Miss Hattie's Loop: Annapolis

We arrived in Annapolis for the 2016 Naval Academy's Commissioning Week. We had stayed in Calvert, MD for a rainy weekend on the way up and Bob took the opportunity to do a little boat yoga - changing the oil in the engines. After Calvert we had a bit of a scrape with mortality - we were headed on a course of 30° and passed across the bow of a very large cargo ship (600X 100 ft) moving at 19.6 mph. As it approached the red ATON to our south it was going due north. Having passed it "safely" we continued on without a worry. But luckily Bob turned around just in time to find that the bow of the ship filled our whole aft window - about 150 yds behind and closing fast - she had changed course at that ATON to 30°!!!! After 3 attempts at putting our autopilot into standby so we could steer the boat, we succeeded in avoiding a collision. Apparently the ship's pilot was not looking - they were on full autopilot - otherwise there would have been a blast from their horn that would blow us out of our complacency. Adventure = disaster averted, once again!

We did arrive in Annapolis safely and we viewed the men and women in white celebrating their achievements and showing off to their parents and siblings. And we got to see the Blue Angels up close and daring. After a couple days of the Academy festivities and eating as much crab as humanly possible, we were off to visit our dear friends the Sobeckis (you may recall they surprised us back in January in Clearwater Beach, FL). Christina put on a none-stop gourmet feast for us for 3 days - what a treat.

We then visited with other old and dear friends Steve Seche and Susan Canning - we hadn't seen them for 9 years. Steve and Susan live in a lovely little house in Vienna, VA, and it happened that the day of our arrival was their 40th wedding anniversary - they pulled out the pics of their wedding and showed us how it was way back then when we, and all our friends, were so young. Although we we only had a 24 hour visit, it was as if we had never been apart. On Memorial Day Steve and Susan took us to the National Arboretum - a treat for Lenore as there is a tremendous exhibit of bonsai plants, some of which were nearly 400 yrs old - boy, talk about a long-term hobby.

Oh, and we stayed in Annapolis a bit longer than anticipated. The starboard engine's starter motor was failing; we went to a boatyard and spent a couple of days there while it was being rebuilt. Meanwhile, Bob took the opportunity to make a 'work around' on a failing seawater pump on the generator. All is in good working order now and we are off to northern Chesapeake Bay tomorrow and then on to Cape May, NJ two days hence.

Moving along,
The Vagabonds aboard Miss Hattie