A week after leaving Annapolis, we were back. It felt like we were back home. It’s nice to be in familiar surroundings. This time we came back by car.

Mary had treated herself (and me and Cheryl) to a concert by Chris Botti perform at The Ramshead. It was her present to herself (I guess the electric head wasn’t enough P).

Since after all it was Tuesday, I managed a few free raw oysters before going in for the show. The venue is very intimate and Chris was awesome. Mary got an autographed CD and chance to get her picture taken with Chris. Too bad all I had was the ancient cell phone camera.

The night was capped off with a late meal at Chick and Ruth’s. One last chance for a cheeseburger and chocolate malt before we head south.

After missing last years festival by a week, we had penciled in this years festival quite some time ago. Saturday was the elimination rounds as well as a chance to meet some of Mary’s relatives. It had been beautiful all week but the weekend had turned cold and windy.

I always enjoy a chance to get fresh raw oysters. I wasn’t going to be disappointed. After a bowl of Maryland Crab soup (very good with lots of crab meat) I had a half dozen oysters. Nice and plump and lightly salty, ummmmmmm good! After each round of shucking the contestants would pass out their oysters.

I managed to get at least another dozen. There’s only one thing better than fresh oysters and that’s FREE fresh oysters. Here I am sucking down another one.

Mary’s second cousin, Mat gave it a try. It took a few tries but it finally managed to slide on down.

On Sunday we met cousin Cheryl’s daughter, her husband and their daughter Zsophia. We took Goliath and she and the boat dog became good friends.

Here Goliath and Zsophia get a hug from Pinch, the crab mascot for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. A professional baseball team owned by former Baltimore Oriole great, Brooks Robinson.

For more of Goliath’s day, click here.

Knowing I was going to get some free oysters, I turned my attention to a delicious crab cake sandwich and then bbq scallops wrapped in bacon. I stopped along the way and tried some dip fried oreo cookies. Now there is a concept that covers my two favorite foods, donuts and cookies. I have to say that they were unbelievable! I went back for seconds.

At 3:00 we headed for the grandstands to watch the finals of the shucking contest. This is “the” National Oyster Shucking Contest with the winner going to the world’s championship held in Galway, Scotland. Participating was last years World Champion, Chopper Young from Wellfleet, Massachusetts.

He put on quite a show as he breezed to finish first again.

Attila, Cheryl’s daughters husband, enjoys a championship oyster.

We had such a good time.

This was actually the moment that we waited two weeks for. Monday was another beautiful day and was the last day of the show. Early in the afternoon, Arrabella and the schooner Virginia left. At precisely 5:00 the announcer declared the boat show officially over and “gentleman start your engines”.
From that point the boats began to stream out from the show.

In less than two hours all the boats were gone. As the sunset on the Sailboat Show, the powerboats began to line up to setup up for their show.

Early Tuesday we set out for Solomons. After dropping the hook in Mill Creek in our usual spot in front of the Mill Creek Dream Home we met David and Patty aboard Hawkeye for oysters and steamed shrimp from Capt. Smith’s Seafood.

We’ll be here awhile. I’ve ordered Mary a new Raritan Sea Era electric head for her birthday (and who said I wasn’t a romantic). Also I ordered a 100 amp alternator to help provide the extra juice to run it.

Stay tuned, I’ll try to post our adventures at the St. Mary’s Oyster Festival soon. An incredible experience including some great shots of Goliath the Boat Dog!

There is nothing like looking at new boats to give you a reality check. We spent two days wandering through the show. We’ve been to Strictly Sail in Chicago and Miami and this show rocks! There are so many boats that there is very little time to see most of them. We aren’t in the market for a new boat but it’s always nice to look. It’s easy to get boat envy but once you do the math on the “affordable” boats, the payments are more than our monthly income!

I have always had a fondness for traditionally styled boats. The Cherubini 44 is quite a boat. The boat we looked at is the same boat featured in a recent Cruising World article. Below decks we met David Cherubini who spent a great deal of time proudly describing and showing the detailing and craftsmanship that goes into his yachts. Beautiful boats!

A very state of the art boat, a Trintella 50, is absolutely gorgeous! It has a lot of custom features such as these cleats.

Ironically, all this beautiful detailing, a near million dollar price tag and where do you suppose the pumpout fitting is for the holding tank? In the middle of the cockpit! Go figure.

Our favorite “we can’t afford this” yacht was the Outbound 52. Very well designed with a lot of cruiser oriented items.

Our vote of “best and most affordable” goes to the Seaward 32. Shallow draft, lots of cruiser friendly details and less than $140,000! What a deal.

I’ve been suckered by lots of vendors at boat shows. The wire strippers that broke the first time I used them. The cool tool that makes hose clamps from wire (actually works but is a pain to set up). The permanent boat number plates for dinghies that fade to nothing after several years. And this year the prize goes to Tasco Distributors who were selling stainless steel range top toasters. Needless to say I have had to eat a lot of burnt toast trying to figure out how to get it to work. Damn, out another 15 bucks!

On Sunday the 5th they bagged the off limits moorings and began assembling the show. We have front row seats and it is an amazing sight. The barges to drive pilings arrive first. As this is being done sailboats are filling “ego alley”. Island Packets, Hanses, Catalinas and Hunters fill every square foot. As the alley fills, tents are popping up all over.

The show at the end of Monday the 6th.

As the outer docks were completed the boats streamed in. We listened in on channel 71 on the VHF to see who was coming in next. Soon there were Lagoon’s galore circling the boat, then Fontaine Paigot’s. An occasional single yacht would sail in, made by some non-production type facility. Jeanneau’s and Beneteau’s came in en mass along with Morris Yachts, Melges, Lasers, Oyster’s, Southerly’s and on and on.

On the final day, the final boats were loaded. The Arabella docked and finally the Virginia docked behind her. The view from our mere O’day 40 is quite spectacular.

Sunsets on day one of the boat show.

Today we’ll spend the day ogling boats we can’t afford. Hopefully we’ll make a final decision on an electric head.

As always we are enjoying our stay in Annapolis and continue to eat our way from one end to another.

Having had about as much fun as allowed, we cast off from the dock wall in Baltimore and headed for Annapolis. Maneuvering through the debris fields left by the rains was not impossible but required a great deal of vigilance. There were rafts of smaller debris with an occasional tree trunk or large branch to go around. No more dead bodies though. As we cleared the Francis Scott Key Bridge things got a lot better. It was funny to listen to inbound cruisers calling in to the Coast Guard to report floating logs here and there. We marked, “wait till they get in the harbor!”

We arrived in Annapolis to find a lot of empty moorings. After taking one, we launched the dinghy and went ashore. Our original intention was to stay a few days, sail to Solomons and anchor for the rest of October and drive back to the boat show. After cruising for some time, you discover that it is a small community. We started meeting a lot of people we had met in the previous year. We decided to stay awhile. Since the mooring field will be mostly replaced by the boat show, we had to find a different mooring. The next morning at just past dawn, one of three boats left from the remaining “available” balls. We snatched it as one other boat took another and not too long thereafter there were no more available. We will have a front row seat to the assemblage of the show.

The Annapolis Harbor Cam is available if you’d like to watch, too. We are just on the lower right hand edge of the field of view behind some masts. My son captured Goliath and I out in the dinghy yesterday. That’s us indicated by the red arrow.

As usual we are eating our way from one end of Annapolis to the other. You gotta love a place that serves free food so The Rams Head Tavern has become a favorite. Tuesday was seafood night and I filled up on raw oysters and steamed shrimp.

Wednesday morning was Cruiser’s Breakfast at Chick & Ruth’s Delly where at every morning the Pledge of Allegiance is recited. A favorite of politicians and locals this place has great food and friendly folks.

Since we’ll be here another week and a half we will keep you posted on other happenings. For now it’s back to the grind. Yesterday was grocery day and today is laundry. Yipee!