Solomons Island, Interpretive Dance, and Anchoring Chaos

Annapolis to Solomons Island – 44 nautical miles sailed, 6 miles by dinghy, 8 kilometres walked

It was a calm and flat ride for the entire 44 mile and 6.5 hour run to Solomons Island. Pure glass, no ripples, just wake from passing boats. We dodged a lot of crab pots, which are identified by small floating buoys, but besides that there was little to report.

 

After finding a great spot in a relatively small anchorage, we hopped in the dinghy and rode over to the public dock, which also had washrooms and a pump out machine, all free. Solomons is a long peninsula with a number of tourist shops, restaurants, and an oyster museum, but there are also two long bays heavily populated with marinas. We took a walk through the tourist area which had a very end-of-season vibe as most shops were closed, but it was a lovely spot otherwise with a lot of mature pine trees, some small and quiet residential areas, a cool restaurant on a long pier, and this large environmental research center under construction. There were also a series of military fighter jets roaring around overhead. You are never far away from signs of the military in this country.

 

We decided to take the dinghy to the far end of the north bay to get closer to where the grocery store was as our overachieving refrigerator had frozen the lettuce and peppers, leaving them a mushy mess. I will admit, I did notice the 6 knot speed limit sign displayed prominently at the bay inlet, but since it was just the two of us in a little dinghy that didn’t throw much wake, and kept to the middle away from the marinas, I decided to throttle up a bit to get us on plane and were probably doing 8 or 9 knots. As we approached the end of the bay, we saw a boat coming our way and turned in its direction to ask them if there was a dinghy dock we could use. Well, turns out it was the wildlife/marine cops and they did a spot check on us. We did pretty good – only got two warnings. One for exceeding the speed limit and the other for not having a fire extinguisher in the dinghy which, in this country, unbeknownst to me, is required for any vessel equipped with a closing hatch, which ours has. Fortunately they were nice kids (yes, kids…I can say that now that I’m in my 50’s) and didn’t ticket us. That is the first time we’ve ever been pulled over by authorities in 20 years of boating.

 

We found a place to tie up the dinghy (after going into a private marina and being turned away) – Angler Bar – and noticed that happy hour ran to 6pm so we pledged to make it back by that time for a refreshing $2.50 Coors Light. It was already 3:30 and light was fading fast these days so we put some speed on the march. We stopped first at the West Marine and picked up a fire extinguisher, plus Ana found a two for one deal on Yeti cups, which is unheard of, so she grabbed some nice purple ones and she’s probably going to make me part with a few pairs of my shredded underwear to create room for them. Remember the rule – if something new comes on the boat, something old has to be removed to make space, which thanksfully applies to just inert objects, not people.

 

It was a long damn walk to the grocery store, but we made it back by 5:45 and sat down in Angler Bar just in time for happy hour, which we found out is half price appetizers and one dollar off draft beer so I upped my order to a Dogfish Head Ale, Ana had a coke (which cost the same) and we shared a tray of bacon cheese French fries which were an artery-clogging wonder.

 

But our luck didn’t stop there – it was also Thursday Trivia Night. The host announced the names of the eight teams and the best name by far was the “Annakin Killing Yuenglings” – the rest were all lame. We made a late entry as “Team Skinnama-rinky-dinky-poo” to get in on the action ourselves. Ana absolutely destroyed the Science questions, then the Music questions, then all the Sports questions, then the Ancient Medieval History set, then totally crushed the questions on Plate Tectonics and the final volley on Petroleum Reservoir Engineering. Between question rounds they played musical interludes. I wasn’t doing so hot on the questions so right  before the final round, the host put on one of my favourite songs and I quickly changed into my M.C. Hammer Clown Pants (which I carry in my backpack, at all times, for moments such as these) and I broke into a flashy, interpretive, berserker dance for the crowd, knowing there was no way they’d be able to Touch ‘Dis. Well, they loved it, and were cheering for another volley of bitchin moves, but then they found out Ana had beat them all in the trivia and that’s when they came after us with pitchforks and firesticks. We threw a tenner down on the table and hightailed it out of Anglers, ran across the picnic tables, then leaped into the dinghy and ripped out of there at just under 6 knots before they even had a chance to say, “What the fuh??”

Well, we thought that was all the fun we were going to have for the day, but around midnight Ana noticed that the neighbouring boat who had anchored near us late in the day was swinging dangerously close to our boat. So we stuck our heads out of the hatch in the v-berth in a coordinated fashion and saw their boat actually hit ours. I put on my regular pants, got on deck with my spotlight and shone it into their boat. I couldn’t let out any more anchor chain as that would put us too close to shore and allow even more swinging into the other boats. Our neighbour, let’s call him The Heff, eventually came out in this heavenly white bathrobe, illuminated by my spotlight, which was also blinding him and he nearly fell off his boat.

 

We had a tense exchange and decided he would take in 10 feet of anchor chain and I would let out 10. So we did that. Then we laid in bed, wide awake, worried he’d hit us again. His anchor must have been dragging because the next time we looked the boat was touching ours again and I went out to the bow and banged on his solar panels.

 

“Dude,” I said. “Why don’t you just move your boat?”

 

“Ok, let me see,” said The Heff.

 

We went back to bed and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally their motor started. Anchor chain was retrieved. We stuck our heads out of the hatch to watch them leave. But they didn’t leave. Instead, he used his engine and incredibly loud bow thrusters to weave himself further back, parallel to us and another sailboat. I went back outside.

 

“That’s better, hey?” The Heff shouted over to me.

 

“Not really,” I said as I tied fenders on the side of the boat to reduce damage from the next collision. “I don’t understand why you’re trying to squeeze this big boat into this small area. Why don’t you move it over there in the channel where there’s lot of room?”

 

He went back inside his boat without answering. We returned to bed and fortunately the wind completely died, the currents were minor, and the boats barely moved.

Back Fadezzz and a Jelly Doughnut Trump the Election

Annapolis – 4 miles by bus, 5 kilometres walked

We had so much fun last night at our cockpit party that nobody even mentioned the US election. I woke up this morning, put some water on to warm, then tapped my phone to wake it up. I opened a browser, went to Google, and clicked “News”. I was scared to look. I closed my eyes tightly then slowly opened one lid, which let just enough photons to pass to see that Trump had won the presidency and his party had generally edged out the Democrats. I know this is not my country, but what happens here does affect a lot of things in the world, and this was likely going to provide for four years of instability and unnecessary volatility in the world, and the people who are going to pay the price are the weak, the poor, the disadvantaged, the non-whites, and the non-males. That is an exceedingly large proportion of people on this planet. The other casualty will be the environment as this man and this party seems to care primarily about making money, getting richer, taking on more debt, and doing it all at the expense of the planet and the future of young people.

 

But in a democracy, people have the right to choose a dictator, and that is what the majority of Americans chose. My friend Mike sent us this interesting podcast the other day and the guest Scott Galloway said that in the US they no longer elect politicians; they elect performers – the ones who can summon the most attention with the most radical messages using social media. These people do not represent the majority – they are shameless outliers with sharp tongues, outlandish views, bombast, and the willingness to betray any sense of honour or decency in the name of clicks and exposure... which leads to winning. People love a show, and a show is what they will get.

 

Though this is not my country, I do fear for mine. Canada and the US are as close as any neighbours could be and it’s long been said that when the US sneezes, Canada catches a cold. I hope this success the far right has accomplished does not present a game plan for our right-leaning Conservative party. In some sense it has already, but they have so far avoided the extreme positions seen in the US as these are palatable to only a small percentage of our population as all of our parties cluster around the mushy middle and could all be fairly described as liberal. But that could change. I hope it doesn’t. And now that the US has a dictatorship in place, I really hope this does not happen.

 

Enough politics. So far on this trip I have managed to ignore the news and I will continue to do so, instead focusing my time and efforts on exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations, and boldly going where a whole bunch of other boats have gone before.

 

A recap of the day’s events. I started by making some adjustments to our Dock Cutzzz signage. Last night we were telling our guests about the plan to fund our retirement with Ana’s haircutting skills. Wayne asked if she did backs.

 

“Backs?” she asked.

 

“Yeah. Hairy man backs,” he said.

 

“Back Cutzzz,” I said, pondering. “Love the idea.”

 

“You could even do Back Fadezzz. I’ve always wanted that sexy V-shaped bodybuilder physique, but it could just be fashioned out of hair instead of muscle,” Wayne added. "Way quicker."

 

The brainstorming continued. This business is really taking shape.

 

I noticed last night that one of our cute dinghy fenders was missing and I was devastated. We had bought them just before we left and I had obviously tied some lame-assed knot that unravelled itself. In the morning I went into town to do a load of laundry and on the way back I thought I’d take a cruise along the shoreline just to see if by some miracle I could find it. It had been gone for at least 18 hours, and with the currents and wind and mighty big ocean, the chance of that was miniscule. But I found it. It had floated over to the rock breakwall by the Navy academy and its long rope had become entangled in some weeds. I was overjoyed and hoisted it like a Stanley Cup, cheering myself on, then spent a while picking the carpet of marine growth that had already encrusted the rope.

 

We unhooked ourselves from our mooring ball and motored SeaLight into the town dock where we filled up the water tanks and gave the decks a nice fresh water washdown, getting rid of all the salt that had accumulated after the ocean water cleaning I gave her yesterday. This was to be our final day in Annapolis and we chose to anchor out instead of using the City mooring ball, saving ourselves $35 and no extra hassle as the anchorage was just beyond the mooring field so easily accessible.

 

It was again a warm and sunny day with the high going up to a boisterous 24C, nothing short of incredible for the first week of November. We took the public bus to Bacon Sails where I picked up a few last things – spare dinghy paddles, some carb cleaner, and some strapping to secure the boat batteries while Ana browsed the merchandise at the nearby Goodwill store, and got me a fancy new white shirt for future dinner parties on the water. We walked back to town and returned to Chick and Ruth’s for one of their famous milkshakes. Actually Ana had the milkshake and I had a malt, both outstanding, as were the two home-made doughnuts we picked up at their end-of-day 2 for 1 sale. I think the strawberry jelly may have been the best doughnut I have ever eaten.

 

We had a last look around Annapolis then returned to the boat and made a delicious dinner then watched tv for an hour or so before going to bed at a ridiculous hour. It is now dark by 5pm so we will have some very long nights to manage in the coming weeks.

 

I will miss Annapolis. It’s been my favourite stop of the trip so far. But there are many more places to come.

6 Pound Milkshakes and Cockpit Blues in the Key of A

Annapolis – 10 miles by car , 7 kilometres walked

We were up early to get propane and return the rental car then had a brisk hour long walk back to downtown to meet up with our friends at Chick and Ruth’s, a local celebrated breakfast establishment, famous for its 6 pound Colossal Milkshake. We considered ordering one because if you are able to finish it they post your picture on the wall and reward you with a t-shirt, but then we found out you still have to pay the 35 bucks for it. Instead, we enjoyed a classic American fry-up then explored a few of the shops downtown. We met a lady named Pat at the Sea Bags Maine store who we talked with for a very long time. She told us all about Annapolis - the shifts in demographics that have happened over time, skyrocketing rents, inflation, the challenging retail environment, then gave us an insider view on her platform for when she becomes the country’s benign dictator. One plank of her platform involved mandatory vasectomies and possible castration for all men over the age of 45 getting to prevent them from marrying 25-year-old hotties after divorcing their menopausal wives. She was an interesting lady.

 

After our walk it was back to SeaLight to do some cleaning. Ana went crazy with the vacuum and scrubbing brushes and cleaned the inside of the boat and the cockpit while I gave the deck a salt water scrub which I planned to rinse with fresh water tomorrow. When the cleaning was done Ana and I sat down together and planned out our next few days of travels, plus calculated the pace we’re going to have to maintain to get ourselves down the ICW and to south Florida by the middle of December. We figured that if we can average 40 miles per day then we will need to travel four out of seven days per week. And that will be a bit less if we go offshore and do one or two 24 hour overnight runs. We are going to be covering a lot of territory in the coming weeks.

 

We had invited our new friends over for a sundowner on SeaLight, which we shifted from 5:30 to 4:30 after remembering the time change. In all we had eight people – Wayne and Gwen, Ana and Kevin, Kate and Ben, then Ana and I and we had a great time together. Wayne brought one of his harmonicas and was ripping on with supreme mojo while I played a 12 bar blues shuffle on the ukulele in the key of A. Ben joined in by singing a bunch of nautical-themed dirty lyrics and we mesmerized the entire mooring field of international boaters with our spectacular music. Then we quit after one song and got back to eating and drinking.

My Girl is Back!

Annapolis – 4 miles by dinghy, 5 kilometres walked, 800 kilometres by rental car

Where did the day go? I was up at 5am watching a damn movie again then just goofed around on the boat until late morning when Ben and Kate came over and we dinghy’d over to Back Creek as they needed to pay a visit to the Yanmar dealer for engine anodes and Fawcett Marine for some other goodies, and I was up for the walk. Of course, I found a couple small things to buy there too. It’s just not possible to leave a marine store empty handed. I know. I’ve tried…but not very hard.

 

The Yanmar dealer was disaster zone – the counter was covered in engine manuals, wiring harnesses, trays of nuts and bolts, filters, engine paint, invoices, empty boxes, and god knows what else lurked beneath the heaping piles. The couple running it were cute and friendly and had been there a very, very long time. The main stockroom was in the back, and we didn’t go back there but I can imagine what it was like. But of course they had exactly what Ben needed in their piles of treasures. We then walked to the marine store (and ran into Wayne and Gwen there) then the nearby hardware store. There happened to be a McDonald’s nearby and we had all skipped lunch so against our better judgement we stopped for a little snack.

 

During the dinghy ride back we stopped to take a photo of a vessel that could best be described as “unkempt”. There was junk all over it, ripped tarps, stuff hanging off the sides. Other stuff was strapped to every strappable surface. I didn’t even have to go into the boat to know exactly what it smelled like down below. We got close enough for a photo, but not too close. I believe that was the only wreck of a vessel in that whole harbour, as there were hundreds of other boats there, maybe thousands, and some real beauties.

I just slunk around the boat for the rest of the day, worked placidly and unfocused on a few issues, not feeling my regular self without my girl. But she was on the way, rocking the US Interstates and she finally arrived around 6:30. I was happy to have her back.

We loaded her luggage and gear onto the boat then went back out to run some errands - get propane (which didn't work out as the True Value hardware store's propane pump was down and the guy working the gas station across the street wouldn't do it for me either as he was working solo) and groceries (which did work out but the store we went to called Giant was overpriced and the self checkout machine berated us and left us feeling unwanted and low).

Once back at the boat I made us dinner while Ana put away all the stuff and told me about her trip home. The kids are doing an incredible job of taking care of our house, are getting along well, and are both focused on their jobs and school. Her parents are the same - which is good, and she caught up with a few friends while she was there.

She will be back again for a Christmas visit in about six weeks, but between then and now we have a job to do - get SeaLight to Fort Lauderdale.

Pancakes and a Streetside Child Adoption

Annapolis – 2 kilometres walked

It does not feel like November. There hasn’t been rain in weeks and nearly every day has been sunny and warm. We couldn’t have had any better luck with the weather.

 

Annapolis today was full of people. I am guessing mostly day trippers from other parts of Maryland or neighbouring states, but the shops and streets were all buzzing. I had Ben and Kate over for pancakes and peameal bacon at 10 and we sat for a very long time in the cockpit watching the dozens or may be even hundreds of boats out sailing as the water too was full of action. Sailboats under sail were threading artfully between and around the moored boats like a slalom racetrack, and I was sure several times one was going to crash into us, but they never did.

 

I went for a walk into town and found an Adirondack chair outside of the Helly Hanson store calling my name so I sat down and stayed for a long time enjoying the sun on my face, watching the people passing by, and enjoying the divine luxury of free time and choosing to spend it like this. Four young kids came by, joined by who I expect was their grandmother. The youngest boy walked over to his sister, wound up, and kicked her in the back of the leg. They started arguing. He came over in front of me, sat on the ground, and started playing with some little stones he found as his sister berated him and ratted him out to Grandma. Grandma pointed at me and said, “You take him. You just take him with you,” as she shook her head, eyeballed the boy and turned to walk away. I looked around me and there was nobody else there so she was definitely talking to me.

 

The sister then looked at me and said, “He won’t be a problem. As long as you don’t have any other kids,” then they all began walking away, leaving the little bugger sitting on the ground looking up at me, his new papa. He seemed up for it until I shook my head and motioned to his family walking up the street. He jumped up and left. I got back to enjoying the sunshine, glad I wouldn’t have to explain to Ana how a feral child came to be incorporated into SeaLight’s crew.

 

The remaining daylight hours were consumed by reading and pottering around on the boat in a lazy Sunday fashion. Ben and Kate came by at 5 for pre-drinks drinks then at 6 we dinghy’d over to one of their buddy boats from the Erie Canal who had finally arrived – Wayne and Gwen, and we joined them in the cockpit of their boat along with Kevin and Ana from Domino, and a couple from Quebec I hadn’t met yet – Jean Francois and Gina. It was Gina’s birthday and this was her birthday party. I had brought over a Yeti cup of peppermint tea which was the perfect beverage to go with the banana nut bread Ana and Kevin had bought at Costco, which they dished out to everybody then we sang the birthday song. The only thing missing was my Ana, and I couldn’t wait to see her tomorrow.

This little get together was exactly how I had imagined cruising to be – meeting new friends, sharing stories, and - as we’ve learned with Kate and Ben - being there to help each other out along the way. I think I’d like to have this same group to SeaLight for a sundowner before everybody starts heading south again.

The Slaughter on the Water and Stella’s Graduation

Annapolis – 1 miles by dinghy, 8 kilometres walked

That whole morning movie thing worked out so well for me that I did it again today. I fired up The Fall Guy at 6:30 am and despite my low expectations, I loved it. I only got about halfway through, but it is very funny, so I’ll finish it off tomorrow.

 

I decided to take a day off boat work today. After giving Kevin and Ana a dinghy ride into town (they were off to Washington for the day), I went for a long, hot shower at the marina office then started on a long walk to explore Annapolis. It is a beautiful, historic town with a marine tradition unlike anything I’ve seen before. I found a couple restaurants I want to take Ana to when she’s back. I found this amazing little bookstore that had a copy of Marcus Aurellius’ Meditations on the discount rack for six bucks so I grabbed it. I explored St. John’s College, founded in 1696. I found a children’s park and did some pull ups. I walked across the bridge to the town of Eastport and found the Maritime museum, a lot of historic houses and buildings, and a thousand or two people and a dozen food and booze vendors and bunch of bands gathered for the Slaughter on the Water Tug of War competition with Annapolis. And yes, the tug of war takes place by stringing a thick rope right across the entire bay and stopping all boat traffic for a few hours.

 

The party was already going by 10:30 am and most people were carrying a beer or two. I wasn’t ready for drinking yet, but I did grab a half dozen delicious oysters for the ridiculous cheap price of nine bucks. This is the 25^th anniversary of this event and the crowd was really into it. I stayed for the first of ten or so tugs. There were at least 30 or 40 people on the rope and the other side of the bay was so far away you couldn’t make out details, but I assume they had similar numbers on their team. There was a five second countdown then the tug began and the crowd went wild! It went on for several minutes and sadly the Eastport team started giving way and  lost the first round. But it didn’t dampen the crowd’s enthusiasm.

I walked back over the bridge to check out the Annapolis side and there wasn’t much of a party going on at all – just the tuggers and a couple hundred spectators. I was told by somebody there that the big party is always on the Eastport side.

 

I had lunch back at the boat, then after the competition finished and the rope was removed I was able to dinghy some tools over to Ben and Kate, then I gave them a bit of help installing a new stove on their boat. Really, I just handed Ben the tools.

 

After that job I returned to my favourite coffee shop and found an exuberant lad on the front counter who would great each customer as they walked in the store with a booming voice hollering “HELLO LADIES AND GENTLEMAN AND CHILDREN OF ALL AGES! WELCOME TO BITTY AND BEAU’S! THE GREATEST COFFEE SHOP IN THE WORLD”. It was awesome.

While there Ana called with two pieces of great news. First, Magnus was going to be spending a week with us in Florida before flying to Edinburgh for his next school semester in January. He found a crazy flight that was just as cheap as flying directly to Scotland. Also, because he will be arriving five days before he’s able to move into the university residence, our friends Steve and Abby have graciously agreed to host him for those days at their house which is in a small village called Jedburgh, not far from Edinburgh and I am sure they will give him a fantastic introduction to Scotland. So on December 26 Magnus, Ana, Stella, and her friend Anna and will all fly into Fort Lauderdale and take over SeaLight. Secondly, Ana attended Stella’s grade 12 graduation ceremony today and sent me an image of the program that showed Stella had won a whole slew of awards and scholarships. I am so proud of her! She worked so hard at school and is such a good student so I’m happy to see her recognized for her efforts and leadership.

 

I capped off the day with sundowner drinks and snacks on SeaLight with Ben and Kate as we floated in the peaceful and beautiful Annapolis harbour.

It was a most excellent Saturday.

Toilet Tasks, Bachelor Life, and Domino Arrives

Annapolis – 1 mile by dinghy, 2 kilometres walked

I am adjusting to temporary bachelorhood rapidly. This morning I was up at 5:30, but instead of making a caffeine-free hot drink and writing, I flipped open the laptop and finished off the last two movies I tried to watch with Ana at night but fell asleep.

 

When daylight arrived I got to work emptying and refilling the composting toilet. I have a love/hate affair with boat toilets and have spent many hours of my life removing them, installing them, deodourizing them, fine tuning them, unclogging them, usually without gloves or protective gear because that’s for sissies. Toilet jobs usually end in heartache, except that one time my buddy Andrew foolishly agreed to help me replace the sanitation hose (this transports the nautical logs from the throne to the holding tank) on our last sailboat Bella Blue and he got shot in the face with chunky sewage after the 18 feet of inclined hose built up a significant amount of back pressure that exploded when we removed it. And he was right in the firing line. Now that was funny.

 

I got so sick of repairing and replacing the manual Jabsco toilet pumps that last year we invested in an electric push button macerating toilet which has worked flawlessly. And I no longer need to give visitors the fifteen minute training session on how to use the damn thing. Now, they just press a button and the toilet does all the work. The other toilet on the boat is a composting toilet and it is a marvel of low technology. It consists of two chambers. The first is a pee chamber which gets filled from pee being directed through one of two holes at the front of the toilet bowl. If you’re left handed, you aim for the left one. If you’re right, go right. If you're ambidextrous, feel free to alternate. The other chamber is for the numero doses, the turds, the logs, the pipe. That one is accessed by flipping a lever on the side of the toilet which opens up a hatch to the drop zone. You make sure you’re centred over the bowl and hope for the swish shot – nothing but net. If you are misaligned, there may some manual cleanup required, so you need to focus and keep your aim straight and true. The poo-poos drop into a chamber which has been preloaded with this moisturized coconut husk that is loaded with hungry bacteria that make fast work of the solids. It works so well that we’ve found the solids chamber is completely odourless. In fact, it’s the pee that smells, and can induce some gagging when we dump it.

 

Today, it was time to empty the solids bucket as it has been about 3 or 4 months since I last changed it. It is as easy as putting a garbage bag over the top then tipping it upside down, and it all just drops into the bag and smells of nothing other than soil. I was thinking of sprinkling it in the nice Annapolis flower beds near the park, but it was a ways to walk so instead I tossed it in the garbage bin.

 

My next job was to reroute some speaker wire that one of the previous owners had strangely decided to run right through the engine compartment near the shaft. This had been bothering me since we bought the boat and it finally rose up in the project list. That task me right through to early afternoon so I broke for bachelor lunch and had beans on toast with a side of radish and high volume Deftones (Around the Fur album…perfect) then I decided to go into town for a little walk and to see if I could find some cream cheese for jalepeno poppers I wanted to make for sundowner snacks. I hadn’t really been into town that far yet but it was hopping – people everywhere, locals and tourists, so many bars and restaurants and nice shops. But right at the top of Main Street I found a little convenience store run by a sweet Latino lady. She had cream cheese and she also had twelve packs of Yuengling for thirteen bucks so I grabbed one of those too.

 

Ben and Kate had originally been traveling the Erie Canal with two other buddy boats but had gotten ahead of them when they hooked up with us and they had been several days behind us. Today, one of the couples – Kevin and Ann – arrived on their sailboat Domino so I took my snacks over there and the five of us met up in their cockpit for a sundowner. They are a lovely couple and we had a great conversation – I was just sad my Ana wasn’t there because she will really like them. But she will meet them very soon.