We left Worton Creek and started heading south down the Chesapeake towards one of the major sailing centers in the world, Annapolis (they have some powerboats too but nobody notices them…🤣🤣🤣). The beauty of the day was that we actually had some wind that slowed us to pull the sails out and shut down the motor!!
All on board were very happy to get some sailing in and the day progressed smoothly. Soon enough, the Chesapeake Bay bridge that crosses over from Maryland’s eastern shore to Annapolis came into view. It took us a few hours to get to it but nobody was complaining!! We knew that once we passed under the bridge, we’d be turning to starboard and heading into Annapolis.
As we approached Annapolis, we rolled up the sails and got ready to motor into the harbor but first we had to dodge about 200 crab pots and lots of boats. One other obstacle was that to get to our mooring ball in Spa Creek, we had to pass through a draw bridge. Seeing that the bridge opened on the hour, we knew timing was everything so we slowed down to make sure we got there without having to circle around waiting. We did pretty good and got there about 5 minutes before it opened!!
Once we had settled in and had our bourbons to celebrate another first for me (everything’s been a first so a lot of bourbon has been consumed so far!! Liver donations accepted…🤭), we dinghied over to the harbormaster dock and took a stroll into town. I gotta tell you, Annapolis has a ton of nautical history including the Naval Academy, to explore. It was a blast seeing the old part of town with it’s shops and historical buildings…I just love that stuff!!
We did so much the entire time we were there that some stuff might be out of sync in the timeline but as I alluded to in the last post, there were some major highlights that stand out. The first one was that the was a music festival scheduled to happen the weekend after we got there and one of the headliners was Blondie!! Most of you reading this will know who she is so I won’t explain it (look it up if you don’t…😉) but one afternoon as we were walking past where the main stage was, Blondie was doing a sound check for the gig so we got to hear a few of her songs!! It was cool and she sounded great!!
One night we got invited to a “cruisers gathering” in a local pub and it was a blast. We had a few beers, talked about cruising, and when my “new friends” found out that I was eventually going to be single-handing the boat, they had a ton of great info and suggestions!!
Another highlight was a very well known event called the Maryland Renaissance Festival (aka The Ren Fest). I’d never been to one of these and I was quite curious to see what it was all about!! I asked Kim and Jeff if it was really like knights, jousting, and giant turkey legs and they said “Yup…and more!!”). It’s was also “Pirate Day” when we went so it was double fun!! Let me tell you… there’s a lot of walking involved with this thing but it’s a good thing cos all you do is eat, drink, and people watch!! A LOT of people come to this dressed in costumes and such and everyone, as Kim put it, is very happy to be there!! No grumpy people here. We watched jugglers, acrobats, musicians, and yes, even real jousting and It.Was.Awesome!!
We also met up with two couples that are friends of Jeff and Kim’s. The first was Curt and Vanessa…they not only invited us to their house for a delicious burger bar lunch but they were also kind enough to accept delivery of a replacement generator for Infinity and then helped me send it back when it turned out to be too big. Thank you both for everything!! The other couple, Jay and Tanya from S/V Minx, invited us to their boat for sundowners, snacks, and great conversations about cruising!! People that cruise are so willing to share their experiences and advice about what they’ve learned, it’s amazing!! Extra kudos go out to Kim and Jeff for taking me under their wing for this trip!! A great time was had by all both times and I thank you!!
So even as great as everything had been so far, there was one event that topped them all even it wasn’t planned by us (I say this tongue in cheek cos it really wasn’t fun at all….). We call this the “Dave Incident” and it’s a true testament that booze, peer pressure, and 20-something year old males don’t mix well. Ready for this??
It’s Saturday night, roughly 3am, and it’s pretty quiet in the Spa Creek mooring field. Everyone’s asleep until a few male voices (read loud, drunk, testosterone fueled voices) rouse me from my dreams. Up on the bridge (yes, the one we passed thru to get to the mooring field), I hear one drunk idiot yelling to another drunk idiot, JUMP, JUMP, JUMP followed by a huge splash and laughter. I was like…”WTF just happened” and I listened very carefully as the laughter suddenly turned to panic when the “JUMP, JUMP” idiot start yelling “Dave….swim this way” over and over. That soon turned into “Dave…keep your head up” over and over and at that point, I jumped out of the berth and slid open the companionway hatch to see what was happening. Up on the bridge were 3 very panicked fools looking down into the pitch black water for the 4th panicked fool that was trying to find a way to get out of the water. As I watched this, Kim and Jeff came out and asked what was going on and I told them what had happened so far and that I was thinking of getting in the dinghy and going to help. Kim suggested we call 911 too and as she dialed the number, the first of MANY sirens could be heard getting close. We stayed put as the firemen, police, and ambulance started arriving on the scene. The rescue people climbed down a ladder where the draw bridge was and in the dark distance, we heard one of the firemen say “YO…MORON, OVER HERE” as he clapped his hands like he was calling his dog. After a minute or so, we saw the EMTs leading Dave to the ambulance so we knew things were going to be ok. We then started wondering how much this was going to cost Dave and his friends. So for a week or so after that, anything that went wrong we blamed Dave for it…lollol. Can’t make this shit up….🙄
Next up .. Cambridge and the start of sailing solo!!
❤️❤️❤️
Sailing Infinity 