Baltimore!

We left Hart-Miller Island State Park (made from material dredged from the Port of Baltimore) at 0900 Tuesday 26 September to sail to Baltimore.  After successfully negotiating a narrow channel south of the island into Chesapeake Bay our hearts sank as we realized that we were in the middle of a maze of crab pot floats.  We got a text from Her Diamond saying that they had hit one and that it had stalled their engine.  Thankfully they were able to restart the engine and reverse to unwind the float off their shaft.  At our crab pot action stations, Karen looked ahead with the binoculars and tried to identify clear lanes while I steered around the floats I could see near the boat.  After about half an hour we made it to the main shipping channel up into Baltimore, heaved a sigh of relief and raised sails for a beautiful beam reach all the way up into the outer harbour.

What a great feeling it was to see the inner harbour that we visited several years ago, from the water! 

Baltimore's skyline from the Inner Harbour

Tuesday afternoon Karen and I found Sal's Seafood in Fells Point where they filleted a fresh Branzino while we waited and, of course, we rewarded ourselves with a beer at the Admirals Cup pub! According to the city's website Named for the Englishmen who founded a ship-building company here in 1726 that would go on to produce the famous "Baltimore Schooners," Fell's Point is a spirited waterfront community in perpetual celebration of Baltimore's British nautical roots. Later Karen cooked the branzino perfectly for dinner.

Wednesday was stinking hot so in the afternoon we went to the air-conditioned Aquarium where I was able to touch a Moon jellyfish, a skate and a ray. We were particularly interested in the jellyfish exhibit since I had noticed one right beside the boat in the marina. Hardy little creatures!

Jellyfish mobile at the National Aquarium

In the evening we took the free Charm City Circulator bus to the Federal Hill neighbourhood and had dinner at SoBo Cafe. It was billed as a "neighbourhood gem" and did not disappoint!

Thursday we took a tour of Camden Yards, the Oriole's baseball park. We're not huge baseball fans but it was very interesting.  At a time when the trend was to build domed stadiums like SkyDome in Toronto, Maryland decided to convert railway lands into an open air stadium and the adjacent warehouses into retail and office space. The ball park was the first of the "retro" stadiums, incorporating the "Green Monster" left field wall of Fenway Park in Boston and the ivy covered outfield wall of Wrigley Field in Chicago.  We got to sit in the press box, walk on the field and sit in the dugout! Very cool!

Camden Yards / Oriole Park

Thursday night Sheila and Bob joined us to share one of their traditions; "Scotch and Greys", during which we watched the two hour season premiere of Grey's Anatomy!

Friday we left the dock at 0700 to catch the ebbing tide and once clear of the inner harbour again raised sails for a leisurely run down to the Magothy River.  George, a Chesapeake Bay resident, who with his wife Bev took their Hanse 415 offshore to the Bahamas last year recommended a couple of spots in the Magothy River, between Baltimore and Annapolis. After touring the bay, and setting the anchor four times in different bays, we ended up across from the "Horse Farm". It was a very scenic spot protected from the forecast northerly winds.

The Horse Farm, Gibson Island, Magothy River

On the way we got up close and personal with Cape Washington, a 778' cargo freighter travelling at 12 knots.

Cape Washington 

Today, Saturday, we're going to hang on the anchor and relax ...