Category Archives: United States

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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Keith’s Perspective on Our Second Week in Annapolis, Maryland/Le point de vue de Keith sur notre deuxième semaine à Annapolis, dans le Maryland

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On Saturday, we had lunch at a restaurant. For three burgers and a cup of cream of crab it was 52 dollars! Ridiculous! After lunch we played D&D with Blue Heeler, then we went to a big gathering of boat kids. I had such a good time. 

Samedi nous avons mangé au restaurant. Pour trois burgers et un pot de crème de crabe c’était 52 dollars! Ridicule! Après ça nous avons joué à D&D avec Blue Heeler, puis nous sommes allés à un grand rassemblement d’enfants matelots. J‘ai passé un très bon moment. 

On Sunday, Dad went to the boat show and mom and I went to lunch at Picante. In the afternoon we walked around Annapolis with Blue Heeler. 

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Annapolis Back to Normal, Boat Maintenance and Socializing

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continued… On the walk back, we marveled at how different the town looked now that the extra infrastructure for the boat show had been cleared away. This entire street had been part of the show. Only the sidewalk in front of the stores had been open to the public. Even yesterday, the road was open, but the parking spots were still closed off, and so was pedestrian traffic along the waterfront.

The Market was to the right, on the other side of the street.

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Tour of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis

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continued…

The security guard said the last tour of the day was just beginning, so we rushed into the visitor’s center to get tickets. We passed a group that was standing near the entrance; an older gentleman was introducing himself, so we figured that was our group and they’d already started.

It looked like there was a film that showed every few minutes and a small museum in the visitor’s center, but we obviously didn’t have time watch the film or to look around. Tickets were $18 for adults and $16 for ages 5 – 17. The man at the register tried to charge Keith for an adult ticket. When we said he was a student he said “Oh, here for a college tour?” When we said he was only 13, he looked disbelieving.

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Boat Chores and More Exploring Annapolis, MD

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Thursday, October 16 — Dawn this morning.

Yesterday morning, Eric was busy with more boat maintenance. He changed the batteries in the refrigerator sensors. He unpacked the lazarette in order to access the wireless temperature sensor for the inverter blower and changed the batteries in it. Eric was relieved that the system remembered all the settings and he didn’t need to reprogram the settings.

We have two modes of operation: anchoring and marina. When we’re in a marina, some of the gear that we need for anchoring gets stowed in the dinghy. He unpacked the dinghy so that he could work on it. Then he tested the new dinghy motor battery that he’d bought at the boat show (it had arrived via UPS a couple of days ago) and confirmed it worked.

Next he tackled the handles. Our dinghy has 6 handles that were factory installed. As we’d already mentioned, two had broken. While we were in Norfolk, Eric had purchased special line specifically for the handle repair project. He installed the lines and the handles (the one he’d purchased and the hose). Much to his delight, the hose worked great as a handle — almost as good as the one we’d bought.

The black one is the purchased handle, the red one is the hose.

When he was done, he put all the stuff away that had come out of the dinghy and the lazarette, which was a significant task.  

At one point, we all took a break from chores/school so we could go say our goodbyes to Blue Heeler, who were leaving today to start heading south. Since we were going to the Eastern Caribbean and they were going to The Bahamas, we likely wouldn’t see them again. The hardest part about boating is leaving the friends that have been made.

After we finished chores/school, we went to The Market for lunch. Now that the boat show was over, the tents and other obstructions were being removed, and we were starting to see what the City Dock area actually looked like.

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