October 13, 2013


     Greetings to everyone from Spa Creek, Annapolis, Maryland.  We hope things are going well for all of you.  We have been on anchor here for  two weeks, arriving from Swan Creek on September 27th.  We were going to visit St. Michael's further down the Eastern Shore, but decided to come to Annapolis wary to make sure we got a good spot before the crowds of power boats and sail boats arrived for the power boat show followed by the sail boat show.  Also, we wanted to keep company with several of the sailing buddies we had met way back when in Atlantic Highlands, to enjoy their company, in addition to the other nice parts of cruising.
     We sailed into Annapolis' outer harbor, dropped sails and circled for 30 minutes until the Spa Creek bascule bridge opened and we proceeded through the very narrow opening and west about .9 mile to drop anchor right next to a park and surrounded by cute houses looking over the water.  The protection here from the gusty winds that have been blowing for days is excellent, though we did put out two anchors one windy night, only to have them get tangled up, causing the boat to drag.  I got out in the dingy and pulled the secondary anchor, got covered with rank bottom mud and found it wrapped twice around the primary anchor chain.  Our boat was nowhere near the spot where I originally dropped the anchor.  We're on just our primary anchor now, which seems to be working fine.
     The weather when we first sailed in here was blue skies and warm, temperature in the 80's.  Then Tropical Storm Karen, in the Gulf of Mexico, made landfall, weakened and travelled eastward across Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia to the Atlantic coast, made it's way north and parked just east of the Chesapeake Bay.  From this parking spot, Karen's remnant has been sending heavy rains and gusty winds since Wednesday, Oct. 9th.  Just in time to soak the sail boat show.  Not the power boat show.  Just the sailors.  I heard several people say they'd heard the weatherman say over 5 inches of rain so far.  So each morning we get up, dress warmly, put on foul weather jackets and I go out to prepare the dingy.  I pump out the 50 gallons of water from the rains, add some air to the leaky right pontoon, wipe down the tubes and seat and start the outboard, which has been running well, thank goodness.  Sally comes out and gets into the dingy, moving carefully always and we motor the mile to the dingy dock next to the boat show.  We join in with the other sailors in their yellow or red foul weather gear and spend the boat show days looking at stuff, conversing with the proprietors and other sailors, adding to our store of valuable information about weather, the Bahamas, gear of all sorts - and listening to and telling sailing stories.  We were standing in line for the weather seminar yesterday and this older gent behind us started telling stories of his one trip to the Bahamas, admitting he was beyond his level of skill and preparation and regaling us with a collection of terrible experiences with large waves, strong winds, awful harbors.  All very scary and discouraging to those sailors out for a first or almost first time, hoping for warm sun, lovely harbors, nice sailing and lots of fun.
      Later yesterday, we were talking to a guy about his wifi antenna and he talked about being on anchor on a key in the Abacos (northern Bahamas), relaxing in the sun, his wife working on line on the boat.  He made it sound like you want it to be, nice and warm.  There are all sorts of characters in this sailing scene and wildly contrasting opinions about how things are, so we have to sort through that in addition to running the boat and navigating our way south, down the coast.  So far, we're doing well.  Haven't hit anything.  Keeping warm, mostly.  Are saving our running aground for later, in the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW).  Just kidding, sort of.  But with the government shut down, I wouldn't think that the dredging of the ICW's shallow spots, already inadequately funded, is going to get any better.
     Sally had a very nice visit back on Long Island with her sister and with our older daughter's family, Brooke, Ben, Olivia and Amelia. Amelia who is 4 months old just started to roll over while Grandma was visiting.  Grandma also got to go to a swim and dancing class with Olivia, reminding her of Brooke and Emily's dancing classes and Derek, Emily and Brooke's swimming classes when they were growing up, very nostalgic and wonderful to enjoy being a grandma!! Lynn spent last weekend visiting psychologist friends and their teenage children and had a very nice time there.  For me (Lynn) it was a reminder of how much I love psychological ideas and clinical work and why I'm only able to describe this cruising trip as "taking a break," rather than as "retirement."
     It has been fun and stress-relieving and the other sailors we've met have been really wonderful people, sharing information, beer and some of the gear that cruisers need.  And it does feel good to not have to keep an appointment schedule, to take as long as I want at what I'm doing.  There are, of course, parts of cruising in which time counts, such as getting up early to start a long day of traveling.  That goes with traveling slowly and trying to get somewhere.  It does serve as a kind of antidote to the hurry of modern life.  Gotta go.  Hope all is well with you and your loved ones.  Lynn and Sally of Southern Belle