Monday September 9, Day 62

Our first full day in Essex, my niece was working in the morning, so we relaxed on the boat. I worked most of the time updating the blog and Phil was reading or doing what he does on the iPad. For lunch I doctored the crab spaghetti, which made it very good. Then in the mid after noon, my niece came to pick us up and took us into the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore to Alpha Studio where she works to give me a haircut. She did a great job as I expected and also I think will make it easier for me to give myself a haircut with the Flowbee the next time. Thank you Heather!! It’s a great little salon so if you’re in the area, I recommend that you go. We really like,this photo because we are all smiling, Heather’s boss is in the reflection in the mirror and he’s smiling and her coworkers are also in the photo in the other mirror.

Then we walked around Fells Point which is on the water and has cute shops and restaurants that aren’t as uppity as others that we have seen. There are also many brownstone homes 1 room wide in the area and many have beautiful doors. I had to stop taking photos of them as we’d never get to see other things.

Here is a map of the area and then a photos of the Fells Neighborhood Shops.

We stopped for decaf coffee and I had Gelato.

They also had Chesapeake Bay type boats on the dock close to the Frederick Douglas Museum. This is a restored Skip Jack.

Here is a bronze head of Frederick Douglas who worked there in his early 20’s before he became famous and there is also a school.

Afterwards we went grocery shopping, put things away and had a good supper at Heather’s apartment. It’s been very nice being 1.5 miles away from where she lives for both of us!.

Tuesday, September 10, Day 63

This morning we took Heather out for a sail on Changes. We had wind come from the south so was able to pull away from the dock without starting the engine using the main sail instead.. We had a slow start but as time went on, the winds picked up so by the time we left the Middle River Channel, we were sailing in the upper 5 knots with wind 8-11 knts at the end. We had a close reach out and then after 1 hour, we turned around to sail downwind. I don’t think that you could have a better first sail. We had no waves, as the powerboaters weren’t out yet, and beautiful scenery. Here are some pictures from our sail.

An Osprey on the nest

A crab boat on it’s way back I.

After lunch, I went to Heather’s apartment to wait for yarn to arrive that I had ordered and wash clothes. We had a good time watching the Marilyn Monroe movie “Bus Stop”. I have decided to start making Heather a pair of socks while I have a chance to fit them to her.

After driving me back to the boat, Phil and I had a light supper and relaxed in the cockpit. I have knitted about 3″ on the 2 socks knitting them 2 at a time. It’s been pretty quiet here but traffic is picking up at the restaurants next door. There is this group of 6 ducks that hang around hoping to get handouts from anyone on the docks. Sometimes they are very noisy honking away. It’s been very hot here too, so the showers we’ve been able to take have been very much appreciated at night.

We are planning on going to St. Michael’s, MD on Friday when the wind is predicted to come from the north.

Wednesday Sept 11. Day 64

We slept well last night, but it’s going to be a HOT day today. We heard out the record high temp back in Cleveland. We talked to Heather early in the morning and we’ll be going to the Baltimore Museum of Art(BMA) after lunch at the restaurant in the museum. Phil and I are taking the dinghy to the Chesapeake Yacht Center to get diesel and then walk to Walmart. Their parking lot goes directly into the yacht center. We left about 915am this morning, and with no waves, we were able to plane on the dinghy. We went down one wrong creek, but didn’t go far before realizing our mistake. Maybe we should have brought the iPad for the iNavX software after all. We were all done with our shopping and back to the dinghy by 1030am. We had to take it slower this time loaded down with 15 gal of diesel. with the wind was coming up south we had some splashes from bouncing into the waves, but not anything close to what happened at Watch Hill, RI. Certainly nothing to worry about.

We came back, put away purchases and then soon Heather arrived. It’s very interesting to see the different types of homes here as many are row houses. We passed John Hopkins University and arrived at the BMA. The A/C inside is a welcome relief. We had lunch first at Gertrude’s Restaurant.

They have white tablecloths on the tables and outside is a sculpture garden where you can sit and eat if you want. Well we didn’t want, but still had a good view from our table. The food was delicious and afterwards we went through the entire museum, even the contemporary art. They are renovating so there were many exhibit that weren’t open, but there was still plenty to see.

Once back at the boat, I work on the blog until Heather returns for supper. We had turkey tenderloin, Brussel sprouts, broccoli and warmed up chicken rice all cooked on the grill to keep the heat out of the boat. Heather has been kind enough to take the leftovers and the leftover crab spaghetti as we won’t be around this weekend to eat it. Phil and I have decided that we will be taking the train from Baltimore into Washington D.C. tomorrow morning and stay with his cousins Jerry and Karen this weekend. There are trains only on the weekdays for the commuters so we leave at 7am to walk the 1 mile to the bus stop that will take us to the train station. It will take us about 3 hrs to get there. We will probably rent a car to return on Sunday as the winds, as of today, are predicted to be from the North Monday at a good wind speed for us to sail instead of motor. Tuesday is still from the North, but it would be a motor boat ride. Things can change, so we’ll keep an eye on the weather to see if that holds up.

We have enjoyed our stay here and seeing all our friends the last month or so, but we need to get going south or we’ll get behind on the weather. We have been staying longer than we expected so need to get moving more. We plan to go to St. Michael’s still, then to Solomon Islands, MD. After that is not determined yet. BTW, I have started the gusset and hope to finish the socks this weekend while traveling.