Annapolis at a mooring

View of downtown Annapolis, looking to Ego Alley

We had conflicting weather reports Sunday morning. The Weather Channel said light winds and full sun. Grib said 5 to 10 kts out of the northwest. The NOAA coastal forecast said a small craft advisory until 1:00 pm with winds 10 to 15 and gusts to 20. Who to believe? We had just endured a 65 mile trip up Delaware Bay in 20 kt winds (gusts to 25 and 3 ft waves) and didn't want to "enjoy" another such experience so soon. We finally placed our faith in grib based on past experience and we set out. This time our faith was rewarded, grib was right, NOAA and the coastal forecast was wrong. We got some sailing in for a change - it was not small craft advisory weather! Rudy surmised that perhaps the Coast Guard just wanted a day off (Sunday) so issued a forecast to scare boaters off the water. It definitely didn't work since there were more boats out today than I've ever seen around Annapolis.

Wow, look at all those solar cells

There is no anchorage that's any good close to Annapolis downtown so we took a town mooring. When the launch came out to collect the $30 fee, I discovered that it was an electric/diesel hybrid. The roof of the launch was completely covered with solar cells (I wonder if the gov't paid for any of that?). He was currently running on diesel power when he pulled up.

Captain Bob, Ann, Rudy Colich and Joe Ling - the crew of Fleetwing for the first leg

Downtown was packed!! It must have been homecoming or something, never saw so many people in Annapolis! Rudy and Joe took us out to dinner at Pussar's and we started out by having one of their famous Painkillers, a very fine rum drink. Dinner followed and we all had a good time. They will be leaving us Monday morning for the trip back north via a rental car. It was great fun having them aboard and we will sorely miss their good humor and great help in running the boat.