Tues Oct 6: Harrington Harbour North Marina to Annapolis, MD

 In which we try to contemplate our Navals ....

 Mel here:  I couldn't sleep so we got under way WAY too early.

That's is an ACTUAL SUN COMING UP...

Morning Mist - yes, it is lovely in the morning.  I will admit that.

Rick here: After a successful "self-service" pump-out at Harrington Harbor we set our course for Annapolis, the capital of Maryland.  It was about a 4 hour cruise during which we passed the famous Thomas Shoal Screw-Pile Lighthouse.   Melanie had been looking forward to seeing this "screw pile" lighthouse for some time and it did not disappoint.  

 

It's adorable!  But you are a long way from land if your husband and kids are driving you crazy...

Finally - a crab pot bouy that makes sense.  I can actually see it if it has a flag on it.

 

We thought that we had seen lots of boats before, and indeed places like Solomons have an unbelievable number of boats, but Annapolis is something else.  There are boats everywhere and, being a sailboat Mecca, they are mostly beautiful sailboats.   The City of Annapolis is prepared for visitors arriving on boats and have multiple mooring fields in the Spa Creek and assorted other creeks and bays that cut through the city.   We motored into the main mooring field that has 40 mooring balls and hooked up with no problem. In addition to the mooring balls, we learned that any street that deadends into the harbor (ends at the water) has a place to tie up your dinghy so you can easily visit many parts of the city by dinghy.

Look at this beast of a cat next to us - biggest masts I have ever seen.  Rick says that is because the sales roll up inside.

We arrived with plenty of time to look around, so we lowered the dinghy and motored over to the city dock to do an initial reconnaissance.  We stopped at the visitor center, picked up some information and maps and then headed off for a walk around the center of town.  

 

Visitor Center.

Of course the #1 thing to do here is to visit the Naval Academy - but it is closed due to Covid.  That is disappointing, but does narrow our tourist options.  My mother always says it's good to leave something for the next visit so...

The heart of Annapolis center is two circles - one for the church, and one for the state.  Most downtown streets shoot off from these circles. Right in the center of the waterfront area is a statue celebrating a local resident, Alex Haley of Roots fame.

And a huge pumpkin just because it's so damn big!

We strolled for awhile longer along the beautiful and historic streets scoping out shopping opportunities and places we might like eat.  One of our favorite bits is a little inlet of water into the downtown area called Ego Alley.  If you have the nerve you bring your big fancy boat up and do a pivot to show off.  I think we won't be trying that.  Then we motored back to our boat where we found that almost all other mooring balls had been filled by big sailboats.   Because it's a sailing city, there are lots of sailing schools, so we were treated each night to the little students zipping around the big moored boats as practice.