Click here to see where we are in Baltimore.
We are behind on updating the blog. We are now in Baltimore and have been here since last Thursday. We got up at 6:00 this morning to head up to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal but it looks like we are going to have some severe weather this afternoon and since we couldn’t be snug into the next marina before the storm hits we decided to stay another day here. Like our friend Todd, on Life's2Short, says ‘We don’t have a schedule and we’re sticking to it!!
We left Solomons Island in MD on Wednesday, 6/23, and headed for an anchorage off of the western bank of the Chesapeake Bay. Here is a picture of a menhaden boat. Menhaden are small fish that are used as filler in things like cat food and fertilizer. There is a menhaden factory across the river from where we anchored. Boy, that factory stinks! Anyway, we saw lots of menhaden boats coming and going as we made our way to the anchorage. They have a smaller boat on their stern that is used to deploy and retrieve the nets full of fish. At any rate, we let them pass and made our way to a nice, quiet but hot, spot. It was only the second night for us on the hook and we surely did miss the air conditioning! 
We passed Smith Point Lighthouse, which you can see needs some repairs
As we were making our way to Solomons Island from the anchorage, we were hailed by a Navy range boat telling us that we were too close to the firing range for the Patuxent River Naval Air Station and that they were doing live fire practice that afternoon. We were told to move to the east of the target area about 2 miles, which we hastily did. This took us nearly to the eastern shore of the Chesapeake. As we approached the Naval Air Station, we saw numerous jets take off but we never did see any live fire.
Patuxent River Naval Air Station
We stayed in a marina for one night in Solomons because bad weather was coming in. And, it sure did! It hit around 8 pm Tuesday evening, 6/22 and it was a doozie. We had been sitting on the aft deck (or as my Navy Dad says it is properly called the after deck) enjoying the evening. We went inside to cool off and a wall of rain and very high wind hit. We watched it from inside and thought that our back deck chairs were going to be lost. We were very glad we were in the marina vs. being on the hook. We only lost a small trashcan!
Our next stop was Galesville, MD which is a beautiful little town on the West River off of the Chesapeake. There we were going to meet up with my dad, his wife Evelyn, my brother John, his wife Frannie and their daughter Katie. We were really looking forward to it. Following are some sights along the way.
A Liquid Petroleum Gas (propane) terminal which the big ships dock at and then distribute LPG around the country.
Don’t know which lighthouse this is but it was very picturesque.
Barge carrying what looks like coal. No explanation necessary!
It was a bit eerie that we didn’t see any other boats for hours, either coming or going!
We arrived in Galesville and tied up to a face dock at the Pirates Cove, which is a marina and restaurant. They didn’t have 50 amp power for us to hook up to so we ran the generator for a few hours to cool down the boat…and us. We met my family at the restaurant and had a nice time catching up with what everyone was doing. Evelyn had a summer house in Galesville for many years and she told us lots of stories about the town.
We left Galesville the next morning early, 5:30 am, to get to Baltimore. Another bad storm was threatening for the afternoon and we wanted to get in before it hit. Unfortunately, it missed us completely. I only say unfortunately because we had hoped that it would break this terrible heat wave but that was not to be. Following are some pictures we took along the way.
We usually don’t get up early enough to see the beautiful sunrises!
This is the beautiful old Thomas Point Lighthouse. There is a full scale reproduction of it at St. Michael’s on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake. We went through the replica last time we were here.
The Chesapeake Bay bridge. As kids we both crossed this many times on our way to Ocean City MD during the summers. It is fun to go under it for a change.
Sandy Point Lighthouse on the north side of the bridge. Can you tell we love lighthouses?
As we turned into the North West Harbor which takes us into Baltimore, we saw that we had two large ships behind us. We favored the the red markers to stay out of their way. The bridge that we went under is called the Francis Scott Key bridge (Oh say can you see!!)
This first ship is called a RORO car carrier, short for roll-on/roll-off. The second, obviously, a barge of some sort.
The last time we were in Baltimore on Rickshaw we stayed closer to the Inner Harbor which is full of tourist attractions. That marina has since been bought and the prices were outrageous. So, on this trip we stayed in a smaller marina at Fells Point. Fells Point is a very funky part of Baltimore that has numerous bars and restaurants, many of them within walking distance. They also have a water taxi here that could take us to the Inner Harbor or out to Fort McHenry.
On Friday my friend Stacey came and got me and we went shopping all day. Ya-hoo! Thank you Stacey for a fun day. On Saturday my friend Robin, her husband John, my nephew Josh and his wife Delphine came to visit. We had a nice time visiting on Rickshaw then went to Shucker’s for a great dinner. Josh and Delphine are leaving for a 2 year government assignment in Nigeria and we were thrilled to see them before they left. They all helped the cause by bringing us provisions…wine, beer and cleaning products!! Thanks guys.
Enjoying dinner John, Robin, Josh, Delphine, Lynnie and Rick
Goofing! A TV show called Homicide was filmed here
The cobbled streets of Fells Point Where we got breakfast in the morning
We love this marina! There are mostly live aboards here. They get up in the morning and go to work. This is probably one of the friendliest marinas we have been in. Everyone knows everyone else and we have had lots of people stop by to say hello and ask if we need anything from the store. Several have offered us their cars. We met two other DeFever couples and had drinks and appetizers on one of their boats yesterday. It is fun to chat with all of the folks around here. Here are some pictures of marina life taken from Rickshaw.
Rickshaw in her slip. Notice the duct tape fix for a leak on our neighbor’s boat
Pirate ship
Picking up passengers for the water taxi
Harbor vistas
We saw this mother duck with her ducklings Then the cat (on his leash) also saw them!
Cat still trying to figure out how to get them, yum Food chain! Dog, cat, ducks
While we are finishing this, the storm has just it. We are glad we are here instead of the open water. Tomorrow and Wednesday look to be very good days with Wednesday predicted to be high in the upper 70’s. Excellent cruising weather. We’ll leave tomorrow to get into the C&D canal and on Wednesday make our way through the Delaware Bay to Cape May, NJ and start our way up the east coast.
