This was the weekend my cousin, Deb, her husband Nathan, and Maryanne and Brian came for their yearly sailing trip. They hold the record as our most frequent guests (other than my son John) and even have the honor of sailing with us for the first time on a Catalina 425 - Shardana - during our 2019 excursion.
We arrived on Thursday night to check out and ensure everything was OK after our battery issue and short-haul (it was). There was no wind and Swann Creek was smooth as a sheet of glass. We spent some time unloading a long weekends worth of stuff and then had dinner at Osprey Point.
The quality of light during my sunrise walk on Friday morning was unusually good resulting in some nice photos before I spent the day working from the boat.
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| My lunch from the Oasis Pool Bar. |
Deb and Nathan arrived just as I was shutting down at the end of the workday. We had previously decided to reserve one of the picnic tables at Osprey Point along with a bag of charcoal so we had a nice cookout as the kayak folks returned. It's a really sweet spot right by the creek.
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| Head grillmaster Nathan. |
After eating, we played a rousing round of Pig Mania - a sort of dice rolling where pig statues sub in for the dice. Can you guess what the snack of choice was?
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| These ARE touching, resulting in a loss of all points for that round. (When I carefully slid the right pig aside, the left pig fell!) |
Following the game we went to Get The Scoop for some ice cream and then played our Nintendo Switch (Each time we learn a little bit about how to run this game. Maybe it won't take 20 minutes to start a game next time we are alone.)
We took a break from video games to watch the sunset.
Davis' photo from nearby Shardana
Photos can tell the story from here for this next portion.
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| Maryanne was the assistant skipper. |
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| We saw all manner of ships - this one was from Domino's Sugar! |
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| We almost shared the channel with a large vehicle carrier. |
Any trip into Baltimore with school-age children has to stop by the Key Buoy. This is not named because it's an important buoy (although it is), but because it supposedly marks the spot where Francis Scott Key was when he watched the battle of Baltimore in the war of 1812, resulting in the poem that became the lyrics for our national anthem.
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| Fort McHenry is in the distant background... you'll see that better later. |
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| Fort McHenry |
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| They were flying the smaller flag today. We saw the larger "Garrison Flag" last year on our vacation. |
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| Domino's Sugar factory |
Shortly after passing the Domino's Sugar factory things got really busy and my photography stopped until we docked safely at Inner Harbor Marina. Right after docking, Deb & family headed off to explore Inner Harbor and Vicky and I headed below for a much needed nap.
We gathered together around 5:00 PM for dinner which Deb and her family provided. We shared a wonderful meal of chicken, broccoli and pasta with Alfredo sauce.
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| It's amazing to watch Nathan's ability to always have something at hand to keep Brian and Maryanne engaged when needed. |
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| Dinner in the cockpit overlooking Baltimore Inner Harbor |
The evening included a trip to Ritas Ice, a new version of Uno (Uno Flip), and sunset photos.
Deb's family turned in early and I sat in the cockpit having my nightcap and taking a few nighttime photos.
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| A blue heron was walking the dock next to our slip. |
I had to wake people up at 6:00 AM on Sunday morning. It was going to be a very busy day as we had to depart by 7:00 AM to get back to Rock Hall and then head home to make a graduation party for a colleague's son.
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| Some of us resisted waking despite the noise I was making. |
We finally departed a bit after 7:00 AM and began the trip back. I'll let the photos tell the story.
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| Fort McHenry finally with the right lighting to look like a fort. (many times it just looks like a grassy hill) |
As we reached the mouth of the Patapsco River, the conditions were perfect for us to set sail and we sailed most of the way across the bay before time constraints required us to motor the rest of the way.
We made it back, docked, and quickly said our goodbyes to Deb and family before madly scrambling to secure Seas The Day in her berth all ready for next week. Then we made a mad dash home to make ourselves presentable and get into Wilmington for Josh's graduation party.
Josh is a colleague's son who took a keen interest in all things Chinese during his high school years. He and his dad even came along for our 2018 trip to China. We were thrilled to receive an invitation to his party and made sure the weekend could be arranged to accommodate this addition to our plans.
Somehow, even after all this, Vicky had the energy to make a batch of peach jam before crashing on the sofa next to me.
