What can I say. We've spent the last 3 weeks in the beautiful Chesapeake. The Chesapeake Bay is a photographers paradise as well as a sailors dream. From Chesapeake city we sailed into the Chesapeake bay and made our way up the Sassafras river to Georgetown.
We anchored in the Sassafras along with L'Attitude (a catalina 40 from...get this...Penatanguishene on Georgian Bay)and enjoyed the calmness of this serene anchorage. We had a great time in the Sassafras and managed to get some much needed work on Meggie. We finally got some varnish done on her and a few odds and ends that needed to be tended to after long sails in the ocean. The Sassafras was a chance to relax after an eventful few weeks, but after a few days in the Sassafras we unfortunately had to say goodbye and make our way down to Annapolis for the boat show. We had some work to do and had to get a move on.
After a few hours we began to see the shape of a bridge...and then the more we looked around...the more sailboats we noticed heading in the same direction. At one point I counted the sailboats and I got to 100 and stopped.
It was amazing...everyone was sailing and the bay was full of white triangles everywhere. The closer we got to the bridge the more sailboats we saw. Not only were there cruisers out, but it was the weekend...and that means one thing in Annapolis.....RACE DAY. There were thousands of boats out racing, cruising, fishing...you name, there were boats doing it. It was an exhilarating sight and an incredible introduction to Annapolis, Maryland.
We entered the Annapolis harbour to find a zoo. There were boats heading in every direction, and we immediately headed down Spa Creek to hopefully find some sort of anchorage in this crazed zoo we had come upon. We were approached by one of the many dinghies zipping around and realized it was Doug from L'Attitude. He filled us in on the chaos down the river and we decided to take a mooring for the night and deal with anchoring the next day. We managed to run into another "new friend boat...Mike and Debbie from Maddy"
and Mike filled us in on a secret spot he knew of. You have to understand that this guy is a walking guide for sailing, cruising, anchoring, travelling and many more things. Mike and I are like sponges when we spend time with him as he is a wealth of knowledge and just a really great guy and not to mention his first mate is pretty great too. Anyway...we found the cream of the crop anchorage all the way at the end of Spa Creek where we anchored and still sit anchored right now. The next two weeks are a blur. We worked, we were almost hit at anchor (in our "cream of the crop" spot, and only thanks to Mike and Debbie, Meggie was not injured), we had crab night on "crab boat" later to become "turkey boat" (or AKA: L'Attitude), we had great dinners, drinks, happy hours, days at the show, days filled with spending $$$ on items we needed at the show (epirb, solar panels, anchors etc…), great walks, beautiful days, cold rainy days, and early mornings...very early mornings. Ok...well let me tell you about "crab night". We were all supposed to catch crab one day and have a crab dinner one night. Mike and I however got busy and side tracked and didn't catch any crab...BUT...Doug, managed to catch about 15 blue crab right from the cockpit of his boat. It was amazing, and here's how it's done. It's called chicken necking...pronounced chick'n neck'n. You take a chickens neck (or leg) sold at the grocery stores for this purpose...you tie them to a string and you dangle them in the water and the weight of the neck weighs the line down. Then you gently pull up the line and if it feels heavy, you've got a crab attached. You pull gently until you see the thing hanging on having the meal of its life and then you net it. So...then you have to put the 15 crab in 2 small pots on the galley stove to steam them. This is the fun, sad and most hilarious part of the whole thing. The screams that came out of L'Attitude that night as the crabs were thrown into the steaming pot or dropped in the sink and trying desperately to get out, were hilarious...you would think someone was committing bloody murder. It made for an entertaining and very smelly evening. We were also fortunate enough to spend Thanksgiving with Doug and Wendy as well. We had a great dinner with all the trimmings and although we all missed our families at this time, we were glad we were together and could spend the holiday with great company.
The other attraction to Annapolis other that it's beauty, sailing, and in October the sailboat show, it is home to the Naval Academy of the USA. The grounds in the academy are amazing and it's a treat to see the freshmen’s all decked out in their full attire. We were fortunate enough to watch a ceremony in the main square and even though we had no idea what they were doing or why,
it was still pretty cool to watch. We cruised through the academy checking out the architecture and the amazing history. It’s quite a sight to see.So..now we’re finished with our work and are ready to head south again as the days are getting cooler and we are using our alcohol stove almost everyday now. Annapolis has been a treat, but better than that are the friends we met and got to spend time with. We’ve got our woollies on and are ready to head out. So until next time…adios and as always keep the messages coming…they’re always fun to read.
Kylie and Mike
