Eastport is part of Annapolis -"WE LOVE YOUR CRABCAKES BUT NOT YOUR CRABPOTS!"

"Watch out, crab pot 11 o'clock....ok you missed it, there's another on 12:30...ok I see a pattern...turn starboard we should be fine....uggh there's one 1 o'clock..."  That is our conversation for pretty much anytime we are not directly in the channel.  Thank goodness, crab is so delicious and how can you ever say no to crab cakes or crab balls. 

We had left Cape May, Tuesday after Labor Day about two hours after low tide.  We went through the Cape May Canal, where we slid through a bit of mud at the mouth out to the Delaware and headed up the Delaware Bay.  Weather reports, including NOAA seemed to be wrong yet again..they predicted 5 to 10 from south west..it was actually north east.  Thank goodness it was light winds and we had a little current with us, so we didn't have any problem.  In fact, in the C & D Canal (Chesapeake and Delaware Canal) we were motoring through at about 8 knots.  Made good time and put our anchor down at Ford's landing  We slept pretty well and headed for Annapolis....all along the way "Crab Pots!"

 

Going towards Chesapeake Bay bridge, every single time you go under a bridge your stomach hurts

Crab boat-catches in creek we anchored in

It was time for new and bigger batteries. Jon noticed that the old ones were not keeping up with usage.

Dog day afternoon. You can rent paddleboards at the Ellen O Moyer Nature park at the west end of Back Creek.  It was wonderful to watch so many people young and old enjoy this form of exercise and enjoy the water. On any given time of day their would be 10 to 20 paddlers out.

Paddlers at night

Haze-everyone said it was from fires out west

One of favorite things we like about cruising is meeting new and interesting people.  With Covid, we really weren't sure how many people we would meet.  Our niece, Grace, said her favorite part of our trip down the Canal and Locks was meeting the Flying Scotsman.  He was a very interesting man that single handed a small cape dory power boat,, The Flying Scotsman.  He had traveled for the whole summer on it.  He had an infectious British accent and was super helpful and nice.  (A large sailboat lost it's throttle cable in the second to the last lock of the "flight".  The Flying Scotsman went back to help tow the boat out...by that time they had figured out how to control the throttle from the engine, but he was there if needed.) The Flying Scotsman caught up with us at the free town dock in Waterford, NY and talked to us over a cold beer.  We kept distances about six feet.  We also learned that a lot of boaters are just like us, almost always alone and extremely careful when in public places.  I guess we kind of interview and observe people before we spend time with them.  

All that to introduce you to a nice couple, our neighbors anchored in Back Creek, Eastport (Annapolis), Sarah and Lorenzo.  Lorenzo, originally from Hawaii,  was in the Navy for 3  years and has been teaching sailing lessons for J World all summer and Sarah is the dockhand at the boat club.  They just want to live on their boat, Off the Leash, with their cat, Loki, and travel via sailing.... I mean truly sailing as they do not have either inboard or outboard motor.  We invited them to dinner and they invited us to go sailing on one of the J boats from work.  It was all so much fun seeing the Annapolis Harbor from the J boats point of view.  We gave them pickles and an Italian meal.  They gave us Hawaiian snacks and fed us Spam sushi. (You read that right, Spam sushi.  Lorenzo explained to us that in Hawaii Spam is a staple.  They all different kind of seasoned spam that you can buy and people have all kinds of recipes.  We loved hearing about their adventures and they loved hearing of ours. We picked each other's brain for tips on everything from sailing trim to anchoring.  Especially anchoring.  We were up fairly early one morning (9am and we hadn't had coffee yet) because we had offered to bring them to work because the dingy motor was not running properly and wouldn't start.  It was blowing a steady 10 to 15 knots with gust to 25-30 and it was about 52 degrees.  We saw that they were in their dingy ready to be towed to work and the we noticed that their boat seemed to have been moved...I think they noticed it at the same time because all of a sudden they were back on the boat trying to get their sails up and Off the Lease was dragging anchor.  It was no time and they were against the pilings on an apartment marina.  A nice man enjoying his morning coffee came out and before we knew it another boater offered his Boston Whaler to pull him off and tow him to a mooring ball (re-anchoring seemed out of the question when they needed to be to work) We all worked hard to fend them off the marina boats and after work, Lorenzo took Jon's suggestion and went to West Marine to buy 85 feet of chain.  All's well that ends well.  They have lots of plans to improve their boat and are hopping to catch up with us this winter in Florida.

Sarah & Lorenzo

Hawaiian snacks and seasoning

small boats racing and the training boats for the Naval Academy 

Out for sail in J boat.  Thank you Lorenzo and Sarah 

We were met with this guy flying up as we came in then Spam Sushi --Delicious 

Lorenzo and Sarah re-anchoring their boat, -Off the Leash

Our walk on Eastport nature and marine trail.  Ellen O Moyer Park.

  

Measures of different hurricane storm surge and a nice spot to watch osprey and ducks

💕💕💕all over Eastport they have these nice areas to sit and be by the water

EastPort has it's own flag....everyone flies them on their house

BOATYARD GRILL- seriously best crab cakes

more of Eastport

Nice dingy ride in Back Creek.

We are currently in St. Michael's, Maryland anchoring.  Check back in a few weeks for an update.