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06/27/2010: "Arrival in Annapolis"

Saturday June 26th:
Spent the day in the Solomon's Island area. Cori's folks picked us up in the morning and after breakfast they ran us around on a few errands and then spent part of the afternoon at the museum. As usual I got kicked out before I got to see everything. This time because they were closing early for a concert on the grounds in the evening. After that we went with her folks to check into their hotel and get on the wireless to try to solve some computer and phone problems. I still cannot get my new Droid Incredible to work as a modem (tethered). Cori's works fine, mine is just a little different. While there her Brother Steve called and since he was only about 90 minutes away was coming to join us. So we got to spend the day with her family. She is not sure when she will be back to South Dakota so this was a nice visit. In the evening we had to get the boat ready for the next jump. We had to store stuff that had been taken out and hoist the dinghy on deck and get it tied down again. Then we needed to plan out the day, how early to start, how far to go, where to stop, etc. Then it was time to try to sleep. Remember, we are on a mooring and don't have air conditioning. It is still in the 90's out here.

Sunday June 27th.
Up at 6:30 to finish getting ready and we were off and running by 7:30. The forecast was again for 5-10 from the southwest but we hoped to be able to sail today. Cori pulled out the spinnaker and the mizzen stay-sail in case they were right. We headed up the Bay with almost no wind. It was so hot the sweat just poured off us. It looked like another motoring day. Again we were motoring the same speed as the wind so there was no cooling breeze. Just after we did our noon spot report the wind started to build from the south. When we added our speed and the apparent wind and it got close to 10 knots it looked like we maybe could sail. At least we had a cooling breeze. We put out the spinnaker and were managing 3.5 knots so at least we were moving. We added the mizzen stay-sail to help out a little. The wind kept building until we were sailing 4-6 knots and showing 8-9 knots apparent. Not too shabby. We continued on and as we got closer to Annapolis we were meeting up with a lot of others out sailing, just not that many going downwind. We finally made it to Annapolis and had to drop the sails to head in. The stay-sail comes down easy but the spinnaker is not as easy. Once down it was time to try to navigate our way in. With a lot of confusion about the markers and a lot of boats going every-which way, some sailing others motoring and some at anchor we made it into the harbor. You have to respect the old-time sailors that did it all without a motor. We had decided to tie to a mooring again since I hope for some day trips and don't want to have to worry about the boat while at anchor while we are away. This also gives us access to shore facilities again. I do like a nice long shower, something you can't do on a boat. Of source we left the boat open to cool off while we went to shore to clean up and eat. What are the chances it will cloud up and rain before we get back? It turns out the chances were real good. As we left the restaurant it started to rain. We haven't unloaded the dinghy yet and rode the water taxi in so we hurried to the taxi dock. No taxi. We called and they said it would be 5-10 minutes. It was raining harder. When the taxi arrived we headed back right away, just as it stopped raining. Turns out is was a short shower related to another storm that was passing north of us. Luckily nothing important got wet. Unfortunately the boys, Ben and Bruiser (our bears) were left out under the dodger. Luckily they only got a little wet since they were partially covered. Other wise the boat would smell like wet bear. :o)

Tomorrow we will start our sightseeing with a trip to the Naval Academy, and finding out the best ways to get to Washington DC and Baltimore. We are planning on being here until the 5th. We want to see the fireworks. They tell us the display in the harbor is real nice but I may try to go to DC to see them there. We will decide later.

So now it is time to connect Cori's phone to the computer and upload this. Eventually I will get mine figured out before I get mad and throw it overboard.