Annapolis - at a mooring

A fish trap, you see them all over the Chesapeake, not just by the shore but out aways

We got off at a good time, around 7:15 and headed north. We had yet again good traveling weather with winds out of the south at about 10 kts, not enough to really propel up but enough to add a few tenths along with the iron genny. By and by we reached the Annapolis mooring field and that's when the fun started.

The mooring balls are marked with either a yellow cover (for boats larger than 45 ft) or no cover (white ball) for other boats. So we called and was told to pick up a white mooring ball which we did. After tied up we were asked the mooring ball number. Oh no, said the office, pick up a white ball, we said it is white! Whereupon, nothing more was said. We went into town.

We explored downtown Annapolis, well kept, many small shops but no supermarket

Upon returning, we were told we had to move.The ball we selected was supposed to have a yellow cover and was for boats longer than 45 ft. I said you only had four boats in the entire mooring field and none on the 11 yellow balls, why can't I just stay here for the night? Oh no, rules are rules, you've got to move.

A call to the supervisor got no further so we moved and would have left but we had friends in the mooring field we wanted to visit tonight. So I gave a review on Active Captain concerning bureaucratic stupidity and a copy of the review to the Harbormaster - for all the good it will do. We'll never come back. Besides, they have once again raised their mooring ball price and now it's $35/night. By the way, the mooring field is about 10% occupied and if that continues, they'll get even less revenue than projected from the price increase. You can write the next chapter - they'll find out that the revenue is down below target so their fix will be to raise prices once again to make up the difference which will drive even more business away, you get the picture - that's bureaucracy for you - not what a privately owned  business would do since they actually have to make a profit.

Enough of that. We met up again with John and Michelle for dinner on their boat. John has just done a fabulous job on the rebuild of his boat, it looks terrific.They gave us dinner and wine, hard to beat. We're  both looking at the weather window to reach Atlantic City and it still looks like we can make it by Thursday noon. The weather turns sour by then and it looks like another waiting period in Atlantic City. We're not keen on going out in 6 to 8 ft waves which is what's predicted for Friday and later.