Annapolis: Ducks and Navy Midshipmen

Heading in to Annapolis

Docked in Annapolis. View from our cockpit.

There are a lot of both in Annapolis!  We stayed at the Annapolis City Docks, right in the downtown area. It’s a narrow channel that backs up to main street and is filled with dozens of resident ducks that are fed by tourists and passers by. 

It was a very convenient location and we really enjoyed staying there. We went out to eat several times, trying out several of the restaurants along the main area.  In the evenings we were experiencing high, high tides and there was significant flooding along the roads.  After a couple evenings the police blocked it off to keep cars from racing through. You wonder if they realized that it's salt water they were splashing up into the car!

 I was very pleasantly surprised to find that there was a quilt shop (and a really nice one!) only two blocks from a grocery store J  Once again, I loaded up the paniers to overflowing with a combo of food and fabric…

Who’s that handsome man?

Our first full day in town we relaxed and did some sightseeing. Martin and I went on a tour of the Annapolis Navy Academy. It was really interesting and at the end we were able to catch them practicing for a parade that was happening that weekend. Almost all of the 4000+ students were out on the field. It was a very impressive show, practice or not!

Practice Parade

We were also able to get some work done on the boat – and ticked another project off the to-do list. A Dometic tech came out and was able to fix the chiller. While working on the chiller he also happened to find a leak in the system.  He had been telling us that it would be really difficult to locate a small leak and then, completely by chance, he found the drip and was able to fix it.

We easily could have spent another day or two there but the marina was booked for the Star Spangled Spectacular event.  It was also perfect timing to head out and meet our friends who had come down through the canal and were docked at the free dock in Rock Hall.  Rock Hall is a small community, located about 20 miles east of Annapolis across the bay.  It was a windy day and the bay was choppy with up to 3 foot seas. Unfortunately I tried to type while we were underway and discovered that that was a bad idea. I spent some time in our master state room. I think this is my favorite place when underway in rolly seas. Like a kid in a car, I get lulled to sleep and don’t feel sick at all down there.

And so we arrived at Rock Hall at about 10:30 on Friday morning. After years of talking about it and 4 months delay, we finally were heading out to meet up and begin cruising with Sean & Louise!  More in the next post…