June 28th ...Annapolis to West River

With thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon, we left Annapolis for the uneventful two hour drive down to West River. A reunion of sorts was planned for the afternoon with Solitaire, Madcap and Sapphire (+house guests). We had some lunch and spent the afternoon reading and jumping in the water to cool off. We picked up a little before Nancy and Jim showed up a little before 3:00. Jim and Beth were over shortly and we had a wonderful time snacking before heading to shore for dinner.

Jim and Beth are northbound to Nova Scotia and will be land bound next winter before heading back out on the water. Jim and Nancy are planning one more season in the Bahamas before venturing further south and we are clueless as usual.

The six of us have become close friends during the last year, but the good-bye's weren't bad because we know we'll see them again in the not too distant future.

After dinner Davey and Debbie rode back to Herring Bay with Jim and Nancy to retrieve their car. We picked them up an hour later and returned to the boat for a great lightning show. There was a little wind and rain but the major portion of the storm went well to the north. There is a front moving through tomorrow evening and with the hot weather we are currently enjoying there will probably be some good thunderstorms.

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June 27...Annapolis

After wasting the allotted time in the morning we dinghied to Ego Alley and tied up in down town of Annapolis. Our first stop was Fawcetts, a boating store, where we picked up a few things and looked at Caribe dinghies. They were having a dinghy sale and we probably would have purchased one but the only one they had in stock that we wanted, a 10 foot DX, had just been sold to another person. So we gave up again on dinghies. Talking about the dinghy situation last night, we decided that if we could keep it afloat during the month of July and September it would be boat show time where we could save some money. In the meantime there are two or three more places around Annapolis that we can look for a used one.

Although it was too hot to walk, we hiked up some narrow streets to State Circle and then back down to water front. On the way down we stopped for some air-conditioning and had a snack before completing our shopping. One of goals for the day was a tour of the Naval Academy but when we got there Debbie didn't have any ID. It was pretty hot for an hour and a half walking tour anyway.

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June 26th... St. Michael's MD to Annapolis MD

We were off at 8am and worked our way back to the Choptank through lots of watermen. Broad Creek was rough and we toyed with the idea of finding a place to spend the day and making the trip to Annapolis tomorrow but by the time we got to the Bay proper, conditions moderated and we had a nice trip sailing part of the time and motoring when the wind died.

Mike made a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs with the crab they caught yesterday. Yumm.

Our friends Jim and Beth on "Madcap" were also heading to Annapolis and we ended up both taking moorings just off the Naval Academy in the mouth of Spa Creek. After taking care of the sail covers and getting everything put away, Kathy and I went to the dinghy store where they sometimes have used inflatables. As most of you know, the time may be close at hand where we may need to purchase a replacement for our 1991 Bombard.

Throughout the winter we've been talking to cruisers about dinghies. Every time we tied up to a dinghy dock we'd take an extra minute to check out the different brands and models and by now have a reasonable idea of what we want.

The place we went to also sells used dinghies which we would consider if we found the right one. Unfortunately, the only used inflatable they had on their books that met our criteria was in Rhode Island. After spending some time with the salesman, who was pushing a brand that we hadn't considered, we talked to the owner of the place. We had been thinking about going down in size from 10 feet to 9 but learned from him that with our present outboard it would be difficult to get up on plane. So downsizing isn't a real god idea.

We left the place without making a purchase but planned on going back tomorrow.

Jim and Beth came over for shrimp and snacks later. Although we've been keeping up with each other's travels we hadn't seen them since northern Florida.

Another couple, Lenny and Ciel, who were moored next to us last fall here in Annapolis stopped by to say hi and gave us a couple of other ideas about dinghy shopping.

We had a nice evening answering Trivial Pursuit questions in the cockpit.

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