October 13, 2017
The busy first week of October had left us feeling slightly smarter, though quite exhausted and socially drained.
The entire week before the boat show we watched boat after boat arrive – big, new catamarans; luxurious multi-million dollar power boats; salty wooden double-enders; super shiny production sailboats whose refrigerators held more than their holding tanks. Boat traffic in the bay became ridiculous. Even our little anchorage all the way up Back Creek which we had largely to ourselves for weeks (already too tight to put out a comfortable scope of anchor chain) now was being shared with three other boats!
Every excursion through Back Creek was a never-ending slalom around boats which had anchored in the channel for the show.
When we visited Dena and James on S/V Nomad, they recounted to us how one of the sailboats that had anchored very near to the slip they were in had put out an inadequate scope of chain and dragged their anchor when the wind picked up, crashing into one of the pilings that Dena and James’ boat was tied to! Apparently it took something like an hour for the older couple to sort out how to get off the post without smashing into Dena and James.
In turn, we recounted to them how a couple had, just the day before, anchored their sailboat in way too close proximity to us (despite having other equally good options a bit farther away) and were subsequently given a citation by the Harbormaster for anchoring too close to a nearby dock – anchoring boats are supposed to maintain a 75 foot distance from marina slips and private property. They moved the boat; but, much to our shock and dismay, basically anchored just as close on the opposite side!
As Dena and James went on to describe the yacht as displaying a Canadian hailing port and having a very protective German Shepherd aboard, Kris and I realized simultaneously that this was exactly the same couple who was anchored next to us! We spent the rest of the evening nervous about Exit being dragged down on by some crazy Canadian couple’s sailboat, but were relieved to find no such thing had happened when we returned in our dinghy later that night.
Nonetheless, we decided it was time to pull up anchor and get the Hell out of Dodge. Though the 2017 Annapolis Sailboat Show had ended, the 2017 Annapolis Power Boat Show was in full swing, gearing up to begin in a couple of days. There were undoubtably other nearby places on the Chesapeake that offered a lot more water with a lot fewer boats.
With only about a month left before we needed to be getting underway on a southern heading (more than one person has commented that we are already a week or two behind the crowd… ok with us… and we had better get prepared to be cold if we leave much later… not so ok), we are desperately trying to get our refrigeration system sorted out by switching it over to 12 volt which also requires getting solar figured out and installed as well, before we set off.
This requires us to stay in fairly close proximity to Annapolis, where the refrigeration guy we’re working with is located, in case we can get everything sorted and on the schedule.
So, for now, though we can’t go far, we have a wide open body of water to explore. On a loose leash… and a long anchor chain!
sv-exit.com 