Hot time, summer in the City.

We spent a great week in "Charm City" as Baltimore is known locally. For probably the hottest week of the year we had a great time accomplishing lots of tasks but not really seeing much of Baltimore. It became as much of an operating base (kind of like most of our stops) to accomplish disparate tasks. The time we were there was during a hot spell in the northeast. Temps were running in the upper 90's every day with little cooling at night. Fortunately we were busy and in air conditioning so it wasn't too bad and there was a nice breeze by the water.

What is left at Sparrows Point. Once the site of the world's largest steel mill and boat yards that built any ships in WWI and WWII.

Fort Carroll a  Civil-war era fort guarding Baltimore Harbor.

We got a slip at the Anchorage Marina because they were the only marina with a reasonable weekly rate and we could get a rental car for a weekly rate so it made more sense to go there than to make several short stops and friends from our sailing club, HHSA were coming for the weekend. Plus it was on the way to our next destination, New England.

We got to Baltimore on Wednesday afternoon 20 July and Thursday we spent back in Northern VA with medical stuff and shopping. Friday was spent working around the boat and shopping although we got together with friends Stefan Leader and Andrea Heintzelman for happy hour and dinner. As always good to see them.

Saturday we spent at the Baltimore Museum of Art and in the evening we caught up with several folks from HHSA for a happy hour. But, instead of joining them all for dinner we returned to the boat for a meal more akin to our diet and to pack for our upcoming trip.

On Sunday we drove to Montgomery County PA to meet with sailing buddies Hayden and Radeen Cochran to discuss our plans for sailing this winter. Hayden and Radeen invited us to their lovely home in the country where it was still hot but comfortable. We spent the hours watching videos, reviewing charts, books and blogs about the Caribbean.

The 4 cruisers.

After our deliberations we decided that going to the Western Caribbean would probably be the best. We would start off in the Bahamas and work our way south until we were ready to jump off from Inagua andpass through the windward passage and then possibly stop in Santiago de Cuba, Port Antonio Jamaica, the Caymans, Belize and then into Guatemala where we will spend hurricane season.

On the way back to Baltimore we stopped by a college classmate, Mike Campbell to visit with him and his lovely wife Hannah. Hadn't seen them in about 5 years. Great to see them and catch up.

So back to the boat and back to our RW (real world). Many people look at our lives and see it as a vacation. But, while we do get to visit lots of fun places and do cool things that many people wish they could do there is a lot of work. We spent the next couple days doing routine work  and getting ready to leave to go north.

Much of the work we do is routine "house" work. Things like laundry, cooking, cleaning, repairs and upkeep consume alot of time. Beyond that there is boat maintenance to do on the engine, plumbing, electrical, hvac, the deck, rigging and generally every part of the boat. Unlike a house which doesn't move our boat has lots of moving parts or parts that help us move that need to be continually serviced and maintained because having them break at a bad time could have catastrophic results.

So we wrapped up everything and headed north.

The boat loaded and ready to go.