Memorial Day Weekend with Jie (and a Visit from Tao)

We went out sailing with Jie this weekend.  Jie had been sailing with us a few times previously and although she has moved to Los Angeles, she was back in Delaware for some training.  Knowing that her training would end on Friday of Memorial Day weekend, we made plans to bring her for an overnight trip to Annapolis.

The original plan was to get to Annapolis Friday night since my favorite marina had a two nigh minimum stay during holiday weekends.  The trip was simple enough - just a three hour jaunt southwest of Rock Hall.

But Mother Nature had other plans for Friday evening with heavy thunderstorms coming across the bay and even tornado watches out on the bay.

We drove through some intense storms on the way down to Rock Hall, but once arriving most of the rain had passed - at least for a while.   After unpacking and some light cleaning we headed to Osprey Point Restaurant for a nice dinner.

We noticed that Captain Andy from Shardana was back (he had a health scare earlier this Spring) and invited the extended Shardana family for some drinks and ice cream, which we picked up at Get The Scoop, a little ice cream hut in downtown Rock Hall.

Captain Andy had been our sailing instructor back in 2013 for ASA 103 and again in early 2014 for ASA 105 when we purchased Seas The Day 315.  I had to tell him that after our recent boating educational experiences, we appreciated those ASA courses.  As we sat and visited in the cockpit, we noticed that a storm was approaching, but the rain was light and it made for a pleasant evening conversation.

Until it didn't.... 

The skies opened up and the rain came down with such force that it came through the Bimini top and we retreated down to the salon until a lull in the rain came by and our visitors could escape back to Shardana.

Jie nicely captured the impending storm.

The rest of the evening was spent just lounging around and chatting until bedtime.

During my walk on Saturday morning, you could see that half the sky was cloudy from remnants of the storm system and the other half was bright and clear.  It was going to be a great day.

We set sail around 9:00 Saturday morning.  It was clear and breezy (winds were 8 to 12 kts throughout the day) and the sails filled nicely.  We sailed southwest across the bay enjoying the steady breeze and debating the best way to trim the sails.  The photos pretty much tell this part of the story.

Vicky made a nice fire noodle dish with Spam & peppers for lunch!

Right after this photo was taken, the wind suddenly picked up from the 8 to 12 kts that had been the case all morning to 16 to 20 kts.  Seas The Day leaned into this wind which had shifted to coming straight from the bridge, requiring me to hand steer and tack back and forth to make headway while Vicky was cooking.  I was trying to eat my lunch... hand steer to the sudden wind and then noticed a barge coming under the bridge.

I had reached my operating limits and prudence determined that we should pull in the sails - too much to focus on.  

Once through the bridge, we were essentially on our approach to Annapolis so we just motored in... eventually tying up at the Yacht Basin Company.  (We had asked for a view and if you click on their link, we were tied up on the left side right amongst all the big boy yachts.)

Jie had grabbed our Switch and she and Vicky played some games while I took a nap after registering.

Later in the afternoon I took advantage of Jie's problem solving skills while she and I finally fished the replacement cable for the cockpit VHF mic through the chase behind the aft head.

The key to getting the cable through the tight bulkheads in this chase was an access port hidden behind the mirror in the aft head.

We finally have a working cockpit mic!

Following the boat work, we headed into downtown Annapolis.  Of course Vicky immediately went into shopping mode, but after a while we went to a Thai restaurant where we met up with Tao and her husband, SongLei.

It was Navy Academy graduation weekend and Annapolis was hopping with activity.

After dinner, I had us all head nearby to Kilwins Ice Cream company, which makes perfectly acceptable ice cream and the best fudge!  However, the young'uns revolted and were determined to get the BEST (at least voted that way) ice cream so we stood in line again for ice cream at Annapolis Ice Cream Company.  The photo below shows them gloating in victory over me for prevailing.  ;) 

Following ice cream, we retired to Seas The Day and had an impromptu photoshoot on the bow with Annapolis City Marina in the background across Spa Creek.  I have to say here that the camera in the iPhone 13 Pro Max is incredible.  We could barely see each other, yet it captured great photos.  I could never do this on a moving ship with my bigger cameras.

It was a little unnerving to be docked on the Spa Creek side of the marina.  We were literally among the big boys... some of these boats were clearly over $1M... one we're pretty sure was $5M, but the view was worth it.

After Tao and Song Lei left, we had drinks in the cockpit before retiring below.

After we all retired down below, Vicky and PanJie decided to play Mario Party on the switch.  They really got into it and it was wonderful to fall asleep to the sound of the women giggling.  

Here is a video.

I awoke at sunrise to the sound of massive bow thrusters and went out to see some of our neighbors departing for Memorial Day weekend.  The sunrise was coming up over the Annapolis city mooring field.

When the princesses finally woke up we headed out to the Iron Rooster for breakfast.  Afterwards, we departed for a return to Rock Hall.  I'll leave the photos tell the story of the trip.

After going under the Bay Bridge, Vicky relieved me at the helm and I eventually dozed off.  (Someone else did too.)

After returning, it was time for cleaning and readying the boat for next week's Power Squadron cruise, but we did have time for dumplings (and later some ice cream).

We finished the day with some simple salads eaten out on our patio.  PanJie has to use Memorial Day to fly back to LA before resuming work on Tuesday, so tomorrow we will relax from both work and boating before next week's cruise.