We left the Annapolis Yacht Basin a little before 9:00 am, and first, we got a great view of the bascule bridge over Spaw Creek, which is a prime portion of harbor tours. It has many fine boats as well as houses that range over 200 years in age. The road over the bridge is one of the main access points to downtown Annapolis, which coupled with a lot of boat traffic keeps the bridge operator very busy.
The other prime view as we backed out of our slip was the Annapolis Yacht Club right next door. Yesterday I showed a picture of Lucky Us looking very small in a slip for a 115 foot boat. The white boat in the right center of the photo is a 58 foot boat in a similar slip. Sure does look small...
On the way out of the harbor, we passed by "Ego Alley" where boats parade up and down a narrow channel that dead ends right in the center of town. Well, of course, I had to try it.... Here we are about turn around about halfway down the channel. At that hour there were not many admirers, but I did get a thumbs up from a man on a hotel balcony for my maneuvering. The thumbs up was better than the scowl that I got from the Admiral for even attempting to go down the narrow channel. As you can tell by now, I am still alive so all must have turned out okay in the end...
As we exited the Severn River into Chesapeake Bay, we turned north toward the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It is "nearly" twin bridges that were constructed years apart. It is a beautiful structure that dominates the view along this portion of the Chesapeake Bay.
The western end of the bridges takes a gentle curve as the bridges approach the mainland. Anyway, I thought that this view was pretty cool (and you, the reader, do not have any choice). As you can see in these photos of the bridge, there was essentially no wind. We self generated an 8 mph hour breeze, which made for a quite comfortable trip. Our total trip today was 32 miles or about four hours.
As we approached Baltimore, we entered the Patapsco River to head up to Baltimore Harbor. We passed under the Francis Scott Key Memorial Bridge. The bridge very nicely frames this view of the Baltimore skyline (center) and port areas on either side. A short distance later we passed by historic Fort McHenry on the south side of the river. We did not pass much commercial shipping, but there were a large number of private boats fishing in both the Bay and river.
As we approached the Inner Harbor area near downtown, there were numerous water taxis and tour boats, and at one point a pirate ship appeared menacing alongside. However, at 8 mph we were able to quickly out distance the pirates.
We are at the Inner Harbor East Marina, which is one of several along a very lively waterfront. We are about 5 blocks from the restored area of Fell's Point with historic homes, shops and restaurants. Much of the actual waterfront is now lofts in old warehouses or new high rise condos with ground floor stores. We walked two (yes that's right two) blocks to a beautiful new theater complex and saw "The Other Woman". I really enjoyed the movie! The picture on the left is our view across the marina toward "land". The movie theater is in the block behind the taller building.
Speaking of theater, the Admiral has booked tickets for live matinee performance for tomorrow. More will be revealed... That theater is in the Fell's Point area, and it is only a five block walk. I last visited the Baltimore waterfront in the Inner Harbor area about 24 years ago, and it was only in the initial stages of what has become a total restoration/renovation. Our initial plan was to spend two nights here, but I am already being lobbied for an extra night or two. We will see after tomorrow, but as always, the weather forecast plays a role in our short and longer term plans.
I will close with one final photo. The lady at the marina check in must have had fun and a chuckle when she put Lucky Us next to Lucky Me....
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