Sandy Point

I called David's house from north of the bridge. Dave had told Bob that Kay was having a foot operation the previous week. It was at this point that I discovered that he had not even *mentioned* to Kay that we were coming. She was still on crutches and in considerable pain. Also she had volunteered (with her mother who is in her 80's) to babysit her two grandchildren - an active 5 year old and a 4 month old infant, and the parents had come to pick them up, plus her other daughter Karen and husband were visiting.

So she was frazzled, and I was upset. Didn't know anything else to do but go to their house anyway, but Kay would obviously be unable to come out on the boat tomorrow.

Even if she could get on, she couldn't get below to use the head..

We went by Baltimore Light at 1:00pm.




Reached their house at 3pm after 23 miles (7.5 hours of motoring). Kay was asleep and all the relatives had gone home.

This time we tied up on the side of the pier and were only sticking out into the creek a little bit.. (Last time we were T'd on the end because we tried to go in on the other side and it was too narrow.)

Bob lost his only pair of reading glasses overboard when he tied up. It is very skinny water here - we are aground at low tide. We cooked dinner on the boat (steaks on the grill) and brought it in for Kay and David. I brought my computer in and used their phone to download e-mail to the computer, and change my pocketmail mailbox.

We looked at their digital photos of Greece and Turkey, and I showed them how to delete photos they didn't want to keep.

Had intended to do a wash here, but they are having difficulty with their water, so decided not to impose any more.

Monday August 21st
A nice sunny day but with little wind. We didn't leave very early today. Just lazed around in the morning. My computer seems to be working OK again. Dave didn't want to go sailing and leave Kay alone. I offered to stay back with her, but he declined. I had a nice visit with the lady next door.

Dave told us that her husband (the next door neighbor) works on marine electronics and Autohelm confirmed that he was an authorized repair person, but we need parts, so we'll have to send the unit back. Dave also drove Bob to get another pair of reading glasses.

We pushed off late - helped by Dave - and we started the engine driven refrigeration right away.

I managed to figure out the correct heading to take in order to have the least amount of crab pots coming out toward 7 Foot Knoll. Both Bob and David resent the fact that the lighthouse there has been moved into the Baltimore harbor.





Coming in the Patapsco, we went by the Howard vet hospital,



and saw a ship in the drydock being sand blasted at the Beth Steel shipyard.



We motored by Ft Carroll with it's derelict wooden lighthouse,



under the Key Bridge,



and saw the red white and blue ATON (aid to navigation) type marker where Francis Scott Key's ship was anchored during the bombardment of Ft. McHenry.

I hadn't been able to get cell phone service at my BILs, so I called my daughter and talked to her as we were approaching the harbor. We saw the tunnel entrances on both sides of the harbor, and passed Ft. McHenry. They've taken down the crane that fell at the Domino Sugar pier the beginning of the month.

I had called Anchorage Marina the day before to get a slip since we needed a pumpout, fuel and I thought we'd do the laundry, but they had no places they said. So I called Inner Harbor. They do give a discount for BoatUS membership. Bob had kind of wanted to anchor out there in the harbor, but I guess we both chickened out.

Called the marina on the radio to find where we were going. Unfortunately another sailboat came in ahead of us and things got confused so I called on the cell phone. We were on D dock and the sailboat ahead of us was too.

I walked down toward the end of the dock where I saw some guys having a beer. They turned out to belong to a couple of the big power boats, and they told me where the office was. We talked a bit - they were under the impression that we were the other sailboat that came in and I pointed out that ours had mast steps. They expressed complete and utter horror at the idea of ever climbing a mast, even at dock.

I walked up to the office, and we paid, and also found out that we couldn't get a pumpout because their lines were broken or something. What a crock. What do people do? There were ducks there with ducklings still in the fuzzy stage. Down home, they are late adolescent ducklings - almost full grown.

We walked to the Rusty Scupper for an early dinner. They had nice drawings of the lighthouses, but the food was quite expensive. We saw a cruising sailboat (you can tell because they have solar panels and wind generators and radar and gerry jugs tied to the lifelines) tied up by the aquarium.

Bob walked to a local market and got soap and did a load of wash. The washers use tokens which you buy at the office. The guy had to hit the machine with his hand to get it to work. They let me use the credit card machine line to hook to the internet, and I used the pay phone to get pocketmail.

I sat up quite late writing e-mail on the computer to download next time we get to a place where I have an internet connection.