We left Solomons on Saturday, 17 May after waiting for a rain squall to pass by. Once we got out the creek the wind picked up and we had some lovely sailing.
As we got closer to Annapolis, we had to start dodging the various boats coming and going, as well as keeping an eye out for crab pots.
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| Thomas Point Shoal Light |
It was the first time in ages that we had to drop our sails in such strong winds - 20 knots or more. We motored quite a long way up Severn River before reaching Weems Creek where we dropped anchor. Andrew immediately phoned the CBP office but was told to call another number again on Monday.
The next morning, we went ashore looking for a supermarket and a Home Depot. The Home Depot was 5km away and would have been walkable if we didn’t need to walk on a highway. Worried about having to cross a highway with no pedestrian crossing, we ordered an uber. The lovely uber driver didn’t communicate much - we think she was Spanish and her English wasn’t that good, but she got us to our destination safely.
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| Waiting for the return Uber |
Target wasn’t far from Home Depot and we were able to safely cross that road. Another Uber ride home, with a very friendly American who asked us about the South Africans who were claiming refugee status. We have been put on the map! Americans are asking questions about us.
We were happy to find Calypso where we left her. The wind barrels down here at an alarming rate and we were a little worried about her while we were ashore.
On Monday morning Andrew tried calling the CBP office again before we went shopping and even left several messages. We heard nothing back and he continued to call over the following days.
We are a South African registered boat, which means we do not qualify for a cruising permit. That means that we have to let the CBP office in the area know where we are and check in at every stop. Then Andrew emails a form to them telling them where we have been and where we are going to next. It’s fine most of the time but a bit of a pain when we can’t get hold of them.
There is a shuttle bus that runs from the stadium into downtown Annapolis. We walked for miles and even asked directions before eventually finding the bus stop. We almost gave up waiting, but eventually the bus arrived. We did see a Blue Angel at the bus stop.
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| Blue Angel |
It costs $2 per person one way and takes you all the way into Downtown Annapolis. There was a chap on the bus who was very friendly and helpful, giving us lots of good information.
We hopped off and walked down main street. Annapolis is beautiful with lots of lovely houses.
The old houses are really beautiful. The Navy was having their graduation that Friday, so there were a lot of young naval personnel with their families.
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| Expensive lunch! |
We spent a fortune on a burger lunch and continued our walk around the town, including the wharf area.
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| Laura was delighted to find an Irish Shop |
We caught the bus back and walked to a Graul’s supermarket. They don’t sell alcohol in the supermarkets in Maryland, but we could go next door to the Walgreens and buy beer and wine there. You have to show ID not just give your date of birth as we did in Deltaville.
Back on the boat we continued to try and get hold of the CBP office to no avail.
We woke to a cold breeze but bright blue clear skies. More attempts to get hold of officials were made to no avail.
After breakfast Andrew and I headed off to find a laundromat. We walked about 3km and found a large laundromat with lots of machines. We managed to get all our washing in one machine for $4.50 and then went to look for a hardware store to find some small cable ties.
We have been wanting to put our light up in the cockpit but the cable ties were too big. We walked for about 5 minutes and found the right store. Cable ties acquired we went back to the laundromat to put our washing into the drier. We were too lazy to walk all the way back plus we wanted to be back on the boat in time for the airshow practice which was happening at 2pm, we ordered an Uber.
When we left the boat that morning, there were one or two small craft in the river area but when we got back it was packed. Boats, dinghies, bigger boats and people on kayaks and SUPs. The planes had been flying around during the morning but the practice show started at 2pm.
Friends of Dave and Sandy’s are anchored in the bay with us. They had been down to Deltaville to say goodbye to Dave and Sandy and we were mentioned in conversation. They popped over to say hello and we had a lovely chat.
The airshow was amazing. The planes were loud!
Watch our YouTube video for more on the Blue Angels show
Later that evening Tracy and Martin popped over and said they were going to their house which was nearby, did we want them to fill our Jerries with water. There is only a marina round the corner to fill the boat with water. Nothing in Weems Creek. It was so kind of them to offer and we sent them off with two empty jerry cans. Martin came past later with full ones. We were very relieved to have more water on board.
It rained all day on Wednesday and we spent the entire day holed up on the boat. The airshow didn’t happen in the afternoon due to low cloud and rain.
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| When it rains, we bake bread |
On Thursday Andrew and I walked to the nearby Grauls. We had bought some Rosé wine that was best before August 2021. It was disgusting and we were hoping to take it back. I had thrown away the slip so we weren’t hopeful.
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| Meant to be pink! |
We did our shopping in Grauls and went next door to Walgreens to return the wine. We explained why we wanted to bring the wine back. They gave us refund, no questions asked. Andrew checked the date on other boxes and found more with the same best by date. The manager was horrified.
Later that day Jim and Laurie on Kismet came past us. They had been staying in another creek near Annapolis Town.
Jim mentioned that he had some dinghy fuel that he couldn’t use and said we could have it. We pottered over to them on Friday morning and transferred the fuel to our Jerries.
Then we upped anchor and set off. As Andrew was getting the anchor up the Blue Angels came past. They were doing a fly by for the Navy Graduates.
As we got closer to the bridge we saw police boats dotted all over the Severn river. One boat came up to us and said they were going to escort us along the way. We got escorted by three different police boats all along the river. Later in the day we hear over the radio that they had closed the river to traffic for a couple of hours during the Navy graduation.
The sail over to Swan Creek was quite bumpy. The wind was good and we only had a headsail out. We had to be quite careful when entering the creek and we were very happy when we dropped anchor.
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