06-04-09 RICK ‘N ROLL ROCKS ‘N ROLLS TO BALTIMORE

Betsy here: I dried out enough last night to finally go to bed! This morning it was still misting rain, so we waited in Annapolis for a couple of hours, debating whether to forge ahead or wait til the rain stopped. We took a look at the weather radar at about 9:30, when the rain had stopped but it was still very overcast. Thunderstorms were predicted for this afternoon. The radar showed enough window for us to decide to make a try for Baltimore, so we headed out at about 9:45. The seas weren’t too bad, maybe 2-3 foot swells, not choppy. We made one turn heading into Baltimore where we had pretty beamy seas for several miles which was uncomfortable, but we knew the end was near. It was a 2 hour run at about 19 MPH. The rain held off until just after we got settled in, and it has rained steadily ever since. It is on days like this that we are so thankful to have our newly added canvas/plastic/screened “den” which doubles our usable space, and continues to stay incredibly dry even in torrential downpours!

We are now comfortably docked at Inner Harbor East Marina, an older facility but with nice floating docks, fair facilities, and very friendly staff. We are within walking distance of the Aquarium, which we will visit tomorrow. Today we just lolled on the boat as it rained, getting caught up on chartwork, making plans for how to navigate New Jersey. We have to decide whether to try the inside passage, which is reportedly very shallow, or go outside and come back in at Atlantic City, then out again (you don’t think I’m going to bypass that gambling opportunity do you?)

We got off the boat long enough to walk a couple of blocks to supper. We’ve stayed pretty much to plan as far as eating breakfast and lunch on board and supper out. No more news today.

Let me digress to Annapolis for one final thought: we were so lucky to be in the one spot on the city dock where there was a ladder up from the water to the dock. We were able to use that ladder to climb on and off the boat. Without the ladder, it was at times a 3 foot stepup, hard to do when you’re balancing a dog in one hand.