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Published: October 8th 2010
Rainy Day View
Here is a view from our âwindowâ on one of many rainy days we have seen in Annapolis.Thursday, September 30 - Wednesday, October 6, 2010
We woke up this morning to a downpour and it looks like it will continue all day. They even have tornado warnings out for the area but so far the highest we have seen the winds is about 25 mph. Our original plan today was to go to shore as West Marine was having a big sale and we have a few things on our list of things to get. When we saw how hard it was coming down, we changed our plans and figure we will head over later today if it lightens up. Instead figured it was a great day to make a big pot of soup. Bob got some of the research books we have on board to figure out a few things about the electrical system on the boat and sat reading up on it while listening to the stereo. We have had our lunch and it is still raining, a good excuse for a nap so Bob has heeded the call. This just got me thinking that even though we are now living on a sailboat some things don’t change. Rainy days call for making pots
Another Service Provided to Boats
The Annapolis harbor master even has pump out boats that come to your boat to pump out the head so you donât even have to move to a dock for this service. We have found many areas on the Bay have this service. of soup and naps. The only change I can think of is that it is a Thursday and we can do these things as neither of had to go to work today!
The things that change - we live by the weather reports and it is always interesting to do all of your errands by starting to get the dinghy ready, getting the backpack out with anything that we need to take to shore or for carting things back, getting the dinghy bag (this has our dinghy lights in case we are out later than we think and our dinghy cable and lock), the bike bag (this has the bike lock, bike mirrors) and our bike seats if we are in a place long enough to keep our bikes on shore so we don’t have to keep carrying them back and forth in the dinghy. It becomes a project to get ready to go to shore. Then we get the motor started, jump into the dinghy and then find a place to tie up on the dinghy dock if there is one. Luckily in Annapolis any street that dead ends to the water has to have a dinghy dock
How Close Did He Pass?
A pile driver surprised us by driving by our moored boat, a boat sailing by and the local marina. It got a little tight for space, but he made it through without hitting anything. and a place to dump trash. If it is a popular dinghy dock then you work your way in between the dinghy’s already “parked” so you can also tie up to get to shore. We then climb on our bikes or walk to the stores to complete our errands. If we come back and it is dark, Janice holds the red/green navigation light at the bow and Bob puts the white stern light on the motor so we can be seen by others. As we come back to the boat, we then “grab” the line on the stern of the boat so we can then disembark with all of our “stuff”. Sure is a little different from jumping into the car, but figure that this gives us a little more exercise! We do find that as a result everything takes longer as well so some days you may only accomplish one thing such as running to the grocery store - sure different from when we were working and had to fit multiple tasks into a day. Another cruiser that we met mentioned to me today that we have to remember that we are retired so only do 1 thing a
The State Capitol Gardens
A view of some of the gardens at the Maryland State Capitol building. Nice to see the roses still in bloom. day is OK. What a concept!
One of the other differences is that our “roof” has a few leaks that we didn’t have at our house. The canvas that we have over the cockpit has been great, but there are definitely spots where the water gets in so will be looking for something to waterproof the canvas a bit more than it is. At least with having the cover we can still keep the doors open to the cockpit so can have a nice breeze coming down into the rest of the living area. Sailor hasn’t changed in not liking to get her feet wet so she did quite a balancing act today trying to get up into the cockpit without stepping on any wet towels - it took her a while to figure it out but she managed. As I said earlier, some things don’t change. We also had a chance to rent a movie to view on one of these rainy nights on the boat. While watching it you almost forgot you were on a sailboat until the wind started up and we had a couple of halyards banging on the mast and the boat started to
An overview of the Academy
Here is a map of the Naval Academy. It started in 1900 with 10 acres of land, it now is on more than 300 acres which was created by backfilling the water front. move. At times you think things are just like “home” but then something happens to remind you that it isn’t quite the same. By the way, got our roof fixed so now we really can use the additional room provided out back - it also acts as a great sun room on these cool days.
We did make it to shore today and took a walk to the store in the rain in our foul weather gear. We got the items we needed for the boat and then went to the grocery store to pick up a few things. The limiting factor now in shopping is deciding how much you can fit in your backpack or in the panniers on your bike. As a result you “run” to the store more often than we did at home as you typically do your shopping piecemeal. The other limiting factor is definitely the size of your refrigerator and freezer. As an example tonight we really had to think if we could actually fit a ½ gal of milk in or if we should only buy a quart. We were fortunate tonight in that next to us in line when checking out
Some of the landscaping
Just one of the many views of the grounds at the Academy. As Bob noted there are no âshort cutsâ that have been created by walking paths that you typically see on most campuses. was a person that we had met at the 7 Seas Cruising Association meeting last week and she offered to give us a ride back to our dinghy. We are so appreciative of acts of kindness such as this as it would have been a long, wet, walk back to the dinghy trying to keep our packages dry. (thanks Donna) This evening the rain has not stopped and there are still warnings of flood watches. We are on a mooring and will be fine, however, we are noticing that a few of the docks at the neighboring marinas are close to being under water and there is no sign of let up of the rain. As a result we are sitting warm and snug down below reading books.
Another item that has become essential for us is the headlight. Yes, we have about 4 of them on board and we use them all the time. We use them when trying to find something in the back of a closet or in the cabinet in the galley, we use them when wanting to sit out back in the cockpit and read and we use them when we sail at night
The Only Dorm on Campus
Here is the main entrance to the one dorm on campus. It houses all 4,300 students. It contains 1,700 rooms, 5 miles of corridor and about 33 acres of floor space. and need to look at the charts as we have them with red lights as well so they do not ruin your night vision. As Bob has told me, my new fashion statement seems to be that of wearing a headlamp!
Yes, these are some of the things that they do not write about in cruising magazines, however, we still are enjoying our life on Tsamaya. This just makes you much more in touch with your environment and slows your pace down as we are not running to accomplish everything in a day as we were in the past - everything now takes much longer to do so even just running to the store or doing the laundry becomes a major project that you have to allow more time for than we did in our life on land.
Another thing that we really were very sad to hear was about the passing of a great man, Steve, that Bob taught with in Trumansburg. As we have always heard, bad news travels fast. We do appreciate however the few people that contacted us to let us know as we are not as connected to news as in the past. Please
One Side of the Dorm
This is one of the wings of the dorm â“ the other side is a duplicate of this and is the only dorm provided for all students. The make of the students is 80% male and 20% female. continue to keep us in the loop on the sad as well as the good news that you think we would want to know. We do find that we are much farther removed from the news of the day. We can still get NPR which is great but as we are always monitoring our energy consumption we have noticed that we don’t have the radio on as “background” anymore - it is only on if we truly have time to sit and listen to it. As a result we are more in tune with the weather reports than we with any news reports. When we take time for the computer it is typically to do research, check the weather, on-line banking or work on the blog -we haven’t been taking the time to check the news as we again are charging our computer batteries all the time and monitor our usage.
Well, a few days have passed since I last wrote. We have been socializing some with our fellow cruisers. We were very fortunate in having an invitation to dinner at new friends that we met at the Seven Seas Cruising Association get together last weekend. You can tell they
The Residences
A view of the officers quarters at the Academy. Very nice housing provided are sailors as well as they also told us we could bring our laundry to do at their house as well. We told another sailor about our invite and he said that we hit the trifecta. Had a great dinner with Bill and Donna (yes, the same one that drove us back the other day from the store) - nice to meet new people with the same interest. They are still working, but hope to be out cruising in the future. They currently keep busy with grandkids, jobs, sailing, spelunking and being great host to people that are sailing through the area. Bob said that he never thought he would see the day that he’d be taking his laundry to do at people’s houses (especially ones that we just met) but it really is a treat not to have to do it at a laundrymat.
We have met some of the people on the boats moored near us and as a result have done a few things with them - went out to dinner, to the local farmers market and an arts and craft street show. Seems like there is plenty to do around here and we are taking
Quite the Entrance
This is the grand entrance as you enter the dorm - quite different than any dorms I have ever seen or heard of! advantage of it. Other new friends of ours (Jim & Joann) met us for lunch and then came back to the boat and provided us lots of great information on places to anchor, where you can provision and overall pointers for us newbie’s that will be going down the ICW. We still have had quite a bit of rain so today Janice did more cooking - made applesauce and ratatouille from the great fresh veggies and fruit from the farmers’ market. It is nice to see so many communities that have active farmer’s markets even though we have never found one as large as Ithaca.
The other day we made it to the Naval Academy to take a tour which was very informative. Found out if anyone flunks out or is kicked out they must pay back the costs of the tuition so there is even more incentive to do well. This also helps in determining what the student will do when they complete their four years of schooling. We have shared a few photos that we took while on the tour with you. One thing we found was that John Paul Jones who was known for raising the
A different plane by the Wright Brothers
This is a B-1 navy flyer built by the Wright Brothers hanging in Dahlgren Hall on the Naval Academy campus. first American colors was known as one of the greatest Revolutionary War naval heroes and is now enshrined at the Academy. He was also quite an accomplished military leader in France and Russia after the Continental Navy disbanded. The naval academy also offers 32 athletic programs, the largest number of any of the armed forces. Needless to say swimming is one that is mandatory for anyone attending the naval academy.
The plans are to attend the show Friday through Sunday and then leave next Monday (Oct 11th) to head south. We are definitely noticing a change in the weather as we both broke down yesterday and got our slacks on instead of shorts. Everyone told us that it would be getting cold on the trip heading south - we just were hoping it wouldn’t be this soon but it is October (which is hard to believe).
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Joe Prevost
non-member comment
Steve
We went to Steve's memorial. It was quite a tribute to him, so many people showed up and shared stories about his life. The family gave out a sandwich bag with grass seed and a golf tee to each person. It was a beautiful day.