Boat Show Day 2

We head into “Chick and Ruths” for breakfast, split another one of the large omlets, before heading to our second day of the boat show. Bought a few odds and ends. Most important item was a prop guard “Hydro-Shield” for the outboard which should help us get up on plane faster. Now I just have to install it.
 

The Boat Show

We have lunch again with John and Genie at the Fleet Reserve. We sit down with the Island Packet group which includes John and Genie, which gets us a ticket for a free roast beef sandwich. Nice to have important friends. Had dinner with John and Genie at a new to us place the “Iron Rooster”, very unique menu, the food was very good. We head back to the boat and start to clean up for leaving tomorrow morning. Hope to catch the 7:30AM Spa Creek Bridge opening before the 1-1/2 hour commuter shut down. 

Spa Day for Outboard

Manana on Spa Creek

Since the last couple days have been cloudy our solar panels have not produced much power and our batteries are running down. 

 
I run the generator for two hours then another 20 minutes to make hot water. 


After lunch I confirm that we have water in the fuel, matter of fact water is the only fluid in the carburetor and fuel filter. I separate out about two cups of water from our fuel tank. Not sure how the water got there, most likely a couple years of forgetting to close the tank vent. After I get the water out of the carburetor and lines the engine runs just fine. Have dinner on the boat and head into town to mail our absentee ballots and get ice cream.

One of the many dinghy docks on Spa Creek

Annapolis Boat Show, Day 1

After breakfast we dinghy into the boat show. About 1/3 of the way there the engine dies and will not start. I assume there is water in the fuel, being the simplest explanation and knowning the carburetor is very clean having taking it apart just before we left on this trip. I row back and we tie up to a local public dock adjacent to where we are anchored. Most of the streets in Annapolis that dead end in Spa or Back Creek have dinghy docks. We have a 20 minute walk to the Boat Show through some interesting neighborhoods.

There was not the usual crowds at the boat show even though the weather was the coolest it has been for the last couple days. We met up with friends John & Genie, Bruce & Pam, Bob & Judy for lunch.

After an early dinner we walk back to the dock and row back out to the boat.

Evening on Spa Creek

Spa Creek, Laundry Day

We head into town for showers at the harbor masters office. Boats on the moorings get tokens to use the showers. Linda has left over tokens from our first trip south. They have been around for a while, and are actually starting to rust. As I walk up to the men’s showers someone walks out saving my token for another day. Linda is not so lucky. Once we are presentable we head to “Chick and Ruth’s” a famous local restaurant that is always crowded and very congested. 

If there is only two in your party you will be having conversations with lots of people since you are almost sitting shoulder to shoulder. Could be rather claustrophobic. Linda comes out of the Ladies Room and runs into an old friend from Ball State that she use to see every year at a conference. 

 

Linda, Steve, Betty

 We have fun talking with Steve and his wife. We head back to the boat to get our laundry and head to the laundry-mat. It is hot and humid and we are not looking forward to an even hotter and more humid laundry-mat. After we load the machines we find a coffee shop close by that has cold drinks and excellent Air Conditioning. Probably saved me from a heart attack. We head back to the boat and sweat for the rest of the afternoon. We meet up with John and Genie at the “Boatyard” for dinner and AC.

Spa Creek, Chores

We spend most of the day on the boat attending to chores. Had the Pump Out-boat stop by, took in garbage.

 

Peaceful morning on Spa Creek

Heron that I chased off our dinghy before he unloaded

There is a tour boat that comes through Spa Creek every couple hours. They play a prerecorded spiel on the history of Spa Creek. As they pass by, the spiel is saying how shallow that Spa Creek is and that boats can only leave at high tide. I could not help myself and yell out to the boat load of tourists, “that is not true”. Not surprisingly, subsequent tours after that, for the rest of the week turn around before they get to our boat.

Tour Boat, please come back

Had dinner in Eastport at the Davis Pub, a local neighborhood eatery.

Spa Creek, Annapolis

We leave by 7:30 to catch the current in our favor for the next couple hours on our way to Annapolis. Another nice shorts and bare foot day. I decided to get there a day earlier to increase our chances of getting a mooring or finding a spot to anchor in Spa Creek, one of our favorite urban anchorages. 

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Very protected long narrow cove lined with gorgeous homes and boats, just a beautiful spot. We always spent a couple days in the fall and in the spring there. We made the 3:30 PM bridge opening so we could leave on the last opening at 4:00 PM if we could not find a spot. From 4:00 – 7:00 the bridge stays closed for commuter traffic. All the moorings are full, but we find plenty of anchoring opportunities. We drop anchor way back in Spa Creek away from much of the traffic. Surprisingly there was plenty of space to anchor, the whole time we were there. Lot less crowded than pass Boat Shows we have attended. We shower and head to one of our favorites resturants “Rams Head” for happy hour. It is a little less happy than it use to be. Still half price beer on tap and wine, but appetizers are half price, not free any more. We split a dinner of Shrimp and Grits.
 

Shrimp and Grits at Ram Head

 

Bohemia River, Chesapeake

We are up at 5:30 and on our way by 6:45. We were one of the first boats out, unusual for us.

Off in the distance we watch another Vermont boat “White Seal” which is being sailed single handed putting up his sails in fairly rough conditions. Even more impressive was putting up the hanked on head sail single handily in such conditions. I am such a “sailing” weenie.

Expected to have more of a current boost up the long and boring Delaware Bay and River.For some reason the published current speed in our favor was about 2 hours late. It was half way up the Delaware Bay before we had a good boost in speed. A long parade of Snow Birds were heading up the Delaware Bay. With a good west wind we motor sailed most the way. I had not finished fixing one of our main sail battens so did not bother putting up the mainsail.

Snowbirds working their way up the Delaware

We get into the C&D canal that connects the Delaware to the Chesapeake by mid-afternoon. We had planned on stopping at Chesapeake City near the Chesapeake end of the canal. There is a very protected basin that has recently been dredged and has plenty of depth. We decide to push on to the Bohemia River where we anchored on our first trip south. The last time we anchored there by ourselves, this time there are 12 boats or so by dark.

“White Seal” comes in around sunset. Captain and Crew, Charlie Langworthy rows over for a visit happy to see another Vermonter. We had known about him talking with the Lockmaster at the Federal Lock, when asking about any Vermont boats ahead of us. He is taking the boat south by himself, his wife is going to join him later and then his daughter may join them for some time in the Bahamas. They have done this trip previously. Impressively he did the overnight off the New Jersey coast by himself.

White Seal, sunset on the Bohemia river