September 10, 2006 Baltimore, MD Part II
Here are some random pictures of Baltimore. It was a fun place to visit and we will plan to come back here. Lynnie and Rick at Ft. McHenry.

Fell's Point Main Street.

Our view at night across the Patapsco River.

War of 1812 re-enactment soldiers on their way to Ft. McHenry from the Inner Harbor.

The USS Constellation being moved from the Inner Harbor to Ft. McHenry for the re-inactment by 3 tug boats.

The following are of the colorful Inner Harbor as we took a cruise through it on our way out.

The Baltimore Aquarium below.

September 5, 2006 Labor Day Weekend with Vicki and Norm

We had such a great time over Labor Day weekend. Our friends who live in Wilmington, DE, Vicki and Norm, invited us to spend the weekend with them. After several weeks on the boat we were ready for some land time. Norm picked us up from the boat on Friday and took us to their home. On the way we stopped and, FINALLY had steamed crabs for lunch! We ate at a local crab shack in historic Chesapeake City which is on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Rick isn’t a blue crab fan so Norm and I got to eat them all. Rick had a humongous sub. Of course, beer is a necessary component when crabs are involved, so while Tropical storm Ernesto caused lots of rain to fall outside we were enjoying our crabs.

The next day we drove up to Philadelphia. It has been years since either of us had been there. It rained all day so it was a good thing we were inside most of the day. We really enjoyed Independence Hall and the new Constitution Center is fabulous. Lynnie, Norm and Vicki at Independence Hall.

Rick is standing in the back of the room where the Continental Congress met and debated the future of America. The chair is the original chair that was used by George Washington and subsequent Presidents of the Continental Congress.

He is also signing the Constitution 'guest' book.

The last picture is in a fabulous room in the Constitution Center that has life sized bronze statues of all of the signers of the Constitution.

We had to take a lunch break so we went into south Philly to the home of the original ‘Philly Cheese Steak’. There are two dives, er, restaurants, that say they are the originals and here are pictures of both as well as ordering instructions. What a hoot!! (You can double click on the picture to make it larger.)

On Sunday we all went to a wine festival at a local winery and had a great time tasting the different wines and listening to jazz. On Monday Vicki and Norm took us back to the boat. They have decided to purchase a DeFever, which is the same make as our boat so we took them for a ride down the Sassafras River to the Chesapeake. It was another gorgeous day! Thanks to our hosts for a wonderful weekend.

August 30, 2006 Galesville, MD to Georgetown, MD

We were on our way to Georgetown, MD which is in the very northern part of MD. Our goal was to meet up with our friends Vicki and Norm who had invited us to their home in Wilmington, DE for the Labor Day weekend (which is about 45 minutes north of us and about 45 minutes south of Philly, PA ... if you happen to be travelling by car ... by boat it's pretty much a whole day at 8 knots).

So, we began to pull anchor in Galesville about 8:30-ish, with Lynnie on the upper helm keeping the boat headed toward the anchor, and Rick on the bow washing down the anchor chain as it was pulled onto the boat by the windlass. You really have to wash down the anchor as it comes in, because it is usually caked in bottom yuk ... aka mud ... and that's not really what you want to dump into your chain locker. Anyway, Rick seemed to wash forever, and finally got the anchor out of the water after about 30 minutes. That was the stickiest stuff we have encountered yet. Rick left the anchor dangling in the water as Lynnie made her way out of the West River back toward the Chesapeake Bay proper. It was easier to let the motion of the boat wash off the anchor than to try to blast the caked mud off. We also use a fresh water washdown, so just as Rick finished, the port tank was sucking air. Not too much of a problem as we planned to fill the tanks again in Georgetown.

When we left Galesville it was cold, windy and rainy day. Maybe we should have stayed where we were but what kind of adventure would that be? Anyway, our pictures are a bit dull because of the weather. This is the Thomas Point Light House. There are several of these types of lighthouses on the bay. They're called "screw pile" (...no kidding...) lighthouses, and this one was originally built in 1825. Obviously, we love lighthouses!

As we mentioned earlier, summer left us for a bit! Here we are heading toward the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Sweats were the dress of the day.


Georgetown and the river it sits on, the Sassafras, has a rich history with many land titles that go back to the original grants from Charles II and Lord Baltimore. It was just beautiful. The Sassafras river is near the top of the state. If we were continuing to head north we would have gone through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal which would have put us into the Delaware Bay. Next time.
This was an old working boat that we followed into the river to Georgetown.

The marina in Georgetown had bikes we could use and we went into the closest town, Galena since there is really no town in Georgetown. We peddled by two cemeteries; one that was started in 1896 and the other in 1726. Turns out that Georgetown was burned down by the British in the war of 1812.. After all that exercise we had to stop at the bakery in Galena before heading back to the boat.












Tomorrow we'll plan to get caught up on the blog with narratives and pictures of our time with Vicki and Norm in Philadelphia, and our visit to Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

August 28, 2006 Solomons Island, MD to Galesville, MD

Hey, don’t leave the blog!!! We’ll try to get caught up. We left Solomons Island on the morning of Wednesday, Aug 30 in the rain. We thought it was going to clear up pretty quick but, alas, no such luck. In fact, not only did we leave temperatures in the upper 90’s, but we got into lots of rain and colder temps - 68 degrees!

Ultimately, we were headed for Georgetown, MD about 6 miles up the Sassafras River in Northeastern Maryland, which is the farthest north we are going on this trip. We had originally planned to go all the way to Rhode Island but we left from NC too late to get that far this time.

Anyway, we ran for 7 hours and stopped in Galesville, MD which is a really small town on a river south of Annapolis, the West River. Again, lots of crab pots to worry about but it was a nice place to anchor. We took the dingy into town which consisted of a small market, an art shop and a wine shop (we were happy!).

We had lunch at the Pirate's Cove restaurant next to their marina ... nice place right on the water. Their specialties revolved around crab ... no surprise, and Lynnie and I both had the "Gabby Crabby", which was a very yum crab melt on english muffin with mozzerella cheese, and home made french fries. Also shared a home made key lime pie slice. Then we waddled over to the West River Market, which was an old timie general store with an elevated railroad running around on the inside. Quaint town, with not a whole lot going on.

We then went back to the marina and took the dingy out to Rickshaw in the harbor with threatening clouds and predictions of severe thunderstorms. We watched as they gathered, and then finally dumped for a few minutes. Then the skies cleared and the late afternoon sun came back out. All-in-all another fine day ...

August 27, 2006 Solomons Island, MD

We enjoyed Solomons so much we thought we would just include some additional pictures. The first couple are on the way to Solomons. The light house is Point No Point lighthouse (isn't that a great name?). It is a 'caisson' style lighthouse build it the 1800's.

Then there is the blog meister! I can't say enough good things about the Verizon wireless card. We've used it everywhere. Hey, who's driving the boat???

The entrance to Solomons Island is beautiful with some real pretty homes surrounding the water. We've been to Solomons by car before but it wasn't until we saw it by water that we realized how much we liked it.

This is the welcome committee. Two swans come right over to the 'new' boats in the harbor looking for handouts.

And this is how we celebrate another day on the water.

We left Solomons on Monday and have made 2 stops since then. More info to follow.

August 27, 2006 Solomons Island, MD

The last few days have been just great. We decided to hang out on the creek beside Solomons Island for a few days and just enjoy the scenery. We will have anchored out for 4 nights before leaving tomorrow to go north.

We got the chance to really practice anchoring. The first time it took us about 3 tries to set the anchor, with everyone watching. Last night we found that we had moved too close to a neighboring sailboat so we picked up the anchor and moved (at 11:00 pm). This morning we woke up very close to the dock and moved again!! Practice makes perfect, I've heard.
Yesterday morning we took the dingy searching for a place to have breakfast. On the way, we stopped at one of the neighboring boats to ask if our anchoring techniques had scared them! They were very sweet and laughed and said that they had been there themselves at one time or another.

This was the first time that we've had so many other boats in an anchorage with us. A bit unnerving but we are getting more used to it.

Our neighbors are very self sufficient. I'm guessing those with sailboats won't think anything of the pictures below but just another reason why we think motoring is the way to go! He hoisted her up on a winch and she proceeded to drill two new holes in the mast. The first time she used a cordless drill and the bit broke so she had to come down and get the electric drill.

August 24, 2006 Nomini Bay, VA, South Shore of the Potomac River

This is a catch up entry as the blog was having technical difficulties the last couple of days and I gave up trying to upload pictures. I wish I could make the text match the pictures but the site changes them around so it sometimes looks a bit weird.

As the last entry described we had a long day down the Potomac because we were anxious to move to the Chesapeake. We pulled into what the books describe as a beautiful little bay still on the Potomac but close to the mouth of the Chesapeake, and they were right. We've included some pictures of the cool little town surrounding Nomini Bay, Virgina (pronounced NO-mini).

In fact, you may not be aware, but the entire Potomac River belongs to the state of Maryland ... the state boundary line hugs the south shore of the Potomac (which is VA), so all those folks in VA with little beachfronts, step into Maryland every time they touch the water.

This one is of an abandoned duck blind (we think).

The entry channel to Nomini was really narrow, with lots of crab pots just outside. We entered on mid-tide and picked our way into the bay-proper in 8 feet of water. When we got inside, we found a generally circular bay with a meandering channel to get you up-river another 5 miles, if needed. The thing that we noticed the most is the continued pattern of crab pots ... everywhere.

So, some of you may be saying ..."so what about these crab pots." Boaters quickly learn that crab pots are truely their enemy. You see, a crab pot consists of a somewhat cubical wire basket attached to a rope line or worse, a wire, which in turn is connected to the colorful little styrofoam float which you see on the surface. They used to be wood, and I've got an old one from Maine, but now-a-days they're all styrofoam. Anyway, if you happen to be the unfortunate boater that runs over one these little gems, likely it is that you will wrap the float around your prop, which of course then rapidly propels the wire mesh crab trap onto your hull, which then causes your engine to overheat ... and yep, you're quickly dead in the water. So, boaters are always wary of crab pots. End of crab pot 101.

So, having picked our way into the bay, we finally found a circular spot about 300 feet wide to drop the hook into. In 10 feet of water we generally deploy about 125 feet of chain between the anchor and bow pulpit. This usually sets us pretty good, and we can swing in a circle about 150 feet in diameter as the tide shifts. Most of the chain lays on the bottom and acts kinda like a bungee cord.

Since we were late arriving (...about 7:15...) it wasn't long before the sun went down behind the house across the water from us, and we were treated to the following views ... although my camera can't seem to capture the red of the sun properly.