Annapolis Fall 2017

     As I noted in my previous posting, we are in Annapolis. Again. We stop here both north and south bound. Carol flies out of BWI and we (or I) go to the boat shows.

     This year was/is a little different. Instead of doing our annual maintenance a little north of here in Pasadena we did it in August in Essex, CT. This meant we had more free time before Carol had to fly out to work.

     We left Mystic a week after Heather's baby shower hoping to beat Hurricane Jose to the corner of Cape May, NJ and Delaware Bay. We went to Port Jefferson with mostly adverse current and calm conditions. We could not find our usual mooring to borrow so it took us a bit to find another suitable one. After getting secure we saw the one we really wanted not too far away. Oh well. Didn't move. We then went to Port Washington to pick up another free mooring because the timing wasn't right to go through Hell Gate in NYC. At sunrise we were underway with a small trawler accompanying us and planning to go offshore NJ overnight, too. We missed seeing Mike and Heather at the Gate because we got there a little sooner than planned and "someone" did not get up early enough.

     We had a pretty calm passage overnight offshore NJ. There were some swell from distant Jose but it did not get bad at all. The forecast was for huge swells by the time we got to Cape May and Delaware Bay but we beat them to the corner. It was still dark by the time we got to the Bay so we went the long way and used all of the main shipping channel. Added a little more time but not much. It was mostly nice and calm, too. Nice. Had good current up the Bay and through the C&D Canal, too. We anchored in the Sassafras River fairly early in the afternoon.

     After that we had a lot of time before we wanted to get to Annapolis so we just wandered around to different anchorages. We spent two nights in Worton Creek as Jose made its closest approach to us. A few hours of a little extra wind but not too bad. It's protected in Worton. That's why we were there. Then we went to Bodkin Creek to get fuel and a shower at Pleasure Cove Marina. Chatted with friends there and had lunch at the Crab before anchoring in our usual spot down the creek.

     From there we decided to try some new to us anchorages. We went into the Magothy River and went up into Sillery Bay. We anchored in Eagle Cove for two nights. A nice place. Decent protection. Then we went to Ridout Creek off of Whitehouse Bay. This is just a couple of miles north of Annapolis. We were close but had no need to get there yet. We also spent a night in Mill Creek which also is off Whitehouse Bay. A very pretty spot but not quite a hurricane hole that Ridout seems to be.

     Finally we got to Weems Creek, West Annapolis. Our number three home. Right away we went to Great Harvest Bakery for one of their terrific breads and ordered Pizza Bread for later in the week.

     The other unusual thing this year is some friends from the Waterbury Power Squadron are starting their first snowbird southbound trip. Al and Sue joined us in Weems Creek and we've showed them around a little, dined out together and visited each others boat. My blog entry yesterday was written while sitting next to Sue in a coffee shop. Really unusual. Not Sue, the circumstances. Okay, maybe Sue is a little unusual, too.

     After the boat show next week we'll restart our trip south. We are not sure of our winter destination due to the uncertainty of the situation in Marathon and when we need to fly home to meet our new grandchild. He or she has not arrived yet.