Days 364 -365

Solomons Island - Annapolis MD

• Start 7:00 AM
• End 12:40 PM
• Underway 5:40 Hours
• Distance 45 Miles
• Total Miles on Trip 5909
• Av Speed 7.8 knots
• Weather Cloudy, 66 Degrees, Wind 2 Knots SSE

Most of the night the wind was still pretty strong and it was still coming out of the East. It had me concerned both for getting off the dock, and how rough would the bay would be in morning. We had no choice but to leave in the morning, because there were other transient boaters coming in and all of their slips were booked for the weekend. Once again the weather gods smiled upon us. When we woke up, wind had died off completely and from what we could see the bay was flat and calm.

Right at 7am, we cast off our lines and all three boats (Kay Dee, Just Another Day, and us) headed for Annapolis. It turned out to be a perfect travel day. The bay remain flat, there was little to no wind, and almost no other boat traffic. It was a little chilly but with the isinglass closed the helm stayed warm and because of the clouds there was no sun glare.

Many people warned us that because it was Graduation week at the Naval Academy that Annapolis would be crazy and hectic. Supposedly getting slips would be difficult and there would be long waits for tables at the restaurants. We were surprised that it was not. Ed & Cathy (Just Another Day) had no problems getting a slip reservation the day before we arrived, and the both the marina and the town dock had plenty of open slips. When we went out to eat we did not have any wait to get seated. I was also concerned that because graduation was Friday we would not be able to tour the Academy it was not the case. We found out that the graduation is not held on the main academy grounds, it is held at the football stadium about two miles away.

After we got the boats secured we did head off to tour the Naval Academy. This is my third time touring it, and to me it never gets boring. Even though each guide follows the same path, they all have a different perspective and approach to the tour. This is also the first time I have toured it when all the midshipman were on campus. The midshipman were not in class, they were busy moving off campus and preparing for graduation. It truly looked like a typical college on move out day, except all the "students" were in uniform. One day I would like to visit when they are in class, it would be neat to see how the campus/academy functions on a normal day. Lunch time is supposed to be spectacular, all 4500 midshipman line up in formation in front of Bancroft Hall before entering for lunch. When they are told to enter the building it takes less than five minutes for all of them to enter the building and be at their seats. The entire class eats at the same time, I cannot imagine the logistics of feeding 4500 all at once, and within 30 minutes. Angel and I may have to take a ride once classes start back up in September, we will have the time. The two things we did not get to see, where the chapel where John Paul Jones is buried and the museum. The chapel was closed because of flooding and water damage, and the museum was closing for the day.

Friday morning we headed back to the Naval Academy. We planned to watch the Blue Angels do a fly over for the graduation, then head to the museum. This time mothernature won. The fly over was scheduled for 10:04am. We stood outside from 9:50 to 10:15 and did not see or hear anything. We later found out that because of the low cloud cover, they did not fly. The weather forecast was for rain and potential thunderstorms. The rain did hold off long enough for the graduation, but it did show up in the afternoon.

With the rain in the forecast Angel & I decided to go see the new Top Gun movie Maverick. There was no way we were going to ride our bikes in the rain so we planned to use Uber to get to the theater. When I bought the tickets I checked Uber and it estimated $14 for the ride. When it was time to go, Uber had gone up to $48 and we had already bought the theater tickets. I checked Lyft and they were only $24, still outrageous but much better than Uber. Once our driver picked us up, we found out why it got so expensive. What was supposed to be a 12 minute ride, ended up taking almost 40 minutes. Our timing was terrible, graduation had just ended and the traffic was backed up everywhere. Our driver was very good, she knew several ways around the traffic including cutting through a parking lot, otherwise it would have taken even longer. I am glad we planned on getting to theater early. The movie was well worth the hassle of getting there!

Friday night was the highlight of our time in Annapolis. Karen's (Kay Dee) cousin is a Midshipman in the Academy. He and two of his classmates were able to come join us for docktails aboard Kay Dee. (No they did not drink) We spent around two hours listening to them tell us about life at the naval academy. They were very gracious in letting us pepper them with questions, and enthusiastically answered all of them. Listening to them it is very obvious the navy made great choices in these three young men.

Our next stop is Baltimore Yacht Club.