Annapolis

Originally posted at www.svsweetescape.com

First off - happy birthday to our daughter Erin who is 24 today.  We wish that we could celebrate together, but even if we were home, busy lives tend to get in the way.  In any event we hope she has a nice day. 

We continue to enjoy the sights and sounds of Annapolis. We have been on a mooring here since Saturday and we were lucky enough then to choose one of the few moorings that are not restricted during the boat shows.  This has  given us a front row seat to the building of the largest sail boat show in the country.  

Sunday, over half the mooring field was closed and boats that were on those moorings had to clear out.  This was necessary because since this is an in water boat show, they actually bring in huge floating docks that take up this space.  These docks are are used to berth the shiny new boats from every brand, often more than one.  The show occupies all of ego alley and a good part of the bay east of the Naval Academy.  We have been able to watch a non-stop parade of these boats pass by our mooring.

The down side to this is the inconvienence.  Much of the harbor is closed off including the largest dinghy dock at the end of ego alley.  The remaining dinghy dock for downtown is thus very crowded and there is limited space to land your tender.   But tough as it is - we cope.

If we get bored watching all those activities all we have to do is turn our head 90 degrees and watch the activities at the Naval Academy including practice of the Navy Midshipmen football team and the Navy Marching Band.  Along with all the sights we get the beautiful sounds of the Academy clock bells and as If that weren't enough, every afternoon we are entertained by the sailing school that is just across the bay, from young beginners in tiny sailing dinghies being shepherded by their instructors in power boats - to intermediates. It doesn't take long and soon you see the entire harbor full of sailing vessels along with a few small Navy training ships for good measure.

When we aren’t hanging out in our cockpit, we are enjoying our new dinghy.  The dinghy sure makes it a lot easier to get supplies.  On Monday we zipped over to Bay Shore Marine for extra boat parts.  They are a Yanmar dealer and we needed to add to our inventory of spares for the engine.   They had everything we needed and it was the cleanest working boatyard we’ve ever seen.  We have also been able to take in a tour of the Naval Academy grounds and museum along with some of the interesting and quaint shops and restaurants in the downtown area.

Although we enjoy Annapolis, it is frenetic and can be expensive as well so we are on the fence about whether we will move on or stay one more day to attend the boat show.  As this is being written it is raining and foggy which means that we’ll probably stay.  But we’ll see.

See our albums page for additional photos from this time period.