Monday, July 7. The Martek serviceman arrived and determined that the guy
in Palm Beach had merely attached the instrument. He hadn't made any
adjustment for our different equipment. It sounds like that other fella
was not too well informed. Anyway, this Martek place is billing the Palm
Beach Martek place for the service. Kay spent the time doing the
laundry. Pearce spent the intervening hours giving Kibon a much needed
bath and trying to get the outboard working. Nothing seemed to work, and
he contacted several marine supply stores for a part that seemed to be the
problem, We will go to a marina in the Magothy River a bit north of
Annapolis tomorrow, but today we are going to check out Annapolis.
 We crossed the
Bay and came into the harbor on Spa Creek off of the Severn River. We
picked up a mooring buoy (years of retrieving marks for Narrasketuck Yacht Club
races gave Kay the proficiency to gather it in on the first try.) We
called the water taxi and went ashore. We headed over to the Naval Academy
and, after showing our ID cards, we toured the buildings. This year's
plebes have been here since June 28th, and they were in evidence in the field
house, marching toward the pool, and perfecting their marching
skills.
A rain storm came in and we had to retreat to a dry
area, therefore we were too late to enter the Chapel which closed at 4 pm (1600
hours). We were unable to view the tomb of John Paul Jones. We will
make a stop here again another year.
  As
we walked through the historic district of Annapolis, we could appreciate the
different architectures of the buildings that dated from before the
establishment of the State Capitol in 1695, to the years which saw the
establishment of the town as a major shipping port. Annapolis also served
as the Capitol of the United States from 1783 until the seat of government was
moved to New York. Another rain storm, this time a major one, curtailed
our wandering, and we retreated to a Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Shop.
Pearce enjoyed a double Cherry Garcia, and we waited out the downpour.
Several blocks closer to the waterfront, we picked up two bottles of wine and
headed toward the water taxi. Back on the boat, we discovered that the
bridge was very wet, the carpet inside the port doorway was very wet, and the
rain had only left some drips on the starboard side. The sun will come out
tomorrow, and everything will dry out.
Tuesday, July 8. The sun came up bright and warm. It is predicted to
be in the upper 90s. We released the mooring and headed toward the Magothy
River. As we were approaching the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Pearce reckoned
that the tanker approaching the bridge would not reach it while we were still in
the  channel.
We were well past the bridge and back out of the channel before the tanker
came by. We headed toward the Fairwinds Marina and passed right by
it. They had no identifying sign except "No Transients" and
"No Overnight Docking," and they did not answer on the radio.
Kay finally got them on the telephone, and we were told where to dock.
Pearce got the part, installed it, and discovered that something else was
wrong. Turns out that the power pack needed replacing, and now the
outboard motor works great.
 Back out to the
Chesapeake Bay and up to the Patapsco River. As we headed up (just outside
the channel) Pearce spotted another huge ship. He decided that it was the
ugliest ship he has ever seen, and he needed to take its picture. We later
saw several more like it, but at least they were painted pretty colors. We
passed under the Frances Scott Key Bridge and located the red, white, and blue
buoy the marks the place where Frances Scott Key was a prisoner aboard a British
barge looking toward Fort McHenry to discover whether the British had won
or the Americans had prevailed. We couldn't help but repeat the simple
stanzas as we continued toward the Fort.
We came into the Inner Harbor and tied up at the
public dock. Fee? $1 a foot plus $4 for electricity. There are only
two other boats here, although there are a few along the dock in front of the
restaurants. The anchorage in front of the World Trade Center (never knew
there was more than one) seems to have disappeared. There is a paddle boat
and an electric boat concession there instead.
We walked around the harbor, watched a magician, a man
making balloon creatures, and the people enjoying the paddle boats. We had
dinner -- more crab cakes -- and have returned to Kibon for the night. We love
Baltimore... it's great to be here again. And especially great to arrive by
water!
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Cruisin' The Loop Aboard Kibon