Here's a picture of Fraser & I at Jellyfish Joel's Tropical Beach Bar on Fairlee Creek. Note the palm trees, put out by Jellyfish Joel. Apparently they die each winter and he re-plants in the spring!

October 1, 2006
After breakfast we motored about a mile upstream to see the village of Georgetown. It was quite a sight! There is really no village there at all, but about six huge marinas holding at least one thousand boats! We just motored around then left as there seemed to be no place to land a dinghy to go ashore. After motoring out the Sassafras, we hoisted sail and sailed into a crab pot tangling its rope in our rudder. We managed to clear it after some fiddling, only to go over another. This time I had to put on my dive gear and take a swim. Although the water is warmer than Maine, its not balmy! And it is so full of silt I had to work by feel as I could see nothing. But we got it cleared, and were off to Fairlee Creek, whose entrance made Turner creek look easy. The guide books both said that you must follow the marks, even though you will swear they are wrong, and head for the beach, not turning until you can just about reach ashore to shake hands with someone on the beach. So we followed the directions, and with the depth sounder alarm chirping at us, we made our way in. It was another beautiful creek, and in the off-season, only holding about six other cruisers (plus a huge marina). We dinghied ashore for a short walk, watched a power boat that was trying to leave get his prop caught in a crab pot (making us feel better), and headed back to the boat for dinner.

October 2, 2006
Today we sailed into Baltimore. If we thought we had seen a lot of boats before, we were sadly mistaken! In the highly sheltered Inner Harbor, we saw marina after marina, all huge! Because we wanted to be near the "Little Italy" section of the city, we chose Inner Harbor East marina, and called them. With directions to our berth, we headed in and tied up at berth H1. We had read that the Lexington Market was worth a visit, so we took hailed a taxi and headed out. We decided on a cab due to the distance, but as we got closer, we decided the cab was a good idea for another reason... it's located in a rough area of town! Inside it was chaos, and I'm sure we stood out as tourists in spite of our attempts otherwise. But we headed to Fairlee's booth which is reported to have the best Lump Crab Cakes on the Chesapeake. And they must be right! They were excellent, eaten on site at stand-up tables (no seating at Fairlees). We bought some sea bass for dinner the next night and wandered around the huge market for a while, then hailed a cab for the marina. Baltimore has done a tremendous job of restoring its waterfront, and we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around. In the evening we went up to Little Italy and after checking menus at a few of the many restaurants, we chose one and had a great dinner compliments of Fraser. Thanks, Fraser!

October 3, 2006
Leaving Baltimore, we headed across the bay in a nice following breeze and sailed up the Chester River and into the Corsica River, where we had another beautiful anchorage. We had our sea bass for dinner, baked in a Mediterranean sauce that we made up, accompanied by a Greek salad and a nice cold chardonnay. I have gotten the email and weatherfax programs working on the SSB, but not tried voice communication. Tonight I tried to contact my brother Bill (Bill is a ham radio operator). No luck. We'll try again tomorrow night.

October 4, 2006
We left the Corsica River early as we wanted to get to St Michael's as early as possible. Fraser is a member of the musem here, and that means we can get a marina berth at the museum where we'll stay for the night (members only!!). But to get there we had to pass through the Kent Island Narrows with a fixed bridge with 65 feet clearance, followed immediately by a bascule (draw) bridge. The 65 foot clearance is just sufficient for us as our mast is 60' and has a 3' antenna on top. As we approached, I kept checking the chart, looking up and praying. If there was an error, we would be in big trouble. And I had called the bridge and he was opening, so we had to keep going (they only open every half hour). With the current pushing us on, it was quite a busy time lining up the fixed bridge to pass n the center of the span where it's highest, then line up the bascule bridge, whose narrow opening didn' t line up with the fixed bridge. But we shot through, called the bridge operator to thank him for the opening, and were off down Eastern Bay and up the Miles River to St Michaels. In the flat calm we motored along, arriving at St Michaels in time for lunch. St Michael's is home to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Musem where we ha a berth for the night. We spent the afternoon looking around the museum and town, and went to "The Crab Claw" for dinner where we had a very messy but delicious crab dinner of both hardshell and softshell crab. Then home for the night. With a forecast for rising winds, we checked the lines and turned in.

October 4, 2006

We had an early start to the day with the wind rising as predicted, and at sunrise Fraser & I were on deck again adjusting lines. And as we were doing so, we watched a large motor-sailer anchored astern of us drag his anchor past us. We signaled him (and the rest of the moorings) with our pressure horn, and they came on deck and got underway just as they were coming down on another boat. Then we watched a few other boats re-anchor to the new wind and went down for breakfast. With the new wind, we have had a drop in temperature from the very hot day yesterday to a cooler day that caused me to pull out a sweatshirt for comfort. Off to Annapolis today for the boat show tomorrow.