Southbound ’17 – Travel Day 7: Rock Hall, MD to Annapolis, MD

FROM: The Captain

Forecast: Clouds early, some clearing late.  Winds light and variable.

Distance traveled: 17.4 nautical miles

Time underway: 1 hours 55 minutes

Average Speed: 8.7kts

Max Speed: 12kts

Fuel used: 18 gallons

Calm, overcast and 45 degrees at high tide when we cast off for our shortest run of the journey so far to Maryland’s Capital City to the southwest of Rock Hall on the Chesapeake’s western shore.  It was an easy departure and upon clearing Rock Hall Harbor and the adjacent shoal we pointed OLOH’s bow towards the center of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.  We essentially had the bay to ourselves (save a few fisherpeople and crab pots).  The sun and some blue sky even started to appear for the first time in a few days as we made our way over.

Pulling into Annapolis Harbor was a mood changer and what we had been seeking.  It is a true nautical town with the Naval Academy to starboard as you approach and the feeling of a significant boating destination.  After topping off the tanks with 326 gallons of diesel – likely the last time we’ll do that until North Carolina – we sidled up OLOH along the T-head of the marina’s inner basin, our first set of fixed docks so far on this trip.  Fixed docks can present more of a challenge in some situations depending on how much the tide swings and this happens to be a period of an unusually big swing for this area.  We needed our boarding steps when we first arrived, mostly to allow Jasper to get on and off the boat with ease, but as the tide dropped below its normal low we had to remove the steps as the dock became higher than the side decks of the boat.

Annapolis Yacht Basin was recommended to us primarily because of its proximity to the historic waterfront portion of town.  It’s a pretty simple, no-frills marina where Dockmaster Steve runs a tight ship and was friendly and professional.  Their wifi is excellent.  On the Jasper rating it drops a few points as it’s quite a walk to get to any kind of turf, but it’s in a city and Jasper lived in New York City, after all, with nothing but concrete, so he wasn’t really complaining.  We just love a marina a little bit more when it has a patch of grass we can get him to in less than five minutes from the boat.

From the Admiral:  We were excited that we were to be on a “T-head” — which is normally at the end of a row of slips.  It’s a sweet spot because it’s easy to pull up and dock and it’s usually reserved for larger boats.  This T-head was located in the basin down what felt like a skinny fairway (a fairway is a navigable channel you take to get to where you’ll dock).  It also had a 65′ Hatteras with a shiny, baby blue hull tied up to it.  No biggie…  There was at least 60 feet of space left for us…  But wait, we’re 60 feet.  We were to slide in right in front of it.  That meant the bow of the Hatteras would be right behind the stern (back) of our boat.  The dockmaster met us to grab lines and with the captain on the bow with our Yacht Controller remote (details on that system coming soon on the site) and the admiral on the stern and the headsets at the ready we slid past the Hatteras.  It should be noted the headsets are critical to communicating with each other without yelling which can make docking quite unpleasant and arrival cocktails a real downer.  The stern of the boat is a blind spot for the captain so its the job of the admiral to constantly relay details about distances.  Our general rule is constant communication and a relay of the distance between the swim platform and anything it might hit.  Something like this  —  “you have eight feet between the swim platform and the hull of the Hatteras.  Six feet.  Four feet.  Three feet.  Swim platform is THREE feet from the hull captain.  Tap your stern thruster to starboard.  Two feet.  Thruster please.  TWO FEET.  THRUSTER!”  At that point the thruster engages and puts an extra foot between our swim platform and the Hatt’s hull.  As we slid into our spot with little room between the two boats, the anchor of the Hatteras loomed over our swim platform.  From the stern, the dockmaster could be heard telling the captain to back it up a few feet.  But the dockmaster wasn’t on the stern, he was up toward the bow.  The admiral was on the stern.  The admiral scrambled to the port side to see why the captain was being told to back up and his headset pack fell off and almost into the water and OLOH started to move backward.  He quickly grabbed the pack and instructed the captain, “stand down, you do not have room to come back.”  OLOH kept coming back slowly.  “Do not come back any further, the anchor is over the swim platform.”  The OLOH continued to come back.  “Forward captain.  Forward now.  Forward right NOW.”  The boat still moved back and the anchor was about two feet away from the aft canvas.  “PUT THIS BOAT IN FORWARD CAPTAIN!  NOW!”  The admiral grabbed his headset pack, realizing it had been disconnected when it fell and reconnected it.  “FORWARD NOW!”  And OLOH immediately bumped forward.  The admiral was feeling a little like an arrival cocktail himself, shaken but not stirred…  The dockmaster asked the admiral how he’d like the boat tied and the OLOH was set for her stay.  The arrival cocktail conversation covered three points.  One, when the words thruster or forward or reverse are used the proper response is “copy!”  If that doesn’t happen the assumption should be the instruction wasn’t heard.  Two, the only person giving instructions about the stern is the person that’s actually on the stern.  And, three, if your behind is too large for the headset pack to clip properly to your belt, keep it in your pocket or invest in the newer version that doesn’t require a separate pack.  Aint’ nobody got time for that!  End Admiral entry.

On our second night in Annapolis the temps dropped below freezing for the entire night and purely as a precaution we shut down our water system and opened our exterior water valves.  Probably unnecessary but not a big deal and much simpler than dealing with a burst waterline.  The marina took precautions as well and we awoke the next morning with everything working just fine.

A highlight of the Annapolis stop was our dinner on our last night there with Fast Jimi and his wife Sarah.  Fast and I have known each other for 27 years from our time on the air together at WPLJ in NYC.  He’s been a radio star in Baltimore for around seventeen years now and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to connect with them while we were so relatively close.  He is an amazing talent and one of my favorite people on the planet.  Sarah’s a huge talent as well and simply super-cool.  Thanks for joining us guys.

We’ll be writing more about our experience in Annapolis elsewhere on the site but suffice to say there were crab cakes and more crab cakes. Our big thanks to our good friend Captain Pete F of Endless Summer, a seasoned Chesapeake Bay boater, whose advice for this portion of our trip, including terrific restaurant recommendations, has been invaluable.