Upon arriving in Annapolis on the 4th of July, it seemed that this would be our final destination on the motor yacht. After a couple days at anchor next to the US Naval Academy, we made our way into the Chesapeake Harbor Marina, which is located a little outside of the main city area. Although it would have been nice to have been more centrally located and within walking distance to and from the city, this was the only marina in the area able to take a boat of this size for potentially several months. Our lives transitioned from being underway to, once again, tied to a dock, just as we had been for so many weeks in Florida.
We continued on with our daily duties and tried to spend most of our free time off the boat. Although there wasn’t much nearby, the marina was located amongst condos which had an excellent swimming pool overlooking the Severn River. We spent most afternoons there, enjoying the pool in the humid heat until the afternoon thunder storms rolled in. It was bizarre to me to experience so much rain during the summer months. It seemed we would get squalls passing through every third or fourth day followed by a few days of sunny, hot weather. Most days it was too hot to eat on the back deck, so Eitan and I used this as an excuse to eat separately inside, in the air conditioning.
Annapolis is known as America’s Sailing Capital and it’s very apparent that the locals learn to sail at a young age. During our days in the anchorage, we would often see a flotilla of twenty or thirty tiny sailboats tacking and jibing around as they paraded through the water. Some of the young sailors couldn’t have been more than 5 years old and were surprisingly very skilled. With so many sailing schools nearby, Eitan was able to rent a small (24-foot) sailboat for a day, so we took some local friends we had recently met out for a relaxing day of sailing around the bay.
Having taken sailing classes in college, Eitan was pretty experienced in getting us off the dock and maneuvering around the harbor without any motor to assist. I was amazed at this because for all of my sailing experience, you typically don’t start sailing until you are away from the dock and underway. I couldn’t comprehend how we could even get off the dock with wind power alone. I pushed us off as Eitan adjusted the sails to catch what little wind was passing by and soon enough we were out of the wind shadow of the nearby buildings and cruising under full canvas. It was a fun day with Eitan manning the tiller and main sheet, me on the jib sheet, and our friends on DJ and bartending duty. It was horribly hot so we took a couple breaks to cool off in the muddy river, then ended the day with oysters and drinks at a nearby restaurant.
During our time in Annapolis, Eitan and I learned that oysters play an important role in the water quality of the river. Each oyster has the ability to filter up to 50 gallons of water per day. Part of the reason the water visibility of this region is so poor is because of the historic decline of oysters due to overharvesting, habitat loss, and disease. Along with conservation and restoration efforts, oysters continue to be harvested and serve as an important part of the local economy. I got to try the locally grown oysters called “Patty’s Fatties” which were quite massive at about two to three times the size of a normal oyster.
With our three weeks on the dock in Annapolis, we were able to do a couple weekend trips, one to Washington DC and the other to Philadelphia, which I will talk more about next week!
