A Day Trip into Baltimore with Xiaomi's Family

This weekend Xiaomi (a colleague from work), came along with Gabe and Neve.  They have been with me on several occasions (here, here, and here) and are all quite comfortable on the water, so we planned a longer itinerary - a trip into Baltimore.  More on that below.

I went down to Rock Hall on Thursday evening and for the first time this season, noticed that the fridge was just a hair above the "safe" mark on my fridge thermometer, so a quick defrosting was called for.  The procedure is simple... shut off the fridge, boil a small pan of water and set it under the freezer portion and let the steam work its magic.  After about a half hour, all the ice is loose and you just clean it all up and restart the fridge.  It's usually ready to receive food a few hours later.  (I have also learned that I don't keep food that might not take well to a slightly high temp during the week - so it's mostly well preserved stuff like ketchup, mustard and dressings as well as some drinks.)

Friday was spent working from the boat.  I did manage a nice sunrise walk and then headed over to the pool bar for lunch just as the vodka delivery was happening.  (I tried to get them to back up the dock to Seas The Day but they just laughed at me... I imagine they encounter that a lot.)

A LOT of alcohol is consumed at Osprey Point

A nice spot to wait for my lunch order

Friday evening was the day before "B-dock henge" (which was clouded out Saturday), but it wasn't a great photo -- too many sailboats were away from the dock.  I filled the water tanks and used the time to update my chart plotter's firmware.

Updating firmware Friday evening.

I woke up before dawn on Saturday and was rewarded with fabulous coloration in the sky from the approaching sunrise.

Xiaomi and her family arrived mid-morning and we departed as soon as we could afterwards.  I'll let the photos tell most of the story.  We decided to head to Baltimore.  I had heard about the "Star Spangled Buoy" from a friend and was looking for an excuse to go see it.  Xiaomi volunteered that she had to study that history when she became a citizen last year, so that became our destination.  We knew it would be a LONG trip.

For the trip across the bay, we followed the main cross-bay channel and in turn we got to see a barge and tugboat up close.

Fort McHenry

After passing Fort McHenry, we decided to go into Inner Harbor for a quick look around.  The tourist boat above was my only photo during this time.  There was way too much traffic to be both skipper and photographer.

Then we had the long trip back.  We settled in (my guests each got a nap in) and it turns out we missed a large pod of dolphins a couple of miles to the south. (I learned this from a dock mate on Sunday morning.)

Oh well.

After tying up at Osprey Point, we headed into town for a dinner at Waterman's Crab House and some final photos on their docks.

Afterwards, I had my nightcap, and a bit of oatmeal cookie for dessert while watching the colors after sunset from the cockpit.

I was so exhausted at the end of the day.  I don't remember when exactly going to bed, but I slept way later than normal.  No worries... Sunday was supposed to be quite rainy, so I just worked on this blog Sunday morning before heading back to Newark.

Bonus!  Some Photos from Xiaomi and Gabe

Xiaomi knows I lack photos that have me in them, so she supplied these.

And Gabe gave me access to his gallery from the day... here are my favorites.  (Seeing some of the interplay between parent and child when the child decided to "ruin" the photo brought back many memories from when John was that age.)