Annapolis - Day 2: My Shopping Adventure

I walked by this yard filled with hostas.  Lovely, dark and deep.

We are settled here in Annapolis Yacht Club for the next week.  We moved our boat to the other side of Spa Creek Bridge, and she can stay there while we go home to visit.  We can take a shuttle from here to BWI airport as easily as from Baltimore, so all is well.  

George worked a bunch today.  We met new looper buddies, Kurt and Mary Ellen from Loophole,  and reconnected with two other boats.  We were talking to Kurt when Sue and Dan from Tranquility came under the bridge and headed for a mooring ball.  We cheered them.  We will meet for lunch tomorrow.  Kurt told us that Connie and Jim Gillette from Patriot are here too.  George called them, and they are coming over for docktails soon.  

I walked over the bridge to town, hopped on a shuttle and asked how to get to a grocery store.  The driver said she did not go near a grocery, but there was one out by the Navy Stadium.  Just then we got to the top of Main Street, and she said,"That's the shuttle you need."  She stopped and called the other driver.  I exited and got on the second shuttle and asked James, the driver, how to get to a grocery.  He said it was a short walk.  We drove out to the Navy Stadium.  James told me how to get to Graul's, the store.  I hiked one long block and crossed two busy streets with working walk signs, and there I was.  

I stocked up on a few items:  fruit, muffins, evaporated milk for coffee, tonic water.  Where was the wine?  Next door at Rite Aid.  Then I walked back to the street where James had left me.  I waited maybe ten minutes.  James pulled up across the street and motioned for me to get in.  He said I should just ride since it was so hot, and the shuttle had ac.  Two other riders got on and obviously knew James.  Very friendly folks.  James delivered me back to the State House.

Maryland State House

I like the curved brick work around the State House.

I do not have a good sense of direction, so I walked a long way to return to the boat.  I usually choose the wrong way to go.  Today was true to form.  However, I did pass charming houses and the Naval Academy on the way.  

Annapolis, MD

We left Solomons, MD, at 8:00 am today with cloudy skies and bumpy seas.  The first hour was not fun:  swells, rolling, and crab pots galore.  By 9:00 am we made a turn and all was better.  The sun even came out briefly.  We started picking up speed, moving at 9 - 10 mph.  This is a big deal!  We had expected a seven hour trip today.  We went 9 mph for most of the day, and we arrived in Annapolis at 2:00 pm.

We are staying at the Annapolis Yacht Club, which is surprising since we're not yacht club members. George found this spot online, and it is cheaper than most marinas here.  So I called, and the dock master agreed for us to stay for two days.  There was rain when we docked, but the dock master came out and grabbed our lines.  Thank you!

I did two loads of laundry, and George did engineering work this afternoon.  At 5:00 we were ready to explore.  Over the Spa Creek Bridge we found Annapolis:  charming, colonial, busy, and clean Annapolis.  We admired the restaurants and shops and quaint houses.  We walked up brick streets to the state house and around the circle.

As you enter the downtown, the dinghy dock is surrounded by a small park with a memorial honoring Alex Haley.  There are quotes from Roots and these statues, encouraging story telling.

Alex Haley is honored on the square although he was born in New York

 and lived there and in Tennessee.

In this wood shop there were clocks and trays with favorite islands, lakes, and beaches. 

 This truth brought tears to my eyes.

Window boxes at the Annapolis Pottery Shop.

We are staying here two days and then going to Baltimore.  We will fly home from Baltimore for a long weekend (5 days).  However, the weather forecast for Wednesday around Baltimore is grim.  We may have to leave Aunt Aggie here. That means canceling reservations and finding another safe marina.  We are living in the moment today, enjoying this city and a cool evening.  Maybe the NOAA forecast for Wednesday will improve.

Tangier Island and Solomons, VA

Fog in the creek.  This sailboat was anchored near us.

We woke up on Saturday to fog in Jackson's Creek beside Deltaville, VA.  We waited until 10:00 am to exit the creek.  The fog had lifted, and lots of sailboats were coming out too.  I think they had a regatta.  We motored into the bay with about 10 - 15 sailboats.  All of a sudden we were covered with fog.  What?  What to do?  There were crab pots and fog and sailboats.  The sailboats got on channel 16 and identified where they were.  Another voice came on and said that channel 16 is only for hailing.  Thankfully, a sailor replied, "We are in a serious fog situation here."  No more was said.   We were stressed.  Should we go back to Jackson Creek or continue?  George said it was better to keep moving.  If we turned around, we would be in the midst of so many boats and crab pots.

We used our radar and our AIS to identify boats that might be near us.  We called some.  We looked with binoculars.  There was only one boat that really came out of the fog near us.  They were stopped, and we spoke to them as we went by.

Time passed.  Fog came up and down.  At noon the fog totally lifted.  There was clear blue sky and sunshine.  I stood on the back of the fly bridge and sand the Doxology loudly.  So happy.

Two pelicans share a perch on a channel marker.

I went downstairs to make lunch.  When I came up ten minutes later, we were encased in fog.  Oh, no! Even being thankful didn't help us.  The fog really went away before 1:00 pm.  We spotted Tangier Island soon after.  We were very excited to visit this island about which we have read.

Mr. Milton Parks, who runs Parks Marina.

There are several special moments when you go to Tangier Island.  One is the first moment, when you meet Mr. Parks.  Mr. Parks is 84 and runs the marina.  He has always lived on the island.  He was married to his wife for 60 years.  She died 3 years ago.  He told me he still likes women.  

When we called the island to make a reservation, we finally spoke to Mr. Parks after several tries.  He could not understand our boat name, Aunt Aggie, so he said he would hail us on channel 16 on Saturday as "George."  However, when we tried to hail him, we never could make a connection on Saturday.  No worries.  We just came on in.  We thought we would be okay since we were coming at slack tide.  

The wind picked up and pushed us as we tried to dock, but Mr. Parks was out there, calmly asking which slip we wanted.  We came in to the wall, and he grabbed our lines.  Mr. Parks was quite relaxed as we settled our boat.  Another boat came in right after us, and he went to help them.  George asked if he wanted assistance.  No.  

                                        

As we walked around town, we saw signs for three restaurants.  We ate at Hilda's.

Saturday afternoon we took a good walk around the town.  We had heard of Hilda's restaurant and planned to eat there.  The last seating for dinner was at 5:00 pm.  We took a walk, went to the one grocery, and then went to dinner.  We ate family style with crews from two other sailboats.  The food was delicious:  potato salad, ham, slaw, beets, apple sauce, rolls, crab cakes, clam fritters, pound cake, and iced tea.  No beer or wine:  The island is dry!!  We had a great meal and enjoyed meeting the other guys, who were all staying at Parks with us.

Tangier Island was settled by native Americans and then whites before the Revolutionary War.  Enslaved people came there to escape on the way north. The 600 or so residents mostly descended from five English families.  They are all white Protestants.  There are 60 students in the K-12 school; six graduate this year.  Their language is unique:  They have a dialect that hails back to Cornwall.  The waterman is still the backbone of the economy.  Men fish and crab and support their families.  Women might teach or nurse or be housewives.  There are no banks or movie theaters.  They have a lending library.  There are ferries to the mainland.  

We had no internet or cell phone coverage that night.  It was quiet and sweet to walk the streets and eat and consider ice cream.  (We were too stuffed with crab.)  We ended up playing cards, Crazy Eights, Set Back and Rummy.  George won every game.  Can that be luck?  Toward the end of the card extravaganza, we saw Mr. Parks ride his motorcycle down the dock and visit with our neighbors on Red Eagle.  He was out chatting at 9:00 pm.  Pretty good for an 84 year old, especially since we had on our pjs.  I gave up on cards and went to bed to read: I started a new book, 'Tis by Frank McCourt.  'Tis wonderful.  I could read the whole thing aloud.  

Spider web in the fog.

We woke this morning to more fog.  Ugh!  Now this is a nuisance.  It had cleared by 9:00 am, however, and we took off and had no issues.  The water was lovely.  We went 45 miles to Solomons, Maryland.  A new state!  It is Mother's Day, so we took a walk, found a tiki bar, and celebrated.

Methodist Church on the waterfront in Solomons, MD.

Martha and George at the tiki bar in Solomons, MD.

Deltaville, VA.

Sunset in Bryant Bay Anchorage, Severn River, Chesapeake Bay

We had a great night in our anchorage.  It was beautiful and quiet.  This morning we were up early and had plenty of reading time before we took off.  We drove for 1.5 hours just to get back to the main channel of Chesapeake Bay.  We were really tucked in.  

Then we went north to Deltaville, VA, and anchored in Jackson Creek. Our trip was smooth.  The wind did pick up but not as much as yesterday, so I did ok.  We anchored easily, ate lunch and took naps.  

We took out the dinghy to go over to town and look for a piece of hardware and marine toilet paper.  Even though we were not staying at his marina, the dock master at Deltaville Marina gave us a map of town and showed us how to get to the hardware store and West Marine.

We walked from the marina to Ace Hardware and asked for this Garmin hardware.  The Ace man said they did not carry it, but we could probably get it at West Marine, which was another mile down the road.  He offered to drive us there.  How nice!  We hopped in his car and were in West Marine in a jiffy.  Really such a big favor.  

Looking across the street from Ace Hardware, I saw this fence full of hats.

West Marine did have the right toilet paper, but they have to order the hardware, so we will do that online and have it sent to Atlanta.  We walked back to the marina and our dinghy.  We did get our walk in today + we ate ice cream bars at the marina + we met two kind men in Deltaville, VA.  

I like the street decorations in Deltaville.

Under the trees there were piles of oyster shells.

We will have another quiet night tonight.  Tomorrow we are going to Tangier Island.  We are quite excited about staying there and meeting Mr. Parks, who owns the marina.

Here is Aunt Aggie as we approached her after our trip to town.

Chesapeake Bay

                                                  

There are mermaid sculptures all over Norfolk's waterfront area.

We had such a great time in Norfolk.  First, we had a fun weekend with family.  On Saturday George's cousins who live in Portsmouth visited.  Then on Sunday we went to Eva Gill's home for dinner with her family.  Eva is the sister of my friend Judy Schwarz.  Both evenings were delightful.

Barrie, Wesley, and Addie Harper came to see us on the boat.  Wesley proclaimed it a good boat.
I like to get the approval of a five year old.  They tell their truth.

Trish, Darby, Tommy and Eva entertained us on Sunday in Virginia Beach.
We had a delicious crab dinner and did a load of laundry. Super!

On Monday we were ready for the AGLCA spring rendezvous.  Lots of looper friends were in the marina with us.  We attended meetings with information about the northern sections of the loop, happy hours, and meals together.  We heard all about the upcoming challenges and beauty of the loop.  We also became closer friends with several people.  The rendezvous was attended by people currently looping, gold loopers who have completed their loop, and people who are planning to start the loop.

We also opened our boat to visitors on Tuesday afternoon, so people could see how we live on a 35 foot Mainship Trawler.  Several boats were on the tour that day, enabling folks who are in the planning stages for the loop to view different boat designs and think what will work for them.  It was like an open house.  

We decided to leave Norfolk today (a day early) and start our Chesapeake Bay section. We have planned a six day trip to Baltimore, where we will leave Aunt Aggie while we go home for five days.  That leaves no time for weather issues or any other problems.  By leaving today, we gave ourselves one free day.  

The trip started fine with Aunt Aggie moving through the harbor and dodging big ships.  George did a great job missing two container ships, a military refueling ship, and a cruise ship, "Brilliance of the Sea."  There were also many small boats around us.  

This is one of the container ships that passed us.

Things got rough around the second hour.  We were past the harbor section and into the bay, which was wide open to Africa at that point.  The east wind had lots of room to build waves, which hit us on our beam.  We were rocking!  I was miserable.  I cannot move around or relax or help when the boat is rocking and rolling.  George claimed not to be worried.  I sat down and knitted.  What would happen when we needed lunch?  What about going to the bathroom?  We still had four hours left, much too long for this ruckus.  

Here is the proof of how much we were moving from side to side:  This storage box upstairs is off its wooden block, knocked to the side by the waves.  I discovered this after we anchored.  

See how it is off center?

Once we moved further up the bay and passed Plumtree Point, we finally got some protection from the east.  The winds softened.  The waves calmed.  Martha stood up to watch for crab pots.  George said, "I thought it would smooth out once we got up here."  The water became almost glassy.  It stayed that way.  Yahoo!  We had a nice run into our anchorage at Bryan Bay.  We are in a beautiful and quiet place.

This is the glassy, smooth water we now have.  

We have not anchored in a long time, and we're excited to be out here tonight.  Also we are glad to be on the move, headed for beauty and crab cakes in the Chesapeake.  

We're in Norfolk, VA.

We passed under three railroad bridges today. We had to wait for the first one.
 This one and the third were already open.

We made it to Norfolk today - easy/ peasy.  We were just 8 miles away at Top Rack Marina in Chesapeake, so we had a lazy morning.  We filled up our diesel tanks and emptied our waste tank, and we were on the way around 10;30 am.

Motoring through a working harbor is impressive and not for the faint of heart.  Is that barge moving?  Do you see the sailboat under the bridge?  Look at all those cranes! We were lucky that it was a sunny day and our Blue Garmin charts were clear.  We came north on the Elizabeth River and passed lots of interesting sights.

 This ship was being loaded.

There were a few of these older, decommissioned military ships.

We saw at least two of these giant aircraft carriers too.  

George's second construction job after Tech was here in Norfolk.  He scanned the waterway, looking for the bauxite unloading facility he helped construct in 1973.  We married in June and moved here.  He worked in Portsmouth, and we lived near Old Dominion University in a furnished tiny apartment.  I volunteered at Planned Parenthood.  I remember driving through tunnels to get to their downtown office.  

This mermaid sculpture is on the dock at Waterside Marina where we will be all week.

We took a walk around the downtown and noted the many mermaid sculptures.  They are a cheery unifying art. We also looked for a place for dinner with children tonight.  We have guests coming soon:  Barrie and Matt Harper and their two young children.  We'll have happy hour on the boat and then walk to dinner nearby.  Tomorrow we get to see Eva Gill, a friend who lives in Virginia Beach.  She is picking us up in the afternoon and taking us to her house near the beach for supper.  She also suggested I bring our laundry to do at her house.  What a treat!  So we'll have a fun weekend before the Rendezvous begins on Monday.  

We are happy to be here.  It feels like the half-way point in our loop.  We have traveled over 2500 miles on the Great Loop.  We will learn this week about the loop in New Jersey, New York, Canada, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi River.  We will also see lots of looper friends.  Their boats surround us here.  We are eager to hear about the future and to celebrate this adventure with like-minded buddies.  

This blog will take a short break while we attend the Rendezvous.  We will be back in action on Friday, May 8, as we enter Chesapeake Bay.  

Rain and Wind in Virginia - our 8th state!

We were the first boat.

We left the Welcome Center dock in the Great Dismal Swamp at 7:00 am.  Three boats followed.  We went only 4 mph, leaving no wake and appreciating the beauty of the early morning birds' calls.  As we moved, a duck would land in front of the boat, wait for us to get close and then take off and fly about 50 feet before landing again right in the middle of the canal.  There was sporadic light rain but no wind.

We passed into Virginia, our 8th state on the loop.  We also saw this ramshackle house by the canal.  The funny part was that the sign beside the house says, "Superintendent's House."

We may be going overboard with government cutbacks.

As we approached the Deep Creek Lock, 17 miles away, we asked the Lockmaster if we could enter early.  He said yes because we were early enough for him to lock us through and be ready for south bound boats at 11:00 am.  That was lucky!  Wind had picked up to 20 mph and was expected to increase in the afternoon, so we were eager to finish the day's travel. The Lockmaster, Robert, was charming and knowledgeable.  I'm sorry we couldn't spend more time with him.  He blew a conch shell before and after using the lock.  

Sue and Dan on Tranquility are tied behind us in the lock.  

Wet and windy weather as we locked through.

We traveled another 45 minutes to Chesapeake, VA, and docked with a lot of help at Top Rack Marina.  The wind was really pushing us, and two guys on the dock had to work hard to pull us in.  Thank you!!  The wind this afternoon has been up to 30 mph, and the rain will keep up all evening.  However, we are going off the boat for dinner at the Amber Lantern Restaurant onsite.  If you eat at the restaurant, you can stay on the dock for free. It's supposed to have really good food too.  Such a deal. Our clothes are pretty soggy, so I hope this place is full of wet boaters.  

Here's one more look at the Great Dismal Swamp.  The water was glassy, and the trees were reflected.  

It was a green world.  I hope we can visit again on a sunny day.