Jellyfish, Stinky Heads, the Rock Hall Nazgul & Other Observations

OK, as painful as it may be to be stung by a jellyfish (which I haven't been yet), they look cool. Particularly to someone from the Midwest who has never seen one up close and in person. The surprise for me is, they're all over the place here - in the harbor, at the marina. And they're HUGE. Bigger than I would have expected anyway. I've seen a couple with bells the size of softballs. Photo shot off side of boat, uploaded 8-17. This one's bell was probably 4" in diameter.

Moving on. Marine heads stink. Bottom line. Brand new boat, freshly pumped out - it still stinks. We tried some environmentally sound holding tank deodorizer with limited to no success. After talking to friends (Kevin and Joe - see the pirate weekend photos on the main site), the only stuff that works when it's this hot out is the stuff with formaldehyde. Quoting Joe, "if it can pickle a body, it can pickle a turd." Brilliant. Thanks, Joe.

Along with the seagulls, which are abundant here (but nothing like in Manitowoc, WI), we have osprey & blue heron, among others. Now, I don't like birds. Kinda think they're gross. However, blue herons are pretty cool looking birds. One minor problem. Their call is awful. To further accentuate the issue, they've been known to hide under the dock along our .2 mile stretch to get out to the boat. When you walk above them, they take off with a scream reminiscent of a Peter Jackson Nazgul. Nearly scared the crap out of me a few times. The photo doesn't do it justice, but this bird has a wingspan of greater than 6 feet.

On high-tide. I would just like to say "JEEEEEZZZZZ" it's a long reach to get on the boat at high tide. According to the documentation, Mirasol's deck is 8' above the water line, so that makes the mid-ship step (about a foot below the deck) to get on about 3.5' high and 2.5' out from the dock (further when the wind is blowing her off the dock). Oh yeah, we can only get to the step on the side of the boat now because we're blocking our neighbors (very nice English couple - not going out for a couple more weeks) from getting out so that our mid-ship is over the finger dock. When we're pulled ahead where we should be, add a foot to the height of the first step up onto the boat. I'm 5'7". In either case, it's a bit of a leap. We bought a step-stool.

Rock Hall is nice. Very small & I'd be losing my mind without a car, but nice. Looks like we'll be in the Annapolis area next week for the warranty work we need done on the boat; sans car, but if we're in or near the city, who cares? Anyway, back to Rock Hall. Aside from the Nazgul, it's pretty peaceful. A nice dockage. I would recommend this marina (http://www.rockhallmd.com/npoint/), by the way. We're a little bouncy being right at the mouth of the harbor with all the commercial/charter fishing traffic, but it's not too bad. The pavilion at the jetty has gas grills, picnic tables and rope lights at night. The bathrooms & showers on land are always clean. And Lori, the owner, is one of the nicest and most accommodating people I have ever met. We were delayed for a month and it was no problem to shift our reservation for a month. Then we showed up a few days early and that was also no problem. This is my first coastal marina experience, and all-in-all, a nice one. It's a bit of a hike into town for groceries (only beverages and ship store at the marina store). I would come back... not for 2 months without a car, though.

Quinn seems to be enjoying it here, although there are virtually no kids, except on weekends, and even then, hardly any his age. We'll be getting one of those "Kids On Board" flags at the next boat show. Anyway, there's a pool at the marina, a couple decent parks, and plenty new stuff to see & do. So we're doing our best to keep him entertained. He misses Abby very much and he's still saving the left side of his bed and his second pillow for her.

One last thing, mostly for Cara, we haven't bothered to hook up the TV in the 3 weeks since we've been here. I'm actually surprised at how little we miss it. We have watched Shrek a few times, but that's about it.