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| Watching the dolphins on the way to Annapolis! |
Before I begin my blog for this last weekend (I know, it's late... here's why), I again agreed to give Neve (in the blue life jacket above), the top location in my blog post in exchange for a review. Neve and her family have been coming sailing with us multiple times since 2019 (here, here, here, here and here). Her mother, Xiaomi, is a colleague of mine.
This time we went together on an overnight adventure to Annapolis, MD.
Here is Neve's Review....
Sailing With George and Vicky
2023
How the Day Started
We started off the day on the boat relatively quickly, as my family unpacked our bags almost immediately before we took off, wanting to get an early start to the day. On boat, the time taken was around three hours, and was spent casually chatting and eating some of Vicky’s delectable homemade vegetable spring rolls. Whilst steadily advancing, almost under the main bridge across the water, by chance we managed to catch glimpses of dolphins feeding from afar, which was pleasantly surprising. The views were stunning throughout the whole boat ride.
Arriving at Annapolis
Arriving at around 1 pm, we docked at Yacht Club, a local marina with a bathhouse and nearby restaurant. It was unpleasantly hot at Annapolis, so before adventuring the town promptly after docking, we took a break and relaxed a bit inside the boat, which was comfortably cooled. After refreshing, my family decided to explore the town, while George and Vicky stayed.
Exploring the Town
The walk around town wasn’t exactly in the nicest weather, since the temperature was persistently hot, so every once in a while we had to stop by stores to cool off. I enjoyed walking around the unique small shops and browsing their products. We visited several shops—from handbags made from the sails on sailboats to tiny ornate bookshops with old, used books to purchase or read. We ended up getting a used book from the bookstore and ice cream from Annapolis Ice Cream Company. After stopping by a couple more shops, my family settled on eating at Preserve, a restaurant that focuses on preserved foods (like pickled vegetables). Shortly after waiting, George and Vicky met up with us and we settled down to choose our food options. I decided on a smash burger. Once the food came and I took a bite out of the burger, it tasted pretty good! Everyone else liked their food, so I would say it was decent. After that, we stopped by another ice cream place. It was called Kilwin’s Chocolate & Ice Cream.
Comparison!
George had wanted me to compare the two ice cream shops and say which one’s better, so here it is. At the first one, Annapolis Ice Cream Company, the environment was very nice, as it was a relatively small place with a large neon sign of the shop’s name on it and it was packed with people. We had ordered Mint, Lemon Poppyseed, and Penguin Tracks to share. The mint ice cream was my favorite. I didn’t like the lemon one really, because it was too sophisticated for my liking. Penguin Tracks was stuck at the bottom, so I didn’t really taste much of the peanut butter flavor that they specified. I like how they had really unique flavors (Coffee Oreo and Sweet Potato Pie). At Kilwin’s, I got Annapolis Mud on a sugar cone, because I thought the ice cream name sounded very fitting. Vicky got a cherry flavor. The area was more spacious and filled with lots of other sweets, like candy and chocolate. Their ice cream was mediocre, it tasted like a lot of others. I would say Annapolis Ice Cream Company’s ice cream is better because there are some really decent flavors there to try.
Wrapping Up
We finished off the day chilling and chatting on the boat. The next day, we started off by eating breakfast (courtesy of George and Vicky) which was made up of sausage, scrambled eggs, toast, and spread. It was like fancy breakfast food, and tasted amazing, considering it was made using a tiny stove in the compact boat. It then started to rain, so we decided to head back to the marina
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| A couple of drawings that Neve provided |
(GAR Note: Oh my... I'm clearly loosing the great ice cream debate (see below)!)
Now back to the regularly scheduled blog. (Grab your favorite beverage... this is a long one!)
Vicky and I headed down to Rock Hall on Friday evening after a hectic day with customer visits and the associated write-ups. We arrived just at sunset and stopped by Scoops for some Ice Cream (which will turn out to be a theme for this weekend).
The quality of light as we were at Scoops was just gorgeous... it has been quite a while since we saw some great sunsets. The fires in Canada were filling our skies with haze and sunset and sunrises were mostly hazy with just an orange circle for the sun. We took our time, enjoying the light, the community and the ice cream.
Thus, it was dusk by the time we schlepped everything down the main dock to B-dock.
As we unpacked, Vicky readied the guest cabin. We keep the guest cabin bed clothing in plastic bags to retain freshness after each laundering and usually the guest cabin is our storage area. It was a bit of a scramble to find places for everything and make the space presentable.
On Saturday morning it was time to scrub the boat and then - as we were setting out the cockpit cushions - I noticed a weird pattern to the curtains in the storage cabin. It turns out a wasp had decided to begin a nest in there. We destroyed the nest and scrapped as much of the mud off for now.
Xiaomi and her family arrived a little after 9:30 and we quickly did safety briefings and departed on our 3 hour tour to Annapolis.
Three hour tour... where have I heard that before?
Anyway, as expected, it was quite hot - Heat index temps were in the low 90s for shade and around 100 for in the sun. Despite this while motoring we had a nice breeze coming in through the center window of the dodger.
Vicky pointed out that there have been dolphin sightings in the area we would be traveling through. Neve, now 11, took the pushpit seat to be able to watch for them.
Sure enough, after some time I heard the exclamation that they saw dolphins! This is our first sighting this year. Everyone soon moved to the foredeck to watch the dolphins.
After a bit, we continued south under the Bay Bridge and began the approach into Annapolis.
Vicky had prepared her spring rolls for this trip which she served shortly after we crossed under the bridge. They were a hit! (Our reviewer even described them as "delectable"!)
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| Gabe's photo |
As we entered the mouth of the Severn River we noticed lots of activity. Lots of folks were out motoring or sailing and we even saw a paraglider and watched a local club's 420 race get started.
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| Gabe's photo |
I called the
Annapolis Yacht Basin once we entered Spa Creek for our assignments and motored us into our slip for the night. I was pleasantly surprised when I was complimented by one of the slip holders for how smoothly I did the U-turn and backed Seas The Day into slip 36! (Maybe I'm FINALLY getting the hang of this docking thing.)
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| Xiaomi's photo |
We had a bit of difficulty getting all the lines adjusted so we could easily exit the boat. Once everything was connected and AC was restored, we all decided to sit in the cool salon and rest a bit.
After a bit of a break, Xiaomi and her family departed to explore Annapolis. Gabe shared the following few photos of their travels.
Just as I was waking up from my nap, I received a text that they had secured reservations at
Preserve, which was not an easy task on a Saturday afternoon for this top-rated restaurant on Yelp! We quickly cleaned up and joined them for dinner.
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| The crispy kale was wonderful. The whisky drink, less so. |
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| Gabe's Photo |
Following dinner at Preserve, we decided to head to
Kilwins for some ice cream. If you're paying attention as you read this, you'll notice that this is the SECOND ICE CREAM for Neve today... what generous parents she has!
(Another GAR Note: Our reviewer DID weigh in on the great ice cream debate... I'm clearly loosing in my preference for Kilwins - especially against young Chinese ladies.)
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| Gabe's photo |
After ice cream, we did a quick walk past Ego Alley and then returned to Seas The Day.
Gabe and Xiaomi jumped at the chance to take a nice walk and Neve opted to stay behind and watch YouTube.
After the walk, Xiaomi and family headed to the bathhouse while I grabbed a couple of evening photos of Seas The Day in the shadow of the Annapolis Yacht Club.
We couldn't get space on the creek side of the Annapolis Yacht Basin, so we missed the wonderful view across to the city marina we had on some other visits to Annapolis.
Once everyone returned, we hung out in the cockpit for a bit while enjoying the evening. Eventually the beginning of the expected storms drove us down below.
We had a great nights sleep... we had some rain, but the cockpit was mostly dry in the morning. I sat outside and had my coffee and checked the weather, read some Harry Potter, and looked around at the surroundings.
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I didn't know birds could sleep grasping onto a rail.
(I did observe that upon waking the first thing they do is Sh!t.) |
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Maybe Vicky could become a crew on a SuperYacht
since she likes to clean so much? |
We had talked briefly about going to the Iron Rooster for breakfast, but people were sleeping in and I realized we had to eat and run to get home before storms were expected. So I woke folks up around 7:30 and set about making another fantastic breakfast.
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| Xiaomi's photo |
After breakfast, we set about getting ready to depart.
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| Xiaomi's photo |
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| Xiaomi's photo |
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| Xiaomi's photo |
The trip back to Rock Hall was uneventful. Seas were flat and there was no wind beyond what we were making with the engine.
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| Xiaomi's photo |
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| Xiaomi's photo |
At one point the ladies were talking about hair and Vicky quickly offered to show Neve some options. Neve, however, was having none of that, so it was a very short demo.
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| Gabe's photo |
Later, we shared some snacks while Vicky cooked up some Zongzi in the galley.
We stopped at Gratitude for fuel up and pump out with a minor mishap (aka, sh!t explosion) on the later. Just as we were finishing up there, the first raindrops began to fall. The rain stayed light for the quick trip up Swan Creek to Osprey Point.
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| Final approach back to Osprey Point. |
It started raining a bit harder just as we docked and tied up. Once everything was secure, Vicky had Zongzi and sausage stir fry waiting for a nice lunch to finish our time together.
Xiaomi and her family departed just before the heavy rain started so we stayed below until the rain stopped at 3:00. I then filled the water so all tanks that should be full were filled and all the tanks that should be empty were empty. We are ready for the next adventure!
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