Annapolis, Maryland

May 1-6

Monday morning, May 1, we planned to leave for Annapolis for a few days. We were here in 2009 on our sailboat heading south and again 2012 on our sailboat heading North. The winds had increased so we decided to leave St Michaels early....by 7:30-8:00 AM. Jane went forward to haul the anchor up......and the windless did not turn, again!! It was suppose to have been fixed in Solomons but apparently something was wrong. Once again Peter hauled 80' of chain and 45lb anchor up in very stiff winds. Our ride out the river and Eastern Bay was very rough due to wind and waves but thankfully once we reached deeper water in Chesapeake Bay it calmed down. We had the wind, current, and waves aft and it was a warmer and much smoother ride.  Arriving into Annapolis after a weekend boat show we were surprised to find an empty mooring field. Out of 55 moorings only 2-3 were taken. We managed to pick up the mooring, with some difficulty in the stiff winds, but finally attached securely. Peter got straight onto the phone to the boatyard which worked on our windless. After an afternoon of trading pictures and diagrams over the phone, and talking to the windless company in New Bedford, MA they decided to order a new motor and shaft. They will send two men to work on it again to Annapolis. So we spent Tuesday and Wednesday walking around town to see the sights and trying to relax. Every afternoon we sat on our sundeck watching the sailing schools sail around the bay.

Huge tankers anchored in the Bay

Maryland Statehouse

Statehouse from the side streets

Pirate ship tours

Irish curragh rowing in Annapolis Harbor

Personal pan pizza for dinner!

Thursday morning we moved from the mooring in the Harbor to Annapolis City Dock. The good thing about it is we are more protected from the wind. The bad thing is we are right on the main parking lot and its noisy and there is no privacy......but the price is right and its convenient. Friday is predicted to have winds in the high 20s-low 30s with gusting into the mid 40s. We would rather be here than on the mooring. In the afternoon two men from Washburns boatyard in Solomons came to install our new windless motor and shaft. We ran the windless multiple times down and up with the anchor and everything worked fine. Fingers crossed.

easy docking along the city dock wall

view from the harbormasters office

On Friday the day dawned cold, windy, and rainy. The wind was out of the East and that sets up the harbor for flooding. The parking area beside us on the city dock was blocked off for the entire day and night due to the high water. The flooding was inconvenient to tourists but it made for a quiet day and night for us.

Harbormasters office and parking

All parking along the city dock wall was flooded

Someone forgot their car!!

Peter made friends with one of the harbormasters. he joined us for a drink and crabbies Thursday evening then loaned us his car Friday to go to the grocery store. As much as we like Annapolis we decided to move further north. The weather report for the next five days doesn't show a clear weather window to get up the NJ coastline. We are now under pressure to be in Rhode Island by the 14th since Peter is flying to Ireland for his 50th school reunion on May 16th. The difficult decision was made to find a place to leave Kinvara II for 4 weeks. Peter doesn't return from Ireland until May 26th and we can't leave to get back to the boat until June 5th. We found Anchorage Marina in Baltimore that has a very economical monthly storage fee so we are booked into it and have a car rented for May 10th to drive to RI.