Category Archives: Cruising Guide

Information for other cruising boats. Our experiences finding places to anchor, dealing with officials, provisions, etc.

Flooding in Annapolis, MD

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Thursday, October 30 — Yesterday, morning, we spent a long time discussing whether we should leave Annapolis today for Bermuda. The forecasts promised good weather for the passage. But… Hurricane Melissa, which had decimated Jamaica on Tuesday as a category 5, was still in the Caribbean. It had calmed down to a category 3 and was en route to Bermuda. It was expected to calm down to a tropical storm by the time it hit Bermuda and would be long gone by the time Kosmos arrived. But we’d learned the hard way that when there was a hurricane in the broader area, it could make local forecasts inaccurate, so we ultimately decided that the forecasts couldn’t be trusted and it was best to stay put.

Meanwhile, a storm was coming from the north that was supposed to hit tonight. While Christi and Keith were doing school, Eric spent a long time adjusting the lines and added 4 more lines in anticipation of the storm. For perspective to help understand the tide swings, the first photo was taken near low tide, the second photo near high tide.

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Settling into Life in Annapolis, Maryland

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Tuesday, October 28 — The last three days have been mellow. Now that it is so cold in the mornings, Christi has been finding it difficult to drag herself out of the warm bed to watch the sun rise. Instead, she falls back to sleep and misses the sun rises altogether.

On Sunday morning, Eric ran wing engine again to check to see if it was leaking exhaust. At first, it did smoke a little more, but he determined that was paint. After a few minutes, the smoking stopped Eric was happy to report that the wing engine exhaust was indeed fixed. In the early afternoon, Christi ran a few errands, including a trip to the closest grocery store, Giant. In the mid-afternoon, the Tiki kids came over to play board games with Keith. Here was a couple photos showing how beautiful the short drive between our marina and Tiki’s boat yard was.

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Fueling Up and Changing Marinas in Annapolis, MD

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Dawn on Wednesday, October 22, taken from the fuel dock.

It was the perfect day to get fuel. It had rained overnight, but was clear now. The wind was supposed to pick up soon, but was calm now. It was close to high tide, so it was easy to get on and off the boat for tying/untying. The fuel dock was conveniently located at our marina. We untied and went around the corner, where two staff caught the lines and tied us up to the fuel dock. Christi was relieved because she was not good at tying up to pylons, which was very different than tying up to cleats.

One of the tricky aspects of pylons was fenders. Eric had tied some of the fenders sideways while we were in the slip, and he hadn’t moved them prior to coming in to the fuel dock. We’re glad that he had them that way as we probably would have collided with a pylon sticking out from the fuel dock (the photo of the new marina has clear photos of how the pylons stick out from the docks).

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And Even More Exploring and Boat Chores in Annapolis, MD

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The dawn on Monday, October 20 wasn’t dramatic. But one of the things that makes dawns special was that they were rarely the same.

We were pleased to report that it was calm in marina today, which was a huge relief. We needed to rent a car to stock up on supplies for our upcoming trip to the Caribbean. The marina was going to charge us $40 per night for parking. Eric did a little searching and found another marina just outside of town that was less expensive and had free parking — the marina fee and car rental fee together would be the same as what we were paying now for the slip here in Annapolis Yacht Basin. Eric made arrangement to move Kosmos to the other marina on Wednesday and rent a car on Thursday. We decided to fuel up during the move. 

In anticipation for the fuel up, Eric checked all the raycor filters and added the fuel additives Biobor and Stanadyne to the tank. Eric forgot there was back pressure in the new pump and spilled some fuel when checking the filters. He got fuel all over himself.  

After we finished school and chores, we walked to Picante for lunch. Eric hadn’t eaten there yet, and he loved it. Eric hadn’t really done much sightseeing in town yet, so we walked by the State House and took side streets back to the City Dock, including several that none of us had been on before. While most of the trees were still green, a few were changing colors.

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Rolly Marina and The Wicked Corn Maze in Maryland

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Sunday, October 19 — Yesterday’s sunrise was colorful.

Yesterday morning, Eric changed the oil and O ring on the main engine. While he was doing that task, It was slightly rolly. As the day went on, it got rollier and rollier. Sauvage came over in the late afternoon. By the time they arrived, the rolling was so bad that it was somewhat uncomfortable to be onboard. We had a nice visit with them none-the-less.

One of the concerns was that we were on fixed docks, and it was a king tide right now. Adjusting the lines properly was tricky, as the lines tended to be too tight at high tide and too slack at low tide. Eric was concerned about crashing into the pylons and/or dock. He spent a lot of time readjusting the lines and fenders, and eventually came up with a fender set up that he was happy with.

The motion continued to worsen throughout the night. By morning, it was so rolly that we felt like we were at sea. None of us slept well. In addition to the motion being uncomfortable, the lines were creaking like crazy from all the motion — and the noise wasn’t only from Kosmos’s lines; the lines on the nearby boats were making a lot of noise, too.

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