the hourly creek tours to look at the surrounding palatial waterfront homes. Spa Creek was just a short dingy ride right into town - and very handy for the $1 showers and $1.50 self-service laundry at the Harbourmaster Office. We even had free WiFi right intown are the Food Market across from the dock. The downtown Main Street and dock area reminded us of Lymington back on the south coast of the UK.

TUESDAY 18 - Solomons to Annapolis today. We had light early morning winds, but as forecast the south winds picked up enough for us to sail the whole day with our spinnaker - just great!! On our late afternoon approach into Annapolis James had a problem getting the sock down and as a result got some bad rope burns on his hands. We headed straight into the Back Creek anchorage where we had been 2 years ago and dropped anchor with 4 other live-aboard boats - a bit crowded for this tight spot, but all should be OK. We put out 2 anchors - fro and aft to lessen our swinging room, and also the forecast was for the wind to turn with some storms to the north over the next few days.

WEDNESDAY 19 - we were familiar with our surroundings - and it all felt very easy, and familiar to be back in Annapolis. The short walk to town past all the attractive housing and over the bridge past ALL the racing yachts - I am not sure which wonderful sailing community I prefer most- Annapolis or Newport - both iconic. After a walk of the town, we then caught the local bus to the nearby big shopping mall for a few bits and pieces, before heading to Bacon Sails for a look at their 2nd hand equipment selection- fantastic a real Aladdin's Cave full of our sort of goodies and our sort of prices.

THURSDAY 20 - an onboard day today as yesterday James managed to get the correct glue (finally) to repair our dingy.

FRIDAY 21 - I was looking forward to an afternoon Art Walk being held this afternoon in downtown Annapolis - but due to the afternoon thunderstorms we didn't leave the boat. The forecasted front came through - we now had cooled north winds.

SATURDAY 22 - not a great day - but it could have been so much worse!! Back Creek was busy with yachts and power boats coming and going, and we were getting along with a few jobs and had the generator running so I could do some sewing in the cockpit. Anyway, next thing I knew a 40ft powerboat that had left his nearby marina berth decided to come between the anchored boats to exit out into the bay... but there was not enough room and he got caught up on the line of our 2nd anchor, and also caught the line of another anchored boat - so we was stuck in-between us. Mayhem pursued - thankfully there was little wind, and the powerboat could turn off his engines and lie between us all whilst the problem was sorted out. The powerboat man - an older gentleman with his guests onboard was totally dazed by the situation and really didn't know what to do! Whilst us and the other small sailboat we busy fending off and taking in our situation, one of the other sailors dove down to take a look at the powerboat props and see if any of our lines needed be cut/released. Our line had been totally wrapped around his prop and needed to be cut..., but nobody on the powerboat thought to buoy the line so we could retrieve our Fortress anchor!! The other boats line could be released and saved. So after a few hours, we were now in a situation with our anchor line in pieces and our highly treasured 2nd anchor on the seabed!! It was now time for James to dingy over to meet the powerboat owner, and discuss where we would be going from here. He felt it was a waste of his time and money to arrange and pay for a diver to retrieve our anchor - and just offered for James to go shopping to replace our line and anchor and he would pay!! After exchanging telephone numbers, he just left to continue his weekend day out - and we were in shock! With the help of one of the other sailors, James began to troll the shallow, silted seabed with a grapple hook, searching for our gear- thankfully after about an hour they were able to find and retrieve our large Fortress, accompanying short length of chain, and line - so now the man only had to cover the costs of replacement of our 150ft 5/8's shackled anchor line. This was not a good situation... but the incident could have been just so much worse if any of us liveaboards had not been onboard - and if there had been any strong wind blowing through the narrow creek. Thankfully we were in no danger- we were still safely anchored to our main Rocna anchor.

SUNDAY 23 - Sunday cooked breakfast as usual, and lazy mornig with James listening to his podcasts and me catching up on my diary and blog. We had to dismantle our stern arch today - this is quite involved with our 2 solar panels and wind generator, and various small aerials having to be removed a safely laid on the boat without damage to the cables etc.

MONDAY 24 - shopping day for our new anchor line. Thankfully the local chandlery had the right type of line, and length and could splice in a new eye. Leo - the powerboat owner came good with his credit card - $375!! to the store. After a short dingy ride, we walked our stern arch to the nearby stainless steel manufacturers to have our 2 small cracks welded and 2 small extra corner support added.

TUESDAY 25 - we loved the 2nd hand 'treasure trove' at Bacon sails so much we decided to head there again looking for some bracket hardware. In the late afternoon Kato phoned to say that the stainless welding work was finished on our arch. Annapolis has so many boats and repair facilities - a good place to get things done - but at top prices! Thankfully I could make the most of the large outside dock with running water near the dingy dock to test out the Spotless Stainless cleaner on our newly repaired arch. Its good stuff, but does need a lots of fresh water to wash off - so not an at-anchor job for us.

WEDNESDAY 26 - we worked most of the morning reassembling our stern arch, putting with the wind generator and solar panels back up too. It was so much quicker to take it all down! With Wednesday night club racing, the anchorage was busy with boat coming and going - Annapolis is truly the racing hub.

THURSDAY 27 - an odd jobs day and then we set out in the afternoon to find a shoreside spot to watch the afternoon yacht racing. Our 1st spot was at the little sandy beach - afternoon drinks and crisps in the council rocking chairs watching the racing - what a great opportunity. We moved along to the Maritime Museum dock to watch the sleek 505's and J boats return. Our walk through this river-fronted area of the town really highlighted the large number of wealthy residents - many BMW's, Mercedes and other foreign cars lined the streets and the Mexican gardeners were everywhere moving lawns and tending to gardens. There is plenty of money here for expensive houses, yachts and cars.

FRIDAY 28- after a walk to the Eastport shopping centre, we caught the local bus to an outer mall to visit the Pennsylvanian Dutch Food Market that I had read about. This market is only held on Thursday, Friday and Saturday - and we were expecting a large outdoor food market do to our weekly food shopping - but instead we found a very well established food emporium run by Amish stall holders in a large permanent barn style building near the Annapolis Marina Shopping Centre. After a wander of the rest of the shopping centre - thankfully we found a shoe shop and I could purchase some new walking sandals. We ate lunch at the Amish restaurant, and this gave me the opportunity to briefly chat with our waitress- Sarah. She, along with all the other staff were in traditional Amish dress, with all the females wearing little white lace caps on their heads. All the stall holders and staff drive down to this market from their homes and farms in Pennsylvania (about 3 hours). We purchased some lovely fresh bread at the market. We had a busy and late afternoon and evening doing a big food and drinks shop to be ready to move-on tomorrow.

SATURDAY 29 - we were well over being in Back Creek - and I didn't want to be around for the weekend madness again with the crowded anchorage and yachts and motor boats all coming and going like last weekend- the chances of another accident was something I didn't want to repeat again. We upped anchor and headed out and around into the Severn River, and then north through the town - we made the 10.30am opening bridge for access to Spa Creek. We slowly made our way up into Spa Creek - and thankfully could find a suitable anchoring spot amongst the many town anchoring balls. We were now in a very different area of Annapolis - very exclusive waterfront housing and much less motor or sail traffic. We now had many Stand Up Paddle boarders, canoes, kayaks etc constantly passing us. Today was our Crab Feast Day. Maryland, and the Chesapeake Bay area is very well known for its blue crabs - so we just had to try some! Yesterday at the Amish market we had bought 6 crabs, a large pot of crab meat and a lovely crusty bread stick - so we were ready to go. We enjoyed our lovely cracking and crab picking long lunch with a few cold ciders and good music - just perfect.

SUNDAY 30 - instead of our usual cooked Sunday breakfast we decided to have brunch in town at the lively landmark deli/diner - Chick & Ruths. A true US greasy-spoon, serving all day breakfasts & piled-high sandwiches in kitschy environs. I was keen to have a hot pastrami and swiss on rye sandwich, and James a traditional Ruben Sandwich. There is always a queue to get into Chick & Ruths and Sunday was busy too. The main street was very busy with visitors and a few of the immaculately uniformed students from the Naval Academy. The deli food was very tasty indeed and met my need and expectation. The service staff were older, no nonsense or charm, quick to turnaround their tables and get their tips! The deli sold their freshly baked large bread loaves which were excellent value for money - but we had already done all our food shopping which was a shame. We had a bit of a wander of the shops and busy dock area before having an icecream and heading back to the boat.

MONDAY 31 -now that the weekend traffic was not around we could get the boat cleaning done. I got in the water to clean off the waterline and scrape some weed off the hull. I had been wanting to get this job done for aged but it was too busy with water traffic in Back Creek and Solomons had too many jellyfish in the water in Solomons. Now I could wash down the hull and clear off all the rust stain - she does look a lot better. Now it was James turn to get in the dingy to reseal the hull and deck areas that needed attention.

SEPTEMBER
TUESDAY 1 - getting ready to finally leave Annapolis - jobs day. So into town in the dingy -just a short ride past some more expensive housing and all the intown marinas - wow there is some money here!! Our 1st of the month Internet Banking was completed on the free WiFi at the Food Market, then a great shower whilst doing the laundry at the Harbourmaster Office and then back to the boat to hangout the laundry to dry on this hot and sunny day.

WEDNESDAY 2 - we left our Spa Creek anchorage for the 9.30am bridge opening. Spa Creek was a good spot for us - and another view of Annapolis. Sadly we had no wind.... So motoring north for the day to Rock Hall on the eastern shore. It got SO hot we let the boat drift for an afternoon overboard swim - lovely and cool, and enjoyable until I spotted some jellyfish!! We motored into Rock Hall arriving right on low water and had to raise the keel to come alongside the free town dock - all OK. Some local guys came to do some fishing for a few hours in the afternoon, but they were no bother. I took a short walk around the area - many yacht marinas and fishing boats offering day charters and waterfront houses for holiday let... but the summer season is over now so things we quiet.