Day 122, Tuesday October 22

We did not set an alarm this morning which was nice, however we got a move on by 8:30 as today is the big day to get to Annapolis.  We are staying with Laura and Brad Sitler who live up the Servern River.  e have to creep out of our anchorage as it is low tide and there is only 7 feet of water and we need 5.5 feet of water.  We make it out safely and head south.  There is very little traffic but lots of crab pots.  It is like going through a mine field.  We dodge them as we go along.  They are not too bad in the shipping channel but we are sailing so crossing back and forth.  Initially the wind was on the nose, but after an hour we could sail within 10 degrees of our course line.  the current was against us so we wondered if we would make annapolis before nightfall.  Winds started to pick up and we experienced a lot of weather helm which makes it difficult to steer.  We spilled some of the main by sheeting it out a bit and the boat flattened out.

Cargo ship piled high

We could see the Kent Island bridge for miles and of course once we got to it there was a huge container ship coming north so we had to stand clear and chose to go under another span of the bridge.  It looked like we could fit no problem and there was lots of water, but we still questioned ourselves.  Finally we agreed where we could go under the bridge and it was fine, but added a bit of stress.  The size of the cargo ship was unbelievable.  It was stacked and stacked with containers.  No wonder ther are 20-30,000 containers floating around the ocean.  A big storm and the containers fall off, or are released so as not to de-stabilize the ship.  Rogue containers are a major concern to sailors as they hover just below the surface and are difficult to see.

 

Traffic

We got to the marina for a pump out about an hour later and started dodging all the sailing schools and race groups.  Traffic was very heavy at this time of day.  By now it was 5 and we had an hour to motor up the Severn river and avoid arriving in the dark.  We had googled Brad and Laura's address so knew basically where to go and what the dock configuration looked like.

Brad and Laura's beautiful home and long dock

A great sheltered spot up the Severn.  The dock was easy to spot with the blue slide.  We managed to get tied up whilst avoiding obstacles and brad was soon down at the dock greeting us.  I must say it is a beautiful home and location.  We headed up to the big house for a sundowner and hello but chose to sleep on the boat.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson