Amekaya's Blog: Enjoying summer heat and making progress

We left Oxford on Tuesday 28 June after completing our work their and headed for a brief interlude in Annapolis.

Oxford in the rearview mirror.

In Oxford during the second stay we were able to replace our vinyl coated lifelines with stainless steel that look great and had the hole in the cockpit covered where the sonar was. I was able to remove much of the old wiring for the sonar and paint the lazarettes with Bilgekote. The boat is looking better and getting ready for our extended offshore voyage. But still many tasks to complete.

A selfie at the bow.

We left for Annapolis with little wind although we were able to sail down the Tred Avon and Choptank the wind soon died as we turned into the Bay and we motored on the rest of the way. Typical summer day on the Bay with little wind. We motored up to the Annapolis City Marina where we added fuel before our stay in Naptown. After waiting for the bridge over Spa Creek we found a mooring in Wells Cove. In the week before the 4th of July we found a convenient mooring as most of the mooring balls were available.

Sailing a little cool and wet.

We had several objectives while in Annapolis. We had a rental car reserved for Tuesday afternoon that we needed to get for medical appointments on Wednesday and Thursday of that week. We called our friends Al and Trish Del Negro who live and have a dock on Spa Creek and we arranged with them to be able to dock our dinghy at their dock and park our rental car in their driveway. A safe and convenient spot to leave our dink and rental car. We've gotten quite used to renting cars as needed for appointments and provisioning.

Passing Thomas Point Light.

We used the opportunity in Annapolis to catch up with old friends and visit some of our old haunts. We previously took the opportunity to dine at the Boatyard so this time we went to Pusser's Dock Bar for a Painkiller. It used to be one of our favorite spots but we haven't been there in a couple years so after getting our car we stopped downtown for a quick painkiller before heading back to the boat. Pusser's dock bar in Annapolis is an icon of water culture and is a great place to people watch.

Our visit to Pussers.

The next 2 days we did our medical follow-ups and provisioned. But we really enjoyed the opportunity to catch-up with old friends. On Wednesday night we met our weather gurus Dane and Jenifer Clarke. We've used the Clarke's for years after first meeting them at an SSCA Gam in 2011. We do most of our weather planning using online data and now reports from OCENS through our Iridium Go. We always count on Dane and Jenifer's insight on the Gulfstream.

Dinner with Dane and Jenifer.

Thursday night we enjoyed a nice dinner with our friends Trish and Al at their home. We used to get together frequently so it was nice to have the opportunity to enjoy a quiet evening together.

Us at Trish and Al's.

After having been in Annapolis for several days Friday was the first day we actually got to walk around the town and shop. We did lunch at McGarvey's which was another favorite of ours. We returned to the boat and got the dink up in ample time before storms raged through. The Friday night storms were severe and we watched lightning strike on what we later learned was the Maryland Statehouse.

We stayed in Annapolis through Saturday morning and gave up our mooring on Saturday and headed to the Rhode River for the holiday weekend where we met our friends Trish and Al for Saturday night. We spent Sunday in the Rhode River grilling the last of our Bahamian conch.

During a break in the rain and storms on Monday we motored the short distance to Hartge's Yacht Harbor in Galesville for what hopefully will be our last round of work.