Hello dear friends and family,

Well, a lot has happened since my last ChaliGram wayyyyy back on July 11, written from Gibraltar, announcing that we were shipping our boat back EARLY and right there from Gibraltar. At the time we still had about 100 logistical challenges in front of us...

The loading onto the big ship went ok, with only minor damage sustained, and which has now been fixed; the changed flights back to the USA finally all came together; meeting the boat 2 weeks later in Chester, PA and unloading her there went smoothly. We anchored out that first night right under the take off path for Philadelphia Airport, so we were understandably anxious to get underway to some peace and quiet the next morning, to escape the Delaware River, traverse the 15-mile Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and FINALLY.... arrive in the Chesapeake Bay. MY! What a difference from Mediterranean coastlines! NO MOUNTAINS was the first thing that struck us; and, the Chesapeake, being one of the world's largest estuaries is naturally rather muddy brown, compared to the relatively blue, clear waters of the Med; And shallow! Our first night at anchor in the Bohemia River in the northern Bay itself, we tiptoed into 8' of water, yes, 8 FEET, not 8 meters, and not expecting a big tidal change, found ourselves sitting in the mud in 5' when the tide went out. (Our boat draws 6'. oops.) No worries, because it's all mud; no rocks. There might not be any mountains, but there ARE lots of green, lush trees. Another big difference is that there are clouds and rain during the summer here!! Our experience in the Mediterranean is that it rained between October-April, and then (usually) NOTHING except clear blue skies the rest of the time.

As I type this, we are sitting in a marina in Baltimore, Maryland in the lovely neighborhood of Canton. They sure have re-developed this historic district in the last 12 years!!!! It's WONDERFUL! We can walk to everything we need: supermarket, hardware stores, a west marine boat supply place, super duper ice cream, hair salons, and a zillion restaurants! ... just like when we were in Cartagena, Spain, or Cannes or Menton or Barcelona, or, or, or....many other Mediterranean old port towns. AND...... it's only an hour's drive from our apartment in Alexandria, Virginia. So, for the time being, we're using this as our home base and driving back and forth.... unloading 10 years worth of stuff we felt we couldn't live without while in Europe. After our daughter Sammy's wedding on Oct. 17, we'll sail ChaliVentures about 70 miles south to a boatyard in Solomon's Island, Maryland on the Patuxent River. She needs quite a bit of serious work done according to the marine surveyor who just examined her, so she'll be spending her winter on the hard. It was rather depressing and alarming to hear the marine surveyor rattle off all the things that needed to be replaced..... Made me feel like we were lucky we hadn't sunk alREADY, and a damned good thing we didn't try sailing her back!

During our first weekend here in Baltimore, Sammy and Brian (soon-to-be son-in-law) drove up from Washington, DC to celebrate our arrival with our first crabfeast in over 11 years. yahooooo. Those crabs were as delicious as I had hoped they'd be. After so long, I was afraid that nothing could live up to my huge expectation.... but Captain James Crabhouse (within walking distance of our boat!) got it done with flying colors! And now 3 weeks later, we're going to have aNOTHER crab feast today with all 3 daughters, Sammy AND Alex (down from New York) AND Christina, Dean and the kids. If only Jon had stayed in Virginia 3 days longer, we could have had all 4 kids at 1 table! But at least we got to see him several times over the last 2 weeks that he was visiting the east coast (from Boulder, CO). So..... our primary reason for returning to the USA is panning out. We're spending more time with our kids!

I'm sitting out in the cockpit with my cup of coffee, enjoying a nice breeze this morning; the humidity is down -- finally!, and the ducks are floating by. Zoey is enjoying lying in her cockpit bed soaking up the sun. Life is GREAT!!!

Wherever you are, hope you're having a perfectly splendid weekend, too!

Love, Alison, Chuck and Zoey


Alison Spinney
Onboard ChaliVentures in the USA