Thursday May 27, 2021.
Temp: 80/69, Humidity: 56/93%, Top Wind: SE13 mph, Precip-none, Miles Traveled: 30
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What a beautiful day! Just look at the sky from this morning! We had a little bit of rain over night, so I went upstairs and opened the captain’s window. It’s so nice to have the lift-up snap method rather than rolling the window! It was pretty humid and warm this morning, but we weren’t going on a big giant voyage today, so we didn’t rush. Several boats were out before us, and we finally pulled our lines at around 9:00. Thank you for a fun time, St Michaels! Sorry we didn’t see more of you.
It looks like the girls are all lined up and ready to go
When we got out of the marina and into Eastern Bay, it was a bit choppy! That surprised us. The breeze was behind us, so it wasn’t uncomfortable. When we turned to a southwesterly heading toward the mouth of the bay, there were lots of fisher boats. We kind of wove our way around and throught them, then just zoomed outta there for about five minutes. We were shocked that the water in the Big Chesapeake was super calm! Weird! But we’ll take it!
Getting close to Annapolis, we had to maneuver around sailboats. That’s normal around here…. sailing is a big deal in Annapolis. We tootled our way in to the Yacht Basin, got our slip assignment, and Captain did a beautiful back-in docking job. The dock hand was very nice and helpful and got us all tied up. These are fixed docks, and they have at least a two foot tide here. We always find it helpful for the dockhand to suggest how to tie the spring lines, since they know their marina and the water. The tide was really low when we got here, so it was a big step UP to the dock from the gunwale. Perfect time to put the bikes back upstairs! We didn’t figure we’d use them here or in the next week or so, so might as well get them out of the cockpit where they’ve been riding since Cambridge.
I took another look at the weather, and the weekend still looks bad. When we checked in, we asked if we could extend our stay from two nights to four, and leave on Monday instead of Saturday. They were able to do that for us. They’ve probably had cancellations since I called yesterday, or maybe they just wanted to wait until we were actually here to give us the extra days. They were super nice about it, so we are relieved that we don’t have to sweat about leaving on Saturday…. because look at it. We like wind in the white and blue colors. Green isn’t great. Yellow, orange are bad. This picture just shows the sustained winds. The gusts are in RED, which are terrible bad (over 30 mph). Monday afternoon and Tuesday are looking great!
We got all settled in, and around 3:00 we gathered up some beverages and a snack, and headed to Ego Alley to meet Herb on his boat Phanthom. “Ego Alley” is a channel with a cul-de-sac turnaround, with boats docked all along the walls. It is managed by the City of Annapolis. People like to cruise in and out in their boats to show off, since it’s right in the heart of town. Herb is over 80 years old, and single hands a 53 foot boat. He has done the loop two and a half times, and has been to Maine the last couple of summers. He’s headed there again this year, and is planning to complete his third loop next year when the Canadian border is (hopefully!) open. He is a great guy, and loves to host “Porchtails” on his big boat porch. There were a lot of Loopers that came by to visit and meet other Loopers. It’s always a loud and fun time! We had so many people that we spilled out onto the sidewalk. People walking by probably wondered what kind of party they were missing out on.
Around 6:00, everybody pretty much dwindled away. We had made plans to go to dinner with Steve and Jane from Sabbatical. We met them on our first loop in 2018, and they are doing their second loop this year too! They are fellow Floridians, so we’ve been looking forward to seeing them. We invited Herb to come along, so we all walked over to the Iron Rooster. They had a pretty big menu, and lots of outdoor seating set up.
It was a fun time catching up with old friends! (Me, Kenny, Herb, Jane, & Steve.)
Maybe tomorrow I’ll get some pictures of Annapolis for you, since we don’t have any parties to go to. 😁🥳.
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Friday May 28, 2021
Temp: 72/60, Humidity: 55/97%, Top Wind: E18 mph, Precip-evening rain, Miles Traveled: none
Windy and rainy, and Small Craft Advisory issued at 6am this morning until 6pm tomorrow evening.
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Well, our suspicions have come true, and we are so glad we have a place to stay! Small Craft Advisory for the next 36 hours. It is windy out in the harbor, but not so terrible bad inside the boat basin. But man, oh man… are we ever rocking and rolling, non-stop! Sheesh!
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The rain wasn’t supposed to come until evening, so I loaded up a bunch of laundry and got that taken care of. Our slip isn’t far from the marina building, so that was an easy chore to do today. And only $1 wash, $1 dry. Not as good as free, but not terrible. This is looking from the marina building toward land, and Island Girl is in the row of boats on the right. (Yes – the marina building is on a dock at the entrance to the marina, and we are kind of tucked around it on the dock that goes out to it.
While I was there, I looked out at the mooring field, which is where Sabbatical is. Lo and behold, there’s Steve & Jane, out for a tootle in their dinghy! I said “hey y’all”, because they’re from the south, after all. They said they’d probably be here until Monday too. I wonder if their boat is taking the wind and weather better than ours is. At least their’s will point into the wind. We are sideways to everything that happens out in the bay.
Here’s an overview of Annapolis. We are the blue dot at the bottom center. Any boat traffic that happens out in the harbor just rolls right on in at us. The U.S. Naval Academy campus is at the top of the picture. This is graduation week, so there is a lot of energy and activity in town.
We did finally take a stroll into town. I figured we better go stretch our legs before the rains come. This is looking up the street, and you can see the dome top of the Maryland State House on the right. It was built in 1779 and is the oldest state capitol building in continuous use in the country.
This is looking back down the street toward the water, and it ends at Ego Alley. Notice how Covid has changed the appearance of this street? The city added a raised boardwalk which is level with the sidewalk to expand outdoor seating for all of the restaurants on this street. I love all of the brick streets and sidewalks in this town.
At the top of the hill is the Reynolds Tavern and 1747 Pub. It is a tavern in the 1700’s sense of the word, which today is more commonly known as a bed & breakfast, or Inn. Back in the colonial days, a “tavern” was a drinking establishment on the main floor, with sleeping rooms upstairs. More like a drink and sleep. 😉. We looked at the menu and didn’t see anything that was overly exciting, so we wandered back down the hill a bit.
We saw this place on our way up the hill, and decided to check it out on our way back down. How wrong could we go with “Bourbon, Beer, and Provisions”?!
This was a fun place. It featured all the prohibition time drinks, like Old Fashioned, SideCar, Manhattan.
They had a whole book about bourbons and whiskeys that they had! The quote on the bottom of the cover reads “ There is as much chance of repealing the 18th Amendment as there is for a hummingbird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington Monument tied to its tail”. Sen. Morris Sheppard, September 1930.
The 18th Amendment established the prohibition of liquor in the United States, and was ratified in 1917. The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment in 1933, making the 18th Amendment the only one in history to be repealed. OOPS. Only three years after Sen. Sheppard made his statement. I wonder how that poor hummingbird made it to Mars?🤔
Look at this list!! The rest of the booklet had descriptions of most of these. So many choices!
Kenny was a happy camper, because this is a great way to try a bourbon to see if you like it. We have been intrigued by Blanton’s ever since we toured the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort Kentucky. They distilled and bottled it there, and we saw cases of it, but they didn’t offer tastings or sell it in the bottle shop! So here was his chance to try it. It was a nice neat two ounce serving for $20. I have to admit, it was good. Quite sweet and warm, and it doesn’t bite back. Those of you who like rye wouldn’t waste your time with it. I’m afraid if we had a bottle of it, I might indulge into drinking it. 🥃 And I don’t even like bourbon. 🤷♀️
This was cool – it was hanging on the wall behind Kenny. It is a Prescription Form For Medicinal Liquor. It was written in June 1932, prescribing a pint of whiskey. I don’t know what the “directions” abbreviations mean. The blue ink part is the prescription written by the MD. The black ink part on the bottom is the pharamcy signing off that the prescription had been filled and cancelled. Funny that it kind of looks like U.S. Currency? Yep – because the forms were issued and controlled by the U.S. Treasury Department!
Here is a pic of the bar. You can’t really tell from this distance and the lack of clarity in this little picture, but they did indeed have some super top shelf bourbon up there. In the booklet, you could order a Pappy flight of three shots for $250. 😵💫
Moving on back down the road, my real reason for taking this walk was to check out the famous Chick & Ruth’s Delly. This place has been an Annapolis icon since 1965.
Inside, it is just a long narrow diner with bright colors. And I understand that every morning at 8:30, everyone stands and says the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States of America. This is a patriotic town, afterall, with the Naval Academy right here! We ordered a couple of pieces of pie, and a few donuts to go. We should try to come back for a meal while we’re in town. They even serve breakfast all day! Notice that the sign says Hotel Check In? Yep – they have ten hotel rooms upstairs.
Outside, this is a common sight – at least this week. There are lots of crisp white Navy uniforms everywhere. I love it! I’m sure these kids can get as rowdy as any, given the chance, but for a college town there is a lot of patriotism, honor and respect in the air.
I had to search for a flower picture for today…. I didn’t pay any attention until we got back to the marina and I realized I didn’t have one yet. So this is from the gardens at the Yacht Club right here at the marina.
Here are our treasures from Chick & Ruth’s. Strawberry rhubarb pie and pecan pie, two sugar donuts, and two chocolate frosted ones.
OH! Here is another awesome deal! You may have heard me mention that we like the painkiller drink that originated in the British Virgin Islands. It is made with Pusser’s British Navy Rum. Well there is a Pusser’s Caribbean Grill restaurant right here near the marina. It is a navy town, after all. You can buy a half gallon of Painkiller for $40!! If that does not include ice, that’s a heck of a deal!!
Back at home on Island Girl, we were happy to be inside when the rains came around 7:00. It’s forecasted to rain for about 48 hours now. This really is the first noticeable/measurable rain we’ve had since we left home 10 weeks ago! Ten weeks?! 😮
You can bet that I’ll be keeping a close eyeball or two on the forecast for our chance to make a break for New York. That requires a hundred some miles out on the Atlantic Ocean. It’ll take us two days to get to Cape May from here, which is our launching point for that piece of the trip. Stay tuned.