Month: June 2019

So we are here. Galesville, MD. An adorable town. Very green. Very sweet. Such a contrast to south Florida is so many ways — not that there aren’t sweet things about south Florida, just not so apparent. I already mentioned that the yachts here, even the mega-yachts, are not quite so over-the-top. Yes, they are 130 feet long….but their names are not spelled out in three-dimensional neon letters. Houses are also on a different scale. Some quite elegant and large-ish, but most on a more modest scale. Maybe it is the New England style architecture compared to the Spanish cum-Mediterranean cum-Moroccan sprawls that dominate Coral Gables. At any rate, we are thoroughly enjoying noticing the differences.

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On a shopping expedition today (the usual….West Marine, liquor store, grocery), we drove through a area called Tracey’s Landing. Beautiful and rural with corn fields and horse farms — and also huge marinas. There seemed to be a lot of boats still on the hard. And sailboats outnumber power boats by a large proportion. Below is a photo of the Tracey’s Landing West Marine store. Believe me, Coral Gables and Chicago stores need to step up their games….this store was beautiful, well staffed and the TowBoat USA people were handing out water bottles and grilled hotdogs!

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We are getting to know our neighbors here at Hartge Yacht Harbor. The couple to our starboard side have just completed “The Loop” on their salty 44 foot DeFever. Gloria has a thriving potted herb garden on the stern. They live here at Hartge year-round. On our port side is an elegant Sabre yacht with its lines always coiled precisely. The owners do not live aboard and so far we have not seen them use it very often. However, Bruce, the owner, seems to always be fixing, polishing, cleaning etc. etc. We, on the other hand, have asked the nice people at Hartge to do a thorough polishing job on Dot.Calm while we are away in California four days from now!

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I definitely think that Galesville needs to work on its city slogan:-). Suggestions?

So….what I’ve sort of figured out is that being on the Chesapeake is a whole lot different from getting to the Chesapeake. Gone are the demands of meeting a schedule, getting to an anchorage “on time,” or debating whether a dash from a location with poor wifi in pouring rain to another with maybe better wifi is worth it. We are HERE now. Not only here, but here in a new home port, Galesville, within an hour of Annapolis and probably 15 minutes of several “perfect” places to spend a day or two.

What we’ve got are lots of options. And absolutely no need to travel unless we want to! Today we left Annapolis just before 11 o’clock check out time and had the whole day with only a short cruise back to Galesville ahead of us. We decided to wile away the afternoon back in Rhodes River. The water was delicious (according to Cleo & Cliff), the top deck breeze was perfect (Jim and I definitely concurred) and the impromptu lunch of leftover flank steak sandwiches and other assorted snacks was just right.

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We got back to Galesville about 5 pm….just in time to make dinner reservations at Pirate Cove as we watched thunderstorms dancing on the horizon with bright lightning strikes and dangerous looking clouds. (Jim did get a photo that proves that there is always a silver lining however.) I was hoping for a downpour to give Dot Calm a nice, fresh water rinse….but we only got some borderline sprinkles.

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Now a test for our nautical friends….what the heck does this sign mean??

Have to start with a beautiful sunset photo from last night that Jim took. It’s a wow! (And, I am working on getting the photos right-side up! Upgrades to the WordPress site are a pain!)

Spent a quiet night here at anchor. No wifi….and no Cubs’ game. Thus an evening spent talking and reminiscing about trips and plans and families. Two friends, one I’ve known since grade school and another with whom I worked very closely when I was at Bekins have both been recently diagnosed with dementia. So what I say is: Let’s make LOTS of memories while we can still remember them.

That said…..

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Early morning is a special time aboard. There is a “golden moment” that paints everything and everyone in early sunlight. Please note the clever coffee cup that I am holding.

There are plenty of mega-yachts too (tho’ not as many as we’ve seen in Newport RI, Charleston and Fort Lauderdale!) Tsalta is our neighboring boat in Annapolis. We saw six crew board this afternoon. Two people, one of whom was quite elderly) dined on the aft deck….nobody else.

This year’s tour was not as good as last year’s….more history of naval battles than information about life on the campus. Who knew that John Paul Jones defeated the British navy while commanding a French ship!? (If you did…congratulations.) We had the parents of a new student along on our tour who figuratively jumped for joy when our guide estimated that four year’s at USNA costs roughly $375,000, courtesy of the US taxpayers.

We had a lovely dinner aboard last night….but dinner in a marina is just not the same as dinner at anchor. However, the sunset lived up to every expectation changing color by the minute. Starting with wisps of pink and a skim of sky blue and ending in a blaze of chrome yellow and orange. Wonderful!

Jim Comerford and Cleo Burtis joined us for a cruise to Annapolis — a very short distance away. We started the day with a champagne toast (of course!) and then headed to Rhodes River, one of our most favorite (so far!) anchorages. It reminds us of house boating trips when our kids were little, anchored just off an island where they could explore and play all day. Now “their island” is part of some sort of Smithsonian program and does not allow visitors.

Cliff deployed all the water toys and we all enjoyed a swim. Jim took to the kayak and Cleo is masterful on the paddle board….can’t say the same for me! In the photo below on the right….Jim is “rescuing” the dinghy and paddle board which had floated away from Dot Calm. Need to take a knot refresher course perhaps!

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Tonight we’ll have an at-anchor feast….grilled flank steak, grilled zucchini and coleslaw. A big thank you to the nice Magma rep at this year’s Miami Boat Show! He sent us a replacement valve (and some other goodies) after we reported that we couldn’t get the grill to heat much above tepid last year. The new valve works like a champ!

Just thought I’d remind you:-) So….we’ve been working, working, working. Getting ready for our friends Cleo and Jim to join us. I am reminded of a saying about boat ownership. What’s the difference between a yacht and a boat? On a yacht, somebody else does the cleaning….on a boat, you know who does it. So you-know-who has been hard at work to get things ship-shape!

Would you like a tour? One of the things to remember as you look at these pictures is that we are going to be living on Dot.Calm for 3months+….and there is not a whole lot of room for stuff. So you do the best you can. Counters become storage areas. Bags are stuffed here and there….and there is ALWAYS something that needs to be put away:-)

Welcome aboard!

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Our dinghy (which was deflated for winter storage) was delivered today….so I think a dinghy ride is in our future! Stand by!

Well, not quite. We arrived Friday and spent that afternoon, all of Saturday and most of today working.  Amazing (and tiring) how much work there is to get settled on-board. Schlepping ALL the stuff we brought from Coral Gables was the easy part. Figuring out where to put it was the challenge. And then there is that hide-and-seek game of looking into various storage spaces and finding all kinds of surprises. Who put the fire extinguisher in the closet? And why are there so many cleaning-polishing-stain removing-rinsing products tucked into buckets and cubby holes? You get the idea. We’re almost done!

Our new home port is Galesville, MD — a teensy village about 15 miles south of Annapolis. Dot.Calm is comfortable moored at Hartge Yacht Harbor, very sweet marina that’s run mostly by women. The GM is a woman, the service manager is a woman and the office is run by another woman. The service and attitude is a far cry from what we’ve experienced at various marinas in the Chicago area. Has anyone EVER gotten an email from Grant Crowley saying how much he likes to get notes from you?!

Nearly all of the work that we wanted done has been completed including a nifty automatic lifting system for access to the engine compartment. Cliff groused about how much it cost when he got the bill, but declared that it was the price and more once he tried it. I’ll try to get a photo next time he’s in the engine compartment.

First guests arrive Tuesday! Looking forward to some fun and leisurely days.