Yesterday was a beautiful day to be sailing down the bay with fair winds and following seas. We, however, were motoring up it with wind and waves on the nose. That sapped some of our energy and we were slower than normal. Still we made it in 7 ½ hours from casting off the lines to picking up a ball at St. Mary’s mooring field in Annapolis.

Conditions were moderate at first with wind at 15 kts and 2 to 3 foot seas. The wind abated as we went along. Seas were confused near the mouth of the Choptank, but then laid down nicely. By the time we reached Annapolis there was little wind. We were fine with that but I am sure the Wednesday racers were greatly chagrinned.

After many trips by car and chartering a boat here 28 years ago it is wonderful to have made it on our own little boat. We will hang out here for three nights and hopefully go St. Michaels on Saturday. That will depend on when the remnants of tropical storm Bill passes through. There could be small craft warnings that day. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

St. Michaels has a classic boat rendezvous and exhibit the weekend. We hope to see some pretty boats and get some nice pictures.

There was apparently a barnacle bloom about 3 weeks ago and the greedy little buggers have attached themselves to every bit of exposed metal under the waterline. They are now scraped off and I am looking forward to slightly better performance. The bloom apparently occurs when the water temperature hits 71 deg F, so there is a bloom in the spring or early summer and then again as the water cools in the fall. At least, that’s what I’m told by a local “expert.”

After spending an outrageous $300++ at Reliable Marine (now there is an oxymoron for you) the outboard exhibited the same symptoms we had before. I should have tested it before we left Solomons and I’m sure that when I call to complain they will say, it was fine when it left here. After much tinkering I got it to start and keep running last night, but only after I made a couple of rowing trips to the docks at the Annapolis Yacht Club. Thankfully, we are very close. More finger crossing hoping the motor behaves correctly today. We have a lot of places we want to go.