Back in Hampton Roads

As we approached the end of our one-month contract at Anchorage Marina, the Captain decided it was time to check Lazy W’s engines.  Both engines started right up but within seconds the port engine sputtered and conked out.  The Captain headed down into the engine room for some quality troubleshooting time.  The problem was diagnosed and remedied by a day’s-worth of rebuilding the filter housing on both engines.  We were ready to go.

Natty Boh looks out over the Baltimore Harbor from his perch on Brewer’s Hill

 as Lazy W heads for the Chesapeake Bay.

The weather for our departure was much more favorable than the weather that greeted our arrival on September 12^th.  Overcast skies gave way to sunshine on October 14^th, the Captain’s birthday.  We cast off our lines and headed out the Patapsco River hoping to catch a glimpse of some of the schooners scheduled to arrive at the nearby Baltimore Marine Center for Thursday’s start of the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race.  We didn’t cross paths with any of the schooners while on our 44-mile cruise to an anchorage on the West River, south of Annapolis.  But we did see several cargo ships like this one plying the water on the Chesapeake Bay.

To say that the Chesapeake Bay was calm would be an understatement.  The ‘waves’ were more like ripples and we were happy to be out on the bay on such a beautiful fall day. 

The anchorage near Galesville was also calm – so calm that night that we hardly felt like we were on the water.  There were no waves slapping the hull to keep us awake and on alert.  The only noise came from a raucous flock of ducks that landed just off Lazy W’s bow – what a cacophony of honking and squawking they made as they touched down in the dark.

Solomons with the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge in the background

The next day we arrived in Solomons.  As we made our way up Mill Creek past the docked LNG tugs, a beautiful bald eagle soared overhead.  Since our preferred anchoring spot was already filled with several sailboats and a trawler, we continued a bit further and dropped anchor in front of this house near Brooks Cove – the exact same spot where we anchored two years ago.  Our pictures of both visits are nearly identical – right down to the colors of the foliage!  

Near Brooks Cove on Mill Creek

Leaving Solomons, Lazy W was caught in the southbound ‘Snow Bird’ migration of sailboats, many flying the Canadian Maple Leaf.  Sailboats ahead of us, sailboats behind...

Sailboats ahead of us leaving Solomons on a dreary Tuesday morning

After 44-miles of smooth cruising (even crossing the mouth of the Potomac River!) we dropped anchor in another Mill Creek – this one off the Great Wicomico River across Ingram Bay from Reedville.  (It was a quiet, fresh-smelling day in Reedville with no sign of the menhaden fishing fleet and no hint of menhaden cooking in the nearby processing plant.)  The anchorage was a popular one that evening; we shared it with eight sailboats and three trawlers.  And what a peaceful, calm anchorage it was!

Clouds reflected in the calm water of Mill Creek

A few of our neighbors for the night in Mill Creek

Patti and Alan were hosting the annual Crabtoberfest at their cabin on Hills Creek off the Corrotoman River.  Not ones to pass up a party invitation, we pointed Lazy W towards Yankee Point Marina where Bernie and Carol were working on their sailboat, Cat’s Cradle.  Once the Sutton’s Whaler was launched we had use of their pickup truck for the rest of the weekend, eliminating the need to anchor Lazy W off the creek in order to attend Crabtoberfest.  Thanks Patti and Alan!

A peaceful morning at Yankee Point Marina

Lazy W at rest in Yankee Point Marina

Crabtoberfest was great!  Joe steamed bushels of crabs and heaps of shrimp for everyone to enjoy.  For the more adventuresome eaters there were steamed and raw oysters.  Dozens of potluck dishes rounded out the scrumptious meal.  And, of course, plenty of libations!  As darkness fell (along with a light sprinkling of rain), the younger partygoers built a roaring bonfire.  Good food, good people, good conversation. A hearty thanks to the hosts, Patti and Alan.

Crabtoberfest picture taken by Alan’s brother, Jeff

Our last night at anchor before heading home found us back at Weston Creek off the East River of Mobjack Bay.  As we rounded the New Point Comfort Lighthouse we found ourselves surrounded by dozens of dolphins!

We knew we were getting close to home when all the chatter on the radio centered on the movement of warships!  Prom Queen, a 60-foot schooner heading north after competing in the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race, made radio contact with Warship #66 heading up the York River.  Warships #5, 75 and 51 were all outbound from Naval Station Norfolk and advised all boaters to steer well clear or be subject to ‘deadly force.’

Lazy W obeyed all the rules of the road and arrived safely at Vinings Landing Marina in the early afternoon on Monday, October 21^st.  The Captain was able to maneuver our 14.5-foot wide trawler into a barely 16-foot wide slip – it felt as if we were attempting to thread a needle!  

When we finally secured Lazy W in the slip it became quite obvious that this was no place to leave her – at least eight feet of her stern was stuck out in the fairway and the rickety floating dock was all catawampus!  We combed the marina for a more suitable berth; we even considered taking her back to Ocean Marine Yacht Center in Portsmouth.  Luckily there was one slip down the fairway that we felt comfortable with and it was available to us.  The Captain carefully eased Lazy W out of slip 230 and into slip 301 where she will spend the next six months while her dauntless crew enjoys landlubber amenities at Dolphin Run on the oceanfront!  It was a fantastic three-month cruise...

Baltimore

We returned to Baltimore from our New York road trip on September 24^th to find Lazy W just as we had left her - tied securely to ‘B’ dock amid several hundred other boats at Anchorage Marina.

The marina is perfectly located within walking distance of Safeway, West Marine, Ace Hardware, and dozens of restaurants and pubs – a true boater’s heaven.  And every hour on the hour the bells of nearby St. Casimir Church ring out.

Across the harbor, Silo Point, once the biggest and fastest grain elevator in the world, has been converted into luxury urban residences. The Domino Sugars plant sits beside the global headquarters of Under Armour before the industrial skyline gives way to the office towers of the Inner Harbor.

There is so much to do in Baltimore and so little time.  While the Captain was content to spend his days lovingly caring for Lazy W, the Admiral had other plans!

Her hull is looking good, Captain!

The Orioles hosted the Red Sox at Camden Yards on September 28^th – the penultimate game of the baseball season.  The game meant little to either team as the Red Sox had already clinched the AL East title and the Orioles were no longer in contention for a wild card position.  Still stinging from an embarrassing loss the night before, the Orioles managed to squeak by the Red Sox - much to Greg’s consternation!

Frank and Greg at Camden Yards

During Peg and Greg’s weekend visit we wandered through Fells Point and the Inner Harbor.  That Sunday afternoon was a picture-perfect day in Baltimore!

The Inner Harbor from the Federal Hill side

with the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse and the Pier Six Pavilion

Frank was captivated by this beer cart near McCormick & Schmick’s Restaurant,

named Number 1 Best Happy Hour Deal in America by USA Today.

Of course, we stopped in to check it out!

                                    

“One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.”

“Africa is God’s country – and He can have it.”

“Ever since I met you, I’ve swept you off my feet.”

“There’s one thing I’ve always wanted to do before I quit: Retire.”

“I didn’t like the play, but then I saw it under adverse conditions –

the curtain was up.”

“I would never belong to a club that would have me as a member.”

In 1928, Animal Crackers opened on Broadway.  It was the third of three successful Broadway shows starring the Marx Brothers – Chico, Harpo, Groucho and Zeppo. The Marx Brothers had honed their comedic skills while on the road touring the vaudeville circuit.  The typical vaudeville show included numerous variety routines – dancing girls, comic sketches, juggling and plate spinning, musical numbers, ethnic caricatures, magic acts.  Animal Crackers embodies all of the flavor of a vaudeville show within a loosely-plotted society party ‘who-done-it’ at the fictitious Rittenhouse Manor.   We had front row seats at Baltimore’s Center Stage for the zany 2013 adaptation of Animal Crackers.  The audience had a rollicking good time!

It is amazing how much history you can learn just from exploring the monuments erected in our cities.  From afar, I thought that this beautiful sculpture located in Baltimore’s Harbor East section was a tribute to firefighters. Closer inspection revealed that it was the Katyn Memorial commemorating the victims of the Katyn Forest Massacre.  

“Fire has been used artistically to symbolize a rebirth or transformation.

In this monument a symbolic fire envelops the Katyn martyrs in its flames

and raises them spiritually into the pantheon of national heroes of Poland.”

In September 1939 Poland was invaded from the west by Nazi Germany and from the east by the Soviet Union.  The Soviets seized 20,000 Polish military officers, most of them reservists (doctors, teachers, lawyers, civil servants, religious leaders), and sent them to prison camps in the Soviet Union; most were massacred in Katyn Forest in an attempt by Stalin to eliminate opposition to communist rule in Poland.  (In 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union – Stalin and Poland now had a common enemy.)  For fifty years the Soviets denied responsibility for the Katyn Massacre, blaming the Nazis.  In 1992, the Russian president released secret documents to Poland that included the death sentences signed by Stalin at the time of the massacre.

In the early 1970’s a Baltimore man and former U.S. Army Major, Clement Knefel, sought to honor the memory of the Katyn victims and all other mistreated prisoners-of-war.  He started raising funds and sought the help of veterans’ organizations and the Maryland Division of the Polish American Congress.  A well-known Polish-American sculptor, Andrzej Pitynski, was commissioned to design the memorial.  It was created in Gliwice, Poland and formally dedicated here at Katyn Circle in November 2000.  And that is today’s history lesson...

The Fell’s Point Fun Festival has been staged since 1967 when it began as a small neighborhood fundraiser to stop the construction of I-95 through the historic waterfront area of Federal Hill and Fell’s Point.  Both maritime communities are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.    Thousands attend the weekend festival every year to enjoy the live music, entertainment, food and shopping surrounded by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century storefronts along the streets paved with Belgian block.  

The rooftop of Max’s was already decorated for Halloween!

With no shortage of bars and restaurants to explore where to enjoy happy hour became a tough decision.  The James Joyce Irish Pub and Restaurant in Harbor East (and all its furnishings) was designed and built in Ireland then shipped to Baltimore and assembled on site.  Friendly waiter, Guinness on tap, tasty Shepherd’s Pie.  Plug Ugly’s Publick Ale House in Canton – with a name like that we just had to stop in!  And again we got a history lesson.  The Plug Uglies were a street gang that roamed Baltimore in the 1850’s and are suspected of kidnapping Edgar Allan Poe.  Rowdy Ravens fans ruled the bar the day we visited.  So off to our next stop – Bo Brooks on the Canton waterfront.  (Here we met a student from Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy, closed until further notice due to the government shutdown.)  Tiki Bar Tailgate Party specials and plenty of TV’s for watching the Ravens beat the Dolphins.  Tavern on the Square.  Ale Mary’s.  The Horse You Came In On. Decisions, decisions...

  

And then the rain came!  The low spinning off the mid-Atlantic coast stalled for days and kept funneling steady rain and gloomy weather over Baltimore.  In 48 hours, the Inner Harbor recorded over 4.5 inches of rain!!  In wet weather like this, it feels as if Lazy W shrinks!  We had to get off no matter what the skies threw at us.

We took advantage of a short break in the rain to walk to the Inner Harbor and enjoy a few hours at the National Aquarium.  The new Black Tip Reef exhibit was awesome.  Floor-to-ceiling viewing windows put you face-to-face with the colorful, exotic sea creatures inhabiting this man-made 260,000 gallon coral reef eco-system.

Black tip sharks, a nurse shark and a ray

One of the largest residents of the exhibit is a 500-pound green sea turtle named Calypso.  Found stranded on a beach on Long Island, Calypso weighed just six pounds and had an infected front flipper which was later amputated.  She has been at the aquarium for eleven years and was the first animal to call the Black Tip Reef home when it was completed in July.  Over 1,200 other animals from 75 different species have been added.

Calypso

One of the more heavily attended exhibits was Jellies Invasion: Oceans Out of Balance.  We spent many an hour at anchor surrounded by sea nettles and particularly liked seeing the more exotic jellies on display here.  So did the dozens of young kids who wandered the exhibit with their parents on this rainy evening.

A tankful of moon jellies

The night was topped off with a visit to Chazz: A Bronx Original in Harbor East owned by the Oscar-nominated, Bronx-born actor Chazz Palminteri.  He was up for Best Supporting Actor in Woody Allen’s 1994 movie Bullets Over Broadway.  But his big break came in 1993 when he co-starred with Robert DeNiro in A Bronx Tale, a movie adaptation of his semi-autobiographical one-man show of the same name.  Ate at his restaurant, now I need to watch some of his movies!

Since Chazz: A Bronx Original is famous for its authentic Bronx-style coal oven pizza – it cooks in just 90-seconds in a 900°+ oven – our choice for dinner was an easy one!  Topped with the signature veal meatballs, it was quite good and compared  very favorably to our recent pizza excursion in the Bronx.  We overheard many of the other patrons ordering the homemade pasta dishes to fill up on carbs in preparation for their running in Saturday’s Baltimore Marathon.