Maine to Maryland 2007

A lot has happened in the 12 days since we updated the Blog. We left Mt. Desert Island on Thursday, 9/13 and had a sweet spinnaker sail out of the park followed by a pleasant motor down the Atlantic to Cape Ann and another spirited sail into Gloucester on Friday, 9/14. We dropped the anchor once again at N42 36.6 W70 39.4 and spent a fun weekend in Gloucester finishing up any remaining lightning damage business. We even got a free night on the dock at Brown’s after we filled up with over 150 gallons of diesel.

We had a forecast of very light NE winds, so we were expecting a pleasant motor to Annapolis, Maryland. We left Gloucester on Monday, 9/17 and ended up quickly picking up to 20 knot NE winds, which blew us straight through Cape Cod and Buzzards Bays and down the Atlantic coast. We kept thinking they would drop off at some point, but even as we turned up into the Delaware Bay on Wednesday morning, we still had excellent winds pushing us on. We had to motor sail our way through the C&D Canal and down the Chesapeake for an arrival in Annapolis on Thursday, 9/20 at 9:30am. It was a 455 mile trip completed in 74 hours and we couldn’t have been more pleased with the amount of sailing we were able to do. We anchored in Harness Creek off Quiet Waters Park in south Annapolis (N38 56.12 W76 30.43).

Since our arrival in Annapolis, we’ve been reuniting with old friends and meeting new ones. We excitedly caught up with the boat show staff on Friday evening and spent Saturday with other Caliber owners. We spent Sunday hanging out with Ed & Eva aboard Makai and Matt & Gayle aboard Alisios. We met Ed and Eva on Friday and were eager to tour their brand new 2007 Caliber which they moved on to this year. We met Matt and Gayle last year and they had us all over to Alisios on Sunday evening for dinner; we are thrilled for them as they prepare for a 7 month cruise south. It seems everyone we speak to is preparing for an exciting cruise, just as we are nearing the end of ours. I get the idea this trip to Annapolis will rouse bittersweet feelings about the imminent end of our sailing trip.

We headed over to Back Creek in the Eastport section of Annapolis on Monday to anchor near Woodsback Marina for a few days before we move into a slip for the show (N38 57.96 W76 28.99). It was looking like we’d be anchored for the show this year, but a Back Creek slip is becoming available in October, giving us the opportunity to keep separate working hours and come and go as we please. We’ll catch you up on Annapolis before we go into full-time-boat-show-set-up-mode on September 29.