Baltimore at last

We made it to Baltimore Sunday night. It's now Monday night and I realize I haven't entered a blog for a while. Elizabeth is so much more on top of this than I am (elizabethssailingblog.blogspot.com).

It's been a bit of a tough go. We love the Chesapeake for its many nearby anchorages and inlets and it's sheer beauty. People are friendly and we've made great friends here.
But it's also incredibly shallow and so many new anchorages and places to go also means a sharpening of navigational skills and nerves.

After Georgetown we motored the two or three miles to Worton Creek and spent a night in a quiet anchorage at the mouth of the creek. We walked the little beach, upsetting a heron and the next morning decided we'd head down to meet up with Folie a Deux, the cat with a family of five we met earlier in Georgetown. The weather was incredibly hot - in the upper 90s and the pool was closed at the marina. Still, we decided to take a slip, visit with the Ramsays and try to deal with our new alternator which seemed to die. Scott and Aidan replaced it with our original old one (tech lesson for Aidan) and the yard at the marina has sent it off to be rebuilt. Tracey Ramsey (the other mom) borrowed a car from one of the guys at the marina (it's their home marina) and we headed to Chestertown to do major grocery shop and liquor run. It was heaven to have a car. Unfortunately I overbought and found trying to shove everything in my fridge (also dying) plus doing up two loads of laundry in 90 plus weather a bit exhausting. Tracey and Tim had a brilliant idea to have the kids hang out at the catamaran which had air conditioning while the four of us headed up to a nice restaurant where it was all you can eat oysters. I'm not totally fussy on them but three out of four had a great time eating raw (yikes) and other assorted oysters.

The next day we decided to run to Middle River - a large river just north of Baltimore. Given the forecast for crappy weather this week we thought it would be good to get into Baltimore where we could shop and visit museums etc. when it was rainy. We found Middle River to be incredibly shallow (9 feet at the mouth) but decided to keep forging to a supposedly deep anchorage of 6.5 feet (we draw 6.2 before the big shopping trip). We skimmed bottom and finally tossed out our anchor at the mouth of Frog Mortar Creek.

Scott and I took a dinghy ride up Frog Mortar Creek after he and Elizabeth had gone exploring. It was sweltering and when we all saw the pool at the Chesapeake Yacht Center we kind of lost it. There was also a Walmart, shopping and restaurants at the marina gate. The marina staff swore there was lots of water to the dock they found for us, plus water in the slip. It was on a rising tide so we started to head down the creek, of course plunking on the bottom a few times and Scott had to back in between a set of poles (that was our dock).

We breathed a sigh of relief and swore we'd leave just before high high tide at 10 a.m. the next morning. We had a lovely time in the fantastic pool and hot tub, nice cheap dinner at a local diner, picked up some stuff we needed at Wal-Mart and headed back to the boat.

Unfortunately there was no tide the next morning. The wind picked up out of the northeast and to our dismay the water was dropping, not rising. The fellow next to us mentioned that sometimes, in strong winds on the bay out of the north, the water is sucked out of the whole river. We threw off the lines as the forecast was worsening for that day and the next week and we didn't want to get stuck, literally, in this creek.

Scott pulled us out by hand for the first bit and then he gunned the engine. We dredged the channel until we got to a bend in the river. Then we hit. Hard. Aground.
So we called Tow Boat US - thank goodness we had purchased a membership before we left - and two and a half hours and six inches of a now dropping tide later we got pulled out of the entire river. The water at the mouth had dropped to seven or eight feet - lower than datum and we took turns having a fit of nerves. We made it to the channel to Baltimore and motored a good part of the way, dodging crab pots as we went. Then we unfurled the genny and motorsailed up the Patapsco River to the heart of Baltimore. Another 25 miles further south.

We were awed by the harbour here in Baltimore. It's amazing. Military ships, ocean freighters, schooners, you name it, it's here. The waterfront is lovely.

We had wanted to anchore in the inner harbour, smack next to the submarine the USS Torsk, the national aquarium and so on and after four or five failed attempts (OK, so I lost it more than once) to set the darn anchor, we kind of caught near the tallship the USS Constellation. It's a tiny anchorage. There was one tiny sailboat anchored in the middle and we kept on picking up bags of garbage which was totally gross as well as once pulling up two cement blocks. It was growing dark, our nerves were shot and we hadn't had dinner yet. Finally, the Rocna seemed to kind of hold and I got dinner going.

Then it started to rain. Then it poured. Then it teemed. Two days before Scott had splurged on some mast boot tape to stop a persistant leak around the mast. He had worked away in the heat, wrapping it and plugging up the leak. Or so he thought.

It was a bit of a last straw. We grabbed some shamwows, stuffed them around and fell asleep kind of.

Today the forecast warned of strong winds, thunderstorms and heavy rain. We called the Inner Harbour Marina about dockage. We broke the bank by coming here, but glad we did. For $2 a foot we have portable pump out at every dock (excellent), lovely location next to the science center, good security, and all of the incredible waterfront and best of all use of the pool, sauna etc. at a hotel a walk away.

This plus a visit to the Constellation, the Torsk and a lovely Barnes and Noble bookstore greatly improved our moods.

It's been a bit of a long haul. The kids, Scott and I are starting to weary a bit of travelling and need a break. We're missing Reg - each time we talk to him, we miss him more. This seems like a good place for a rest. We'll likely stay in Baltimore until Thursday or Friday, including one more night at this marina.

I'm trying to sort out this homeschooling thing as we all have taken turns panicking over meeting curriculum objectives and getting through material. I need to plan a bit more so tonight have spent an hour and a half thinking through science as we are visiting the science center tomorrow and I can work in a unit there for each. Lisa Tellup - one of the moms I've met has been incredibly helpful and supportive. What's awesome is that she is coming to Baltimore by car with her family to visit the aquarium with us. We are so excited.

We think this city has one of the best developed waterfronts by far and it's full of chain stores, eclectic neighbourhoods, great spots to visit and we can't do it all in a week. We'll definitely be back.

It's funny, this experience is such a mix of incredible work and reward. Something like this shifts perspectives, intensifies relationships and forces you to grow in ways you didn't know were possible.

We are still a work in progress in getting the hang of this new lifestyle.