Day 53 – N 39° 16.826’ W 76° 34.937’ Baltimore, MD

As promised, the tall ship “Pride of Baltimore II” did visit Annapolis on Tuesday, and was berthed right next to “Sultana”.  Although they are similar types of sailing ships, topsail schooners, there is a huge difference in size.  Still, it was impressive to have both in the harbor at the same time.  Unfortunately, it rained all day on Tuesday and the wind was very strong making it difficult to row the dinghy, so we stayed aboard Kite, and did not visit the Pride of Baltimore II.

Wednesday’s weather was better, but as we were finishing breakfast, the Pride of Baltimore backed out of her slip and headed out into the Bay.  We went ashore anyway to visit some attractions we didn’t have time for on Monday.  The old home of William Paca, which is famous for its rich décor as well as its beautiful gardens, was open for tours, so we got what turned out to be our own private tour of the 1750s home.  William Paca was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. We took a self-guided walk around the gardens after the tour.  The house was beautiful and they had done a great job of getting both Paca’s actual furnishings and similar ones from the period.  It was lunch time when we finished looking at the gardens, so we returned to the crêperie where we had eaten lunch on Monday and tried different selections from their menu which were equally as good.  As we were walking to the Wm. Paca house, we noticed a Kilwin’s shop, and decided that we would have to go back there after lunch for ice cream cones, which we did.

Still shot - video wouldn't upload

We had heard that Wednesday night sailboat races in Annapolis always finished near the bridge, which meant that the boats would be tacking upwind right through the mooring field.  By Wednesday, there were quite a few boats moored there, so it promised to be an exciting event.  Around 18:00 sailboats started leaving the harbor to go out into the larger river where the starting line was.  It was a constant procession of boats large and small that lasted for about 30 minutes.  There must have been 50 to 100 boats in various classes.  Lyn took some video of some the boats as they maneuvered through the mooring field on their way to the finish line.  That was pretty exciting as they passed within inches of us on either side.

Baltimore was our destination for today, Thursday.  It is only 27 miles from Annapolis by water, so we would not have to leave very early.  But we wanted to get going as soon as we could, because the weather forecast called for scattered showers and t’storms in the afternoon.  We wanted to be in Baltimore before the t’storms.  We got up around 07:00, had a nice breakfast, and were underway by 08:30.  There was some fog around, but the visibility was about 3 miles, so we decided to go.  The wind was very light all day, so we motored the entire trip, and only got some assist from the sails for about 30 minutes (of the 5 hours we were underway). 

The fog burned off before noon, and we enjoyed a leisurely day navigating up the busy Baltimore shipping channel.  We arrived at the marina we had selected by 13:40, and it never even rained or threatened to storm.  After checking in at the office, we went grocery shopping at a supermarket across the street from the marina.  The skies looked more threatening as we walked back from the grocery store, but again it never rained.  So we put away the groceries, Lyn made dinner and we enjoyed it outside in Kite’s cockpit, in 70 degree temperatures – a first for this trip!