Dan and Gena's life - on a boat, in a camper, and wherever else life takes us !!

Sunday, July 9, 2023

Baltimore, Fells Point, July 2 thru 5, 2023

July 5, 2023

We spent the past few days in Baltimore. As when we were here in 2018, we chose to stay at Henderson’s Wharf Marina in Fells Point. We thoroughly enjoy that historic area, with its pretty townhomes, and plenty of eateries...plus, there’s a Safeway within easy distance! While there, it was truly hot and humid, so we did some relaxing, some chores, some reading. Our first night, we walked about .8 miles to a diner for a simple dinner. Since it was raining when we were ready to leave, we used an Uber to get back to the boat.

Next day, I decided to get some groceries. I walked the mile or so to the Safeway, taking it slow since it was so hot. I stopped in a delightful bakery/coffee shop for a muffin and coffee. I took pictures all along the way, thoroughly enjoying myself! I bought almost $300 of groceries, since I wasn’t sure when I’d have this opportunity again.

I was so impressed with the cashier! Lovely young woman, named Dime (?!) I had my own bags, and she loaded them like she was playing a Tetris game. I had told her I was living on a boat and needed to be careful.

Waiting for my Uber ride outside the store, I talked to an older gentleman who was sitting in his electric wheelchair. He had a bag of groceries on his handlebars, one between his feet, and a carton of cut watermelon in his lap. I told him I’d thought about buying some of the melon, but I thought they were asking a lot for it. I told him that when I was a kid, my mother and I could KILL a watermelon! My dad didn’t like to eat the melon, since it was too much trouble to remove the seeds! He offered me a piece, which I enjoyed very much.

The Uber ride came, and I started to load my 6 or so bags into the car trunk. The security officer at the store came out and finished loading the bags for me! Very nice.

Had a nice conversation with the nice Uber driver, from Nigeria, on the way. Arriving at the marina, I stepped away to get a dock wagon. The Uber driver put all the groceries in the cart for me!

All this is probably more than I needed to say about a simple trip to the grocery store. But, I was just struck by the kindness of three strangers in Baltimore!

On the 4^th, we decided to take the dinghy for a ride into the Inner Harbor, right downtown Baltimore. I loved zipping across the water! We weren’t sure where we wanted to go, so we pulled up to ask a gentleman who was outside his boat at a marina. We wanted to know where we could tie up the dinghy for a while. He put us on to a young dock attendant, who said the marina charges $60 for boats to tie up and go into town! “But, he said, as far as I’m concerned, you can tie up here, no charge, for a couple of hours or so.. My manager isn’t here right now!” So, we took him up on it. The restaurant/bar that was closest looked pretty good, so we entered. We were thinking some oysters and a beer would taste really good. No problem, except their oysters started at $3.50 each!! Two days ago, we had 2 dozen oysters in Annapolis for $24! So, we settled for a beer, and left! We stopped at an ice cream store, had a scoop, and decided to return to our boat!

We had the best spot for the fireworks show at 9:30 p.m. Lots of people came into the marina to party and watch the show – at one point, we were concerned that one crowded dock might start taking on water! There were lots of boats that came in and anchored in the harbor. The show was pretty good, lasted only about 15 minutes. Watching all the boats leaving afterwards was like seeing L.A. at rush hour! We were happy to be tied up securely.

Next day, we said goodbye to Baltimore, and headed for Chesapeake City, which is on a canal that leads to the Delaware Bay….which leads to the Atlantic Ocean!

cool place on my walk in Fells Point

It was HOT, so I hatted up and stopped for a cooling drink..

little visitor

The best pastries and coffee!

the right foot wear is very important!!

another cute place

fun place

love the name!

ya gotta love it!

when we arrived, this was the one place that was still open for eating!

tree is making herself known!

pretty space for some residences

setting the July 4 tone!

interesting sculpture near the harbor

buildings near the harbor

named "Mr. Trash Wheel", takes in all the trash that floats around the harbor...

interesting looking buildings - wish we had time to explore!

views from the harbor

fireworks from our boat - we were very glad to be in place - traffic coming and going on the water

- wow!

Sunday, July 2, 2023

Annapolis, Part 2

July 2, 2023

Annapolis, continued!

Yesterday, we had a delightful day. First, got a couple of ‘Dan tasks’ done. Lunch, then a nap for Dan, book for me. We were contacted by Foster Schucker, a legendary Harbor Host for the Loopers. He and Susan were coming into Annapolis, so we arranged to meet. They have basically the same boat as ours, so that is always fun to compare notes as to repairs, leaks, etc. We met them at the dock when they first arrived, visited for an hour or so, made reservations for dinner, about 2 hours later.

Dan and I took advantage of the two hours….first up, a beer and some delicious oysters! Next a wander around the historic neighborhood around the harbor. I love the architecture. Dinner was enjoyable.

We parted for the night, jumped in our dinghy and started for the boat. As we entered the mooring field, we saw another Bayliner just like ours! Four folks were on their fly bridge deck enjoying the evening. We cruised by, said “We love your boat! We have the same one!” So, of course, we were invited aboard! Delightful folks, Cindy and Kevin, owners of the boat, and Dustin and Becky from Grand Haven, Michigan! Fun visit, comparing our boats, places we’ve been. Kevin and Cindy have made an interesting change to the boat. They eliminated the ladder from the cock pit into the fly bridge, fiber glassed over the opening, so that they have a much bigger space to entertain up top. We were given a tour of their boat – a few differences were noted, but otherwise, it all looked familiar!

Dustin and Becky are much younger, early 40’s. They have been traveling on their catamaran, and are looking for a place to spend some time, possibly winter over. They had called Olverson’s, and were amazed how inexpensive they are! We gave them the lowdown on Olverson’s, and they were happy to hear our positive reviews.

We left as some rain was moving in – what a fun time!

Next, we are traveling to Baltimore, to stay at a marina on Fells Point, a very old part of Boston.

mooring field in Annapolis

view from our boat in the mooring field

shows our journey up the coast

charming bar to stop for a while!

love the old streets and homes

pretty

pretty and secluded entrance

love the glimpse into a courtyard

lovely older home

lovely

another street view

view of the Naval Academy (I think!)

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.

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Solomon's Island, Maryland

June 28, 2023

We have spent the past two days in Solomon’s Island, Maryland. One night was at Beacon Marina, but we found out that another marina, Calvert’s, just across the creek, only charges $1 per foot (half what we were paying!), so we moved. Fifty dollars is good reason to move!

At Beacon’s, we met a couple from Germany, who pulled in just before us. They are world travelers, speak several languages. We had a great time, had a couple of beers and some appetizers, laughed, compared experiences.

At Calvert’s, we already knew that Sabbatical, with Steve and Jane, were there. Besides them, we were on a floating dock with three other Loopers, 2 of which were also Gold Loopers. We enjoyed sitting on the dock with them for a couple of hours. Always fun to experience the instant camaraderie with other Loopers.

For the day we spent on Solomon’s, we took our bikes and checked out the town. Beautiful board walk, probably about half a mile, all along the water, several interesting restaurants, some beautiful homes. We did tour the Calvert Marine Museum. It was one of the best we’ve seen. Interesting displays about the geological history and artifacts from this area. There was an octagonal lighthouse on stilts that we toured – interesting! The first level was living quarters for the lighthouse keeper, surprisingly roomy. Then the last set of ‘steps’ was more of a ladder to get into the top where the huge glass lens was hanging. The type of lens is a ‘fresnel’, pronounced fre-nel (silent S).

After the two nights, we were off, next stop in Deale, Maryland, at the Herrington Harbour North Marina, reported to be very nice.