Friday, Sep. 19 — We again wanted to get an early start on our passage, so we got up at 0530. Much to our dismay, the mid-stateroom toilet was broken. Unfortunately, there was no time to worry about it this morning. Fortunately, we have two heads (bathrooms), so we were fine. Here was the crescent moon and a nearby planet glowing brightly pre-dawn.
Today the skies were clear, so when we pulled up anchor at 0620, there was enough light to see where we were going. That said, the anchor chain was very muddy, and we did need a flashlight in order to wash the chain. It was a glorious morning, with the sky taking on a rainbow of colors throughout the pre-dawn.
Thursday, September 18, 2025 — Eric has been worried about the transit that we we’re about to make to DC. One of his concerns was speed: we were going to be going upriver against the current. To help maximize speed, he wanted the bottom clean. Even though the bottom hadn’t been too bad the last time it was cleaned in Baltimore, the extreme amount of growth we’d gotten in Little Creek had Eric worried that there may be enough growth to slow Kosmos down.
Eric has been trying to get the diver to come to do another bottom cleaning for over a week now. The diver is very busy in general, and recently had some issues that caused him to be backlogged. The diver promised Eric that he would do the bottom this morning at 0530. Christi was dubious that he’d really show up, but we still got up at 0430 to shower before he arrived (we try not to run water when the divers are working).
We were not surprised when the diver cancelled. But in good news, we were completely ready to go at first light, which was 0620. First light didn’t mean good visibility, though. It was totally overcast, making it a very dark morning. The cloud cover was so thick that we couldn’t see any hint of the sunrise.
As soon as we’d turned on the radio, we heard regular warnings to be careful near The Francis Scott Key Bridge as they were doing demolition work to the remains in order to clear the way for the construction of the replacement bridge. We were glad to hear they were finally getting started on a new bridge.
Looking back at the Francis Scott Key Bridge remains and Baltimore.
Sunday through Tuesday were quiet days overall. We’d intended to make a three-day trip to Washington DC on Monday, so we spent Sunday getting Kosmos ready for sea. We also went to Safeway to stock up on passage foods. Since the choices for passage foods at Safeway weren’t great, we went for an early dinner at Verde, and each got an extra to-go pizza for the passage. While we were eating dinner, Eric pulled out his phone to check the weather and saw that the forecast had changed dramatically. A storm was coming on Tuesday, so we decided to postpone leaving until after the storm passed. Twilight on Sunday:
We don’t think we’ve mentioned this yet: Eric had ordered a new exhaust elbow for the wing-engine that had arrived a few days ago. On Monday, he decided change the elbow. Once he began working on it, he realized the elbow couldn’t really be separated from the rest of the exhaust; the whole exhaust fitting needed to be replaced. So after cleaning up in the engine room, he spent some time trying to hunt down the full exhaust fitting replacement part. He found it at a supplier in Annapolis and made arrangements to pick it up when we go in Annapolis for the boat show.
continued… At this point, we were all hungry. Eric checked the map app and saw there was nothing other than snack stands in close walking distance. We continued on the loop, which became muddy and overgrown.
Near where we’d parked, the walking trail had been a little uneven, indicating that the sea wall had settled. Near the George Mason Memorial, the walking trail had actually been fenced off, with construction equipment behind the fence. A sign had said that the Tidal Basin and Potomac parks were created in the 1880s as part of a land reclamation project. The sea wall had deteriorated, and they were in the process of restoring the wall. There were quite a few geese on this side.
Friday, August 22 continued… Since it was rush hour, we decided to avoid highway traffic and take the scenic route back to Baltimore. The areas we drove through were high-end and beautiful. When we mentioned stopping for dinner, we were not far from downtown Bethesda, Maryland (a suburb of Washington, DC), so we decided to go there for dinner. It seemed like a good idea because the map showed a large concentration of restaurants. But when we arrived, we realized it was “the” place to be on a Friday night and was packed.
We did a lot of driving around before we found a parking spot. We didn’t write down how much the parking was, but if we recall correctly, it was about $2.50 an hour and was limited to one hour. Given the time constraints, we started jogging up and down the streets to find a place where we could get a fast meal that wasn’t fast food. We did see a parking garage and considered moving the car so we had more time for dinner, but we decided that, since it was getting late, it was probably best to just get a quick meal.
We settled on a place called Luke’s Lobster that was inside an interesting mixed use complex. We suspected that they took two blocks of old buildings, joined them, and turned what used to be the street between them into a pedestrian mall.
