Baltimore & Chesapeake City (05/24 - 05/26/2021

Monday - Tuesday  05/24 - 05/25/2021

Day Miles:     32

Total Miles:    5178

Travel Days:   98

Total Days     209

Wednesday 05/26/2021

Day Miles:  55

Total Miles:  5233

Travel Days:  99

Total Days: 210

Monday

Our beautiful travels days on the Chesapeake Bay ended on Monday.  We left Annapolis on a gray overcast morning.  Winds were in the low teen's creating some chop on the Bay.  Not much to see on the cruise.  By the time we arrived in Baltimore it was beginning to rain.  We waited out the rain on the boat and took the free water taxi to the other side of the Inner Harbor.  Not much was going on with the weather and it being a Monday.

Entering Baltimore

911 memorial

Light house

Chesapeake ship lighthouse

Tuesday was a nicer day weather wise.  We again took the water taxi over to the other side of the Harbor and made plans to tour the submarine USS Torsk from WWII and the civil war ship USS Constellation.  It not take us long to determine that no way either of us would want to spend much time on a submarine.

After the sub, we walked over and toured the USS Constellation.  We were able to see all 4 decks and it was pretty cool.  Guess people back then were a lot shorter though.  We got lucky on the timing as it was close to noon and they were getting ready to fire off one of the canons.  I participated in pulling the cannon into position.

After the tours and finding a Chick Fil-A, we went back to the boat.  My friend from P&G / Coty who still works for Coty in Hunt Valley drove down to meet us for dinner.  Caroline Martello showed up with a nice bottle of the local flavor in hand.  

After a couple of beers and catching up, we walked over to Uno's for dinner.  I know this does not sound exciting, but it has been a loooong time since either of us have had Uno's.  Good news is we got lunch out of it as well.  After dinner, Caroline and I had some Four Roses (thanks Tony), and I had a cigar and we caught up some more.  It was great seeing her again and for some reason I did not get any pictures of us at dinner.  I will work on that.

Wednesday

We left Baltimore on Wednesday morning around 8:00, heading for Harve De Grace.  Our plan was to use the courtesy car and do some grocery shopping and then hopefully meet up with my cousin Tom Boyle, who I have not seen since I was 12.  Well you know what they say about the best laid plans...

Stay with me here as I work through our thought process.  Heading down The Chesapeake, we turned to Port (left), and started the last 10 miles or so to Harve de Grace.  Marcia called the Marina to confirm the use of the courtesy car for us that afternoon.  We were informed that there was no courtesy car.  Guess the Waterway Guide was mistaken, again.  We also knew that Friday and the weekend was predicting very high winds, thus very high waves.  We decided to let Tom know that we would not be coming into Harve De Grace and decided to travel the extra 40 or so miles to make it to our Thursday stop on Wednesday.  Marcia called the marina who said they would check and call us back in 5 minutes.  I changed course and headed for the C&D (Chesapeake and Delaware) canal.  After 20 minutes Marcia called them back and we were informed that they would not know for at least 2 hours.  So, instead of passing by another marina and then the possibility of having to back track 17 miles if we could not get into Delaware City Marina, we called and made a reservation at Schaefer's Marina.  About 45 minutes later, we got a call from Delaware City that they could get us in.  We decided to continue with our plan to stay at Schaefer's in Chesapeake City and cancel Delaware City for Friday.  We would run the extra miles on Thursday to Cape May and bypass Delaware City all together.  I know!  Exhausting to read, but gives you a glimpse into what can and does happen when traveling on a boat.

I contacted Tom and told hem we were staying in Chesapeake City at Schaefer's and he said that he and his wife Lauren might try and stop by for dinner.  It turned out to be a nice day but with rain moving in later in the evening.  Got fuel and tied up on the Pier right in front of the restaurant.  I felt a little bit on display as I washed down the boat.  

Entering the C & D Canal

Tom and Lauren Boyle showed up at the boat around 6:00.  It was very hard getting on and off the boat as it was due to low tide and the boat was well below the dock.  We did manage to get them on the boat for a show and tell and a couple of cold beers.  

We went to the restaurant for dinner and had Tom's neighbor's daughter as our server.  It was really great seeing / meeting them.  Guess the good thing about Facebook is you get to know people that you don't get to see.  The one funny story, Tom may not agree, was that when he called us to say he was at the restaurant, he asked what boat we were on.  I told him it was the one named "Boyle-n-Water".  

The rain did come and go during dinner, but we were treated to a double rainbow.

It was not a bad night on the boat other than a couple of big ships that passed by in the night.  Guess the canal is used by shipping companies as well.

We departed early on Thursday morning for our 72 mile run to Cape May.  Spoiler alert:  It was so the right decision.  We had a nice cruise day and as predicted we have had 30-35 mph winds with gusts up to 45mph, with rain on Friday and ALL day on Saturday.  Cape May will be my next post, probably tomorrow looking at the forecast.