Baltimore

From Fishing Bay in Deltaville VA, we were away early again under light winds and sunny skies.  We had a very pleasant run north, and it got so hot we stopped mid-day for a swim.  No beach, just drifted in the middle of the Bay for 20 minutes for a refreshing break.  By mid afternoon, we were at Salomon's Island Md, which is a very active boating community, with many marinas and some great anchorages.  You may recall my comments earlier in the blog that the anchorages were not great on the ICW, but the Chesapeake is much different.  Real inlets to create numerous, relatively deep water anchorages, and real topography to protect those anchorages from the wind.  We chose a marina here though as it had a pool, as it was >90F, and very inexpensive!  What a change.

Our trip in the Chesapeake continued north under much lighter, and importantly, following winds and seas.  Our objective for the next few days was to get as far north as possible, and away from Hurricane Dorian, which was now on track up the SE Coast and would hit the Carolinas and the Norfolk area pretty hard before continuing out to sea.  Our final northerly destination for this leg is Baltimore, from where we would visit NY by train and then head south.

We toured the inlet in the morning briefly to check out the anchorages, and departed by 0800,  bound for Annapolis.  The wind had come around to the north at 10 to 15 knots, and made for a slightly bumpy ride for the first couple of hours.  We contemplated putting into a nearby river for a break, but after considering it for a while, the wind started to ease off a bit, as the heat had built over land and sea, and we continued on to Annapolis. We have been to Annapolis before so didn't feel driven to walk around it in the heat, and would be back for a couple of days next week anyway.  So chose to just relax at the boat.

The final run to Baltimore would only take 3 to 4 hours, so we got a more leisurely start, touring the harbour first, and a mid-day stop planned at the Magothy River, to lunch and swim, as forecast to be close to 100F again.   Found a very pleasant cove to anchor, largely out of the south wind, and enjoyed a nice break.  No point arriving Baltimore too early in the heat. 

Leaving Magothy River after lunch, we encountered an overturned day-sailor with an older gentleman sitting atop the hull.  Looked like he had been there for a while, and a number of fast boats had gone by him without seeing him, or choosing to stop.  We stopped of course, but the complication was that he was deaf without his hearing aids.  He did communicate that he had an account with Tow-boats US so we called them rather the Coast Guard.  TBUS responded within about 20 minutes, as did a Maryland Natural Resources Police boat which was in the vicinity and heard the call.  We stood by until they arrived, and then continued our trek north.  There was anything broken with the boat apparently, just that type of boat is very hard to right with even two adults.  So I think they were destined to slow tow him back into the calmer waters of the river to attempt a righting.

After a hot run with following winds, we arrived Baltimore at Anchorage marina, and again made use of the pool to cool off after getting the boat secured.  The storm is now forecast to track well east of  the Upper Chesapeake area, but we may get some wind and rain still.  The boat is in a dock with finger piers on each side, so it can be "spider-web" tied off both piers to hold it in the middle of the dock, and not contacting the piers in the event of wind. 

Thursday we did some re-provisioning in the morning, and walked to the historic area of Baltimore, Fells Pt, in the afternoon.  Fortunately it was much cooler.  Friends from NY area came down for the evening, and we visited with them on the boat and at a nearby Italian restaurant.  Today we will travel with them to Gettysburg, on the way to NY, and spend the weekend in NY.