Herrington Harbour North, Deale, Md., then Annapolis, part 1

 

June 30, 2023

Two new ports of call.

First, the Herrington Harbour North Marina in Deale, Md.

Probably the nicest marina we have experienced in all our 6,000 miles or so of travel! About 300 slips, seemingly about 90% of which were sailboats. Beautiful docks and wide finger piers, all of manufactured wood. They still had the posts for tying to, not our favorite, but every post had a very thick rubber guard on the boat side, so there was almost no need of fenders!

Within the beautifully landscaped marina grounds there were a couple of acres, at least, of natural wetlands, with all sorts of birds happily flying around. From one end of the marina (Dock A) to the other (Dock Q) was about half a mile, with a winding, landscaped paver walkway. What a treat!

They had every kind of boat shop you can imagine, including canvas, paint, fiber glass, rigging, electrical.

The restrooms were truly nice – separate restrooms, each with a toilet, large shower stall with a glass door and nice tile, and a vanity and sink.

Of course, all this came with a price – we paid $3 per foot plus electricity. Compare that to most places we have been from $1 to $2.50 per foot. I’m not including places like New York City or Chicago – you expect to pay more there.

We were there 2 nights, so had one full day and evening. There were no other Loopers there. During the week, when we were there, there were very few people at their boats. One exception was a boat, Miss Christine, that docked right behind us. They were very nice and friendly….we will see them again at our next stop – thank goodness!

We did take the dinghy out on an excursion to find a restaurant and to see what Deale is all about. We may not have seen the town, not sure, but most of what we saw were private homes on the water. We did stop at one restaurant for a drink and snack.

this marina looked like a park!

view of one of the areas of the marina

Onward to Annapolis, Maryland, where we planned to use a mooring ball – a new experience for us. Knowing we were arriving there on Friday of a holiday weekend, we thought we might have a hard time finding a vacant mooring ball. But, we did find one right away. That’s when the trouble started! The wind was blowing just enough to keep the boat moving when Dan put it in neutral. I was hanging off the bough of the boat with my boat hook. I just couldn’t reach the eye of the rope that secures you to the ball! We were getting frustrated and cross with each other. Suddenly an angel appeared, John from the Miss Christine. He saw our struggle and came to the rescue in his dinghy. All I had to do then was pass John a line from our boat, and he put it through the eye and back to me. Phew ! We were very grateful!

Being on a mooring ball feels like being at anchor, only there’s no danger of the anchor dragging! Plus, there are rows of boats, all on their own mooring ball, swinging with the wind and rocking with the wakes of other boats. No problem, because the size of the boats is limited to 50 feet, giving every boat plenty of room to swing around.

The charge for the mooring ball is $35, which makes up for the large marina bill for the last two nights! For that price, there are boaters’ restrooms, showers, and laundry.

After Dan took care of a minor (thank goodness) engine issue, we decided to dinghy to the downtown area. We have been here before, so we knew what to expect...lots of restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, and ICE CREAM!!

After our ice cream, we walked around, looked at the boats with slips downtown. We thought we might find a place for Happy Hour before going back to the boat. As we were walking around, it began to look as though we were about to have a big storm. Realizing we had left hatches and doors open on the boat, we had to scurry back to close everything – nothing like a wet bed to ruin a perfectly good day!

We did have a storm, with more rain coming, so we had dinner on the boat and settled in to relax for the evening.

Tomorrow will be the day to explore.