Crew Log for October 23rd, 2022
Trip Summary:
Rock Hall – Annapolis
Trip Distance of 15.7 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 1,400 NM
Departed at 08h30 hours and arrived at 12h00 hours
We spent several days in Annapolis, so we decided to split our visit into two separate “Crew Logs”: the first our trip from Rock Hall to Annapolis; and, the second a recap of our Annapolis shore leave.
I thought it was coincidental that our final mileage count after today’s sail was exactly 1,400 nautical miles. It wasn’t planned, but it was sort of cool. I love precision.
Last winter when I was making a rough sail plan for this trip I wanted to make sure we avoided both Newport, RI and Annapolis, Maryland, when the boat shows were on. We weren’t in the market for a new boat and somehow fighting for a mooring or anchor space and standing in lines for hours to look at “boat stuff” didn’t seem to make much sense to us. We see lots of boats as it is, and there is no shortage of West Marines or other marine chandleries that don’t require you to queue up to spend your money.
Our trip down from Rock Hall was a perfect down wind sail directly into Annapolis Harbor. Well, it would have been perfect, if at least one of us had been paying attention. As I noted in my real time up from a couple of days ago, it is easy to get complacent, particularly on long sails where sail changes or adjustments are not necessary. “Auto” was driving the boat, while the human crew were distracted by other things, far less important than driving the boat.
We were gliding along peacefully when we heard a loud bang. The boat felt like it was coming apart. We had careened off a red buoy that marked the course under the William P. Lane, Junior Memorial Bridge. Anyone familiar with Annapolis will know that the bridge spans the width of the Chesapeake and connects Maryland’s eastern shore at Kent Island, with the state’s capital, Annapolis. When it opened in 1952, the bridge was the longest continuous over-water steel structure in the world. It has 5 lanes and carries an estimated 61,000 vehicles daily. There were a lot of directional buoys on the bridge approaches, one of which has some new scuff marks.
It was difficult to assess the damage from the deck other than hanging over the side and running my hand along the hull. It looked bad, but we were relieved that the impact did not seem to result in any structural damage. Once again, I was grateful for our decision to buy an older well built boat that stood up to a pounding. However, the last 1.5 hours of our sail to get to our mooring in Annapolis seemed to take forever. Once we were safely secured, we dropped the dinghy immediately and set about inspecting the boat for damage. Needless to say, our incident dampened the excitement of being in “America’s Sailing Capital”.
Apparently, claiming to be America’s Sailing Capital was originally a play on words. Annapolis was briefly the capital of the US and is currently the capital of the State of Maryland. It was likely the idea of some creative marketing person to label, Annapolis as "America’s Sailing ‘capital’”. While it might be boastful, it is hard to believe it wasn’t a significant sailing center.
We anchored in the “Front 40” mooring field in Spa Creek, which is where the “on water” portion of the boat show was set up the week before. We were also directly in front of “Ego Alley”, a narrow portion of Spa Creek that borders downtown Annapolis. It’s obvious looking at the massive super yachts and sailboats how it got its name. The only reason to bring a big boat in here, is to be seen.
Given we were under 35 feet, we had the option of going under the lift bridge and mooring in a quieter area of Annapolis. However, it was fun to be right in the middle of one of the most famous sailing cities in North America and watch the goings on, a short dinghy ride from the historic section of downtown Annapolis.
It is hard to describe how many sailboats there are in Annapolis. Boats line the shoreline and fill every creek. It was obviously a popular sport for transient sailors given the number of flags from foreign countries, mostly Canada. Several boats from St. John, New Brunswick arrived later in the day and we were very excited to see the first boat, other than ours, from Nova Scotia, sv Beyond, a Cheoy Lee Pedrick 41, from Armdale.
We dinghied over to say hello to Rob and Bettyann who were familiar with our previous boat, Exploits, which was back in Armdale briefly, before going back to Barrachois this fall. Rob was launching his dinghy for the first time since leaving Halifax, but we later saw him with a “new to them dinghy” that they were lucky enough to pick up in Annapolis. The floor fell out of the older one. Apparently the fix didn’t work.
I am guessing the city of Annapolis is a busy place most of the time. In additional to being the Sailing Capital, it was home to the Naval Academy and a popular tourist destination given its proximity to Washington, the real Capital and other major east coast cities. Annapolis seemed particularly busy today. There was a Navy football game the day before which might have partially explained it, but people all seemed to be all heading to some mystery place. Of course, we fell in line, and followed.
It turned out, we arrived in Annapolis for the Fall Festival which seemed to be concentrated on one main historic street. In addition to the many street vendors, there were musicians, balloon artists and the main attraction, a puppy parade. We missed the boat show, but we were here for the puppy parade. Sounds like a good t-shirt slogan.
After the excitement of the puppy parade, we were aimlessly wandering around the tourist shops in Annapolis, when we heard a familiar voice. We were surprised to see the crew from sv Magali who we left almost a week ago at the top of the Chesapeake. Seeing new friends again, and the lingering excitement of seeing the puppy parade, were the best cure for taking our mind off "the crash" earlier in the day.
We were looking forward to spending some time in Annapolis.
But, more about that, next time.
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