The next morning, October 13, we sailed into Baltimore Inner Harbor where we set a great anchor between the USS Constellation and the Aquarium. The skyline was incredible; we were right in the mist of the hustle and bustle of the Inner Harbor. With welcomed surprise, my son Cory greeted us as we anchored (his office building is directly across from the Inner Harbor; he was able to watch us come into the harbor from his office window).
The weekend in Baltimore was fantastic with lots of time spent with my son, Cory, his girlfriend, Carrie and their friends. We also enjoyed spending time with other sailing friends, Helen and Gus, who we met while cruising in Maine this summer.
On October 16, we left Baltimore and sailed to Annapolis to have an out of water survey for insurance purposes. Once again, Cory and Carrie joined us there as well as Terry’s cousin, John and his wife, Pat from Austin, TX. We spent a day with them in Annapolis, moved the boat out the boatyard and anchored outside of Annapolis in a placed called Weem’s Creek. There we visited with another couple, Bob and Sally, who we also met this summer in Maine. From Weems Creek, John, Pat, Terry and I then cruised to St. Michaels for the day and evening. From there, we sailed to Oxford, MD for the day and evening and on October 24, we left Oxford and headed for Cambridge, MD. We anchored in the tiny harbor and enjoyed the great crab and various seafood they had to offer.
On October 27 we found another wonderful crack-your-own-crab restaurant. Needless to say, we spent a number of hours there. On October 28, we left Cambridge for a car trip to Washington, DC, so that Pat and John could fly home to Austin, TX. Our week long visit with them aboard Zelda flew by; we had a great time of eating our way down the Eastern shore of MD.
Our next passage is via the Bay to the ICW and South to Beaufort, NC, where we will meet additional crew and begin our sail into the Caribbean with our first landfall at St. Thomas, USVI. Our plans are to leave (weather permitting) Beaufort on November 5. The expected sail to St. Thomas is about 8-10 days.
The crew works well together; the watches are 4 hours; Ed from RYC and I have the 8-12am; 4-8pm; 12-4 am; Pedro from Brazil and Tom who we have raced with to Bermuda take the other watches. We are getting in a groove now and find getting up easier as the days pass. We are all looking forward to getting there, though. Zelda has behaved somewhat in good spirits. Terry seems to be fixing things here and there. We had a bit of a scare while sitting on the deck when a loud sound with what appeared to be smoke emitted from the boat. It turned out to be one of our propane tanks (stored in an on deck locker) sprung a leak sending propane fumes and smoke into the air. No one was injured; we only lost the propane in that one tank. We also put up all of the sails that the boat should have which total 5 at one time. Yesterday, we put up a spinnaker which worked fairly well. Today, we put it up again and then after a bit, it tore down an entire panel. We were able to get it on board before it sank; I think I will try to repair if it is repairable rather then send it to a sailmaker.
Hope all is well; send our love to Mom. Talk to you soon; stay in touch.