Some people travel to Italy for their 30th anniversary...Deb and I rode our bikes to the Baltimore Aquarium...and really enjoyed it.
As you can imagine, Deb took LOTS of pictures. The next 3 are the ones she took of jelly fish...amazing.
After the fun, it was back to work. This was oil change day on HQ.
In between the work, we found this AWESOME pizza place in Fells Point called BOP...Brick Oven Pizza
It was not much more than a small corner pizza joint...but it was perfect
Last Saturday we attended the annual Fells Point Festival
I love BBQ...so this is where we had lunch
And of course we must take some "cool" shots
But...this place got WAY to crowded for me, so I was back at the boat by 2 pm
We pulled the boat first thing Monday morning
It takes about 20 minutes for them to block the boat on land
After the boat was on blocks we got a rental car to get around
And then back to work...my new buffer did an awesome job of waxing the hull
After the waxing I tried to fix an electrical issue that all of a sudden poped up
After trying everything I could think of, I decided to wait until Randy is here this weekend to see if he can think of anything. If not...maybe Les can help when he comes.
And finally...this is a picture that was taken from a helicopter while when Deb and I were in the Atlantic...heading for Atlantic City. Too long of a story on how we got the picture...but it's cool.
Log 176Day 506
Friday, October 09, 2009
7:30 AM EDT
Location: Inner Harbor Marina, Baltimore, MD.
Weather: 62 and cloudy, rain just passed through...heading to 82 today
I’m sitting on the back deck this morning, in a familiar place...Inner Harbor Marina, Baltimore, MD. It rained last night, but is now to the north of us. It’s 62 degrees as I write this log, but heading for a very unseasonal 82 today. The bad news is it will only be a high in the lower 60’s starting Monday.
It’s hard for me to believe, but it’s been almost 2 weeks since my last captain’s log. We’ve moved the boat a couple of times...but just a couple of miles. First we moved it (on Monday October, 5th) to Tidewater Marine to pull the boat, and get the bottom work done. And, then again, on Thursday, to move it from Tidewater, back a couple miles to Inner Harbor Marina, in downtown Baltimore (about 1/2 mile from where we spent the last month at Anchorage Marina). Not much cruising...and Deb and I are REALLY ready to fire up the engines, and head south.
What we’ve been doing...while at Anchorage was finalizing all our projects on the boat. Polish this; wax that; fix everything that’s broke; and change the oil. By last weekend, my list was complete, and I was starting to get bored. There was also the daily cleaning...both inside and out. As I mentioned before, there was lots of fine dust in the air (from the local steel mills), that got everywhere, and if you did not keep up with it, there was a layer of dust on everything. We also had time to explore more places in Canton, and Fells Point...the two neighborhoods close to the boat. I won’t bore anyone with all the details, but we had a great tour of the Baltimore Aquarium, and found new restaurants several days for lunch. We visited old spots, to say hi to friends we have made while we were here. We went to the local Fells Point Festival, that draws LOTS of folks from all over. And in general, just enjoyed the entire area (at least what we could reach by walking, or on our bikes). We’ve been here so long, we started to feel like locals...and liked it.
Boat bottom repair...went very well. On Monday, October 5th, we had an appointment for an 8 am pull, and they were ready for us when we arrived. After getting the boat blocked up on land, we met Cliff...the guy who would fix the fiberglass, and I instantly liked him, and believed he would do a great job. And I was right. He repaired the issue we had, and made the area around the bow thruster look like new. He also repaired the small jel coat issue that we had, from where the dock hand in New York, let the boat hit the dock. While the boat was “on the hard” Deb and I planned to stay in a hotel, but after 2 nights at a hotel, we decided to go back to the boat. Even though the boat was sitting on land, we enjoyed that more than a hotel. I think that says something. Not sure what...but it says something. We also had a rental car, while we were getting the boat repaired, but just used it to get back and forth, and made one grocery run. The big thing we did was wax the hull. There is no better time to get at the lower part of the hull, and I took advantage of it. Bottom line...the boat looks awesome.
This weekend...Randy (college buddy) and Nancy Compton will be joining us for 3 days...leaving early Monday. They are from Fresno, Ca. Randy was on the east coast for business, and Nancy flew in late last night. Amazing that we have stayed in touch for almost 40 years. We don’t have any plans, but look forward to catching up, and spending some time together.
Next week...we finally head south, and we can’t wait. The plan is to leave Monday morning, after Randy and Nancy head to the airport...which will be very early. At this point, we plan to make 3 or 4 stops in the 200 mile distance to Norfolk, and hope to be there by next weekend. When we get there we will be joined by Les and Annie...Deb’s sister and brother in law. They will ride with us to Beaufort, NC, which will take a week or so.
Long range plans...call for us to get to Fort Myers the first week in December. It’s about 1300 miles from Baltimore, to Fort Myers, and we plan on taking about 57 days to do it. In most cases we’ll retrace our steps that we took to get here, but the one thing that will be different is that when we get to Stuart, Fl. we will head west across Lake Okeechobee and come out in Fort Myers.
I’ll keep you posted.
Bob
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