Annapolis and Going Home

One of the nice things about staying at the Annapolis Yacht Basin is the proximity to the town. It’s a stone’s throw to town and all the shops: All the boys wanted to make sure we ate breakfast at Chick and Ruth’s Delly (Yes… it is spelled D-E-L-L-Y): And so we all headed up there on Monday morning: The place was packed as usual.

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The downside to staying at any of the marinas close to town is there are limited options for walking the dogs. Also, there are signs posted around town like this:

I’m not really sure how they determine the actual fine since it has a range of $100 to $150. Is this something determined by the police officer when he catches you or does the judge in court determine this? Or, better yet, is there a scale they use to determine the fine? Do they have to save the evidence if you go to court and do they save this evidence if you appeal the decision? I asked one person about this who lives there and he said he believed it also had to do if it was runny or solid.

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Because of the dog issue and the fact the kids wanted a pool, we moved the boat over to Mears Marina after breakfast. Susie loves that marina as it has a nice pool and picnic grounds and places to walk the dogs. Plus it’s all fenced in and security is a little better.
So after we docked, everyone headed over to the pool:

And I wanted to head up and say hi to Jim at BOE Marine and buy him lunch. He owns Club Sea Ray… well at least he thinks he does. We went to a place called The Boathouse. I think every town has a restaurant called “The Boathouse”. Here’s our waiter: We talked bad about some of the Club Sea Ray members and their stupid questions and answers. Jim came clean and told me he has a second identity (he actually has 5 or 6) he uses called “wkearney99” to stir things up. Oh no… this is as bad as finding out Darth Vader is Luke’s father… Darth ended up picking up the tab.

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I needed to go to the grocery store and pick up a few things and Jim offered to let me borrow his work truck. That was very nice… and what an opportunity to take pictures and cause trouble.
We walked back to BOE Marine. Oh! I need to bring up the “blue light” thing. When we were in Nantucket, I made a post on Club Sea Ray about how tacky I think blue lights look on a boat. Like this:

There’s a $2+ million boat with what looks like a teenager’s gaming computer’s blue cathode lights duct taped to it. Yuk.

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In Jim’s store, however, my mind has changed.

By seeing a sample of these lights in a fish bowl with bubbling water and pea gravel at the bottom, I feel different. They are not tacky but very high class. And if you match them up with the blue rope lights: They look even better. I need to order this set up ASAP and be the envy of the dock.
Seriously, Jim letting me borrow his truck: And getting some stuff outside of town was a big help. Especially that new GPS and chartplotter I needed from West Marine.

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I got back to Mears with my supplies for cooking out and prepped everything for dinner. It was a real masterpiece:

Steak, fresh corn on the cob, pineapple marinated in maple syrup and cinnamon, and potato wedges with a little olive oil and salt and pepper and some ice-cold beers made for a great meal.

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After dinner, John (the oldest) left to go see Kendra. Her mother came to pick him up and he’ll be coming back to Williamsburg later in the week. Susie and I did the “John is leaving” dance.

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Tuesday morning arrives and I think everyone is ready to go home. I check the weather forecast and they’ve changed it from 5-10 knot winds out of the north and sunny to a small craft advisory being raised at 2 pm with 20 knot winds out of the south. Of course! We left the dock at 8:00 am and head south to try and get out of this weather forecasted to move in. I had not put any fuel on board since Cape May so I ended up stopping at Solomons Island and picking up about 260 gallons. That was enough to get me to the south end of the Bay and not go lugging a bunch of fuel around I didn’t need as I wanted to have some speed today.

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The trip down the Chesapeake was uneventful and pretty much flat dead calm with lots of haze. Visibility was only about 4 miles:

We got to Hampton about 2 pm and filled the tanks up again with diesel. The weather looked like it was starting to deteriorate and I was just hoping I could make the hour and a half run up to the Chickahominy River without getting dumped on or struck by lightning. Fortunately, we made the run with no issues. Well… maybe one issue.

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As I’m about 2 miles north of the James River Bridge, where the river is about 7 miles wide, along comes Mr. Angry-Tug-Boat-Captain.

This guy hails me on 16 and tells me to “back it down or your wake will tear me up”. According to my radar, I am 0.43 nautical miles from him at the closest point in a shipping channel on wide open water and he has a billion tons of gravel on board. Let alone the guy is in an area that is notoriously rough… HUH? I’ve run into this guy before. He yells at everyone on Ch. 16 about their wake and his tug boat. He proceeds to thank me for my wake and then the Coast Guard comes on the radio and says “Channel 16 is to be used only for hailing and distress captain. If you need to talk to the other boat, go to another channel.” Ridiculous.

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Got to the dock about 4 pm. The day ended up being a long run and I was exhausted.
I’m always afraid to get to the house after these long trips… never know what utilities have been shut off, etc. etc. We had some friends stay at our house this year as their house was getting remodeled. The house was in great shape when we got home and they left us some steaks and corn in the fridge to cook out. How nice.

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They also had a Golden Retriever and I guess it didn’t do too good with the dog toys we had. There was a note on the counter:

And all new dog toys. Very nice touch… We really didn’t expect them to do everything they did while we were gone… PLUS… all the utilities were still working!!!

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So this is my last post for this trip. We did about 1500 nautical miles and burned a little over 2800 gallons of diesel fuel. OUCH! However, it was a trip of a lifetime and lots of great memories. I hope my kids look back at this someday and remember all the things they were able to do…

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Now I have to go back to reality and figure out how to pay off these credit cards.

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Oh yes... and one final note. If my children are reading this... I've found the incriminating pictures you all took and left on my camera and I will be saving them to show someday at your weddings...

If I live that long...