New Hampshire to Massachusetts to Maryland…we’re here for a month, come see us!

Last things first: We had several folks saying they wanted to come up and join us for a weekend or a few days while we are up here, but no one has “reserved” a date yet. Well, we are here now, come on up! We’ll actually be working from September 29 to about October 20, but we have our evenings off. The US sailboat show is from Thursday 10/5 through Monday 10/9 and the US powerboat show is from Thursday 10/12 through Monday 10/16. The Annapolis waterfront is completely consumed during the boat shows, so if you aren’t interested in seeing the boats, you won’t want to come during those dates. I’m sure the changeover from sail to power on Tuesday & Wednesday 10/10 & 11 is an engineering feat.

When we last updated you I was typing away in the sleeping Pezza house on Sunday morning. Paul cooked us eggs for breakfast, Reinhart and I took steamy showers, and some of Cassie’s and Allie’s friends came over and we watched dirt-biking, 4-wheeling, go-carting and paint-balling…Paul has an excellent balance of being cool and safety conscious at the same time. Little Allie wants to be a performer and poses every time a camera is pointed at her. I’m not sure what Cassie wants to do, but she could hold a promising career as a rally driver. Allie showed me family photos, Cassie took me for a wild ride in the go cart, and Joanne and I talked about old times in L-building; she sends greetings to all the folks back in Greensboro. Then it was time to go. Once Joanne dropped us off at the marina in Salem, Reinhart and I quickly made the decision to take advantage of the couple of calm days ahead and get a start on Annapolis…swells would be moving in from Wednesday through Friday and it would be great to already complete our offshore passage before they managed to make it to the east coast. So we were off our mooring at 3:15 pm making our way for the Cape Cod Canal. We expected to be underway for over 3 straight days and arrive in Annapolis bright and early on Thursday morning. So our tour of the US Northeast comes to a sudden unexpected end, with no time spent checking out the sights and scares of Salem, MA.

We made the canal at 11:30 on Sunday night and even with the engine in idle we were making 4 knots on the favorable current. I was going to try to enter alone during my watch, leaving Reinhart asleep, but he woke up when I decreased speed and came up on deck. It was good to have another pair of eyes trying to pick out our markers; the entrance to the canal has a lot of buildings and lights to confuse things at night. I was as tense as I get. Once you are in the canal it is clear as it can be, and well lit, which is a bit weird when you are boating at night and used to your night vision doing all the work for you. Reinhart continued on with his 12-3 watch, and then I took over for 3-6. When he was back on watch from 6-9 and I was snoozing away, a strange sound woke me up at 8:30…could that be the reel. Yep, Reinhart caught another fish, this time it was a bonito and this time it made it on to the boat. I was dressed and up on deck just in time to hand him the net and he decided to remove the hook and the let the fella go…we just weren’t quite ready to start cleaning a fish. He’d throw another line out a little later when we were a little more rested and less discombobulated, but he wouldn’t get another bite on this trip. The next day was less pretty, more bumpy, and less fun…Mindy got grumpy. The 48 hour point is hard; we aren’t enjoying the novelty of the first day/first night anymore and we haven’t quite worked into our routine yet. The end of the day; however, brought the Delaware Bay which needs constant evaluation through the night (a great distraction for a cranky Mindy), and the morning brought the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal to the lovely Chesapeake Bay, where we got a wicked sail in for several hours and before we knew it, we arrived Annapolis 75 hours after leaving Salem, MA.

Now we’ve arrived in Annapolis and believe it or not we’ve splurged and taken a dock space for the month. It is behind a home in the Eastport section of Annapolis on Back Creek and the owner also has a Caliber 40LRC; it must be fate. The price was about the same as picking up a town mooring for the month, but here we have power and water available. I believe it is about 1 mile to the Annapolis waterfront, and we also get wireless inside the boat; we think it will be a lovely home for the next month. N38 57.979 W76 29.014