"Home" Again

We're back in Rock Hall. Hannah, fortunately, was little to no impact to us except for the pocket book as Jabin's was not a cheap place to stay. But, it was a prudent decision to stay there. We found out once we returned to Rock Hall that all the boats on T-docks (which would have included us) were sent to other marinas in the area. Don't know where we would have gone. Anyway, we're back.

The top wind speed we encountered during Hannah was 30.4 knots, which happened around 4:50 pm on Saturday, Sept. 6. About an hour or so after that, we had Chinese food delivered to the boat. It was entertaining for Quinn & I to watch Gregg and this kid try to exchange money & food across the about 6 feet stretch between the boat and the dock.

Plans for our immediate future include trying to find a few good days to anchor out for the first time. St. Michael's is supposed to be very nice - it's about a 35 nm sail for us which means a pretty long day.

Today, Gregg worked on getting the radar installed. I got to hoist him half way up the mast (ok, I used an electric winch), and then lower him back down by hand. No, I didn't feel the line slip at all. :) I'm sure he will give more details about the actual installation process at some point.

Staying Put

We're staying. We decided we'd get through the storm better here at Jabin's. So, that's OK. There's lots to do around Annapolis. I've also found the best stocked grocery store I've seen since we moved on the boat. It's just over a 1 mile walk from the boat, but worth the effort. The plan now is to go back to Rock Hall on Sunday. I'll definitely be making one more run to the store before we head out.

I took Quinn to the Chesapeake Children's Museum today. We have definitely been spoiled by the Chicago CM, but for $3 per person, it was worth it. Quinn got to play with a few other kids his age and he had a great time. Tomorrow I will probably take him to the Annapolis Mall for a while. It's supposed to start raining here in the afternoon and not stop until sometime Saturday night so I need to get him off the boat to do something or he gets a little stir crazy. It'll be worth the offensive price for the cab ride. Plus I can finally get Quinn's hair cut. Leslie, I'm trying to muster up the courage to do it myself... I'm just not there yet. I don't want to screw it up so bad I have to buzz him.

Should We Stay or Should We Go?

Right now we are in Bert Jabin’s Yacht Yard in Annapolis, getting some warranty work taken care of. This place has a real operation going – a Bald Knob on steroids for those of you on the river who are familiar with that marina. They have three forklifts for providing in-out service for powerboats and small sailboats, but the surprise for me was the three large travel lifts they have for providing in-out service for large power and sail boats. Call ahead and your 45’ sailboat or cruiser will be picked up from the lot, trundled over to the dock and gently deposited in the water for your boating pleasure. At the end of your day or weekend, drop it off at the dock and they pick it up with the travel lift, power-wash the bottom and trundle it back to the lot where it waits for the next time you want it. All for about the same price than a regular slip. Not sure if the cost is more or less, but it’s close either way. Check out their web site at http://www.bjyy.com/ if you want to check out some photos that show one the travel lifts and the stacks of boats. Jen’s posting some pictures on our web site too.

Most of the scheduled warranty work was completed today and the rest will be finished tomorrow. The big decision in front of us is if we want to extend our stay several days or head on back to Rock Hall. We had planned on meeting Eric and Kristi Richardson this weekend, but with Hanna on her way, it probably won’t be a good weekend for a visit and a day sail! Hanna's due here in the Annapolis area late Saturday.


We like our spot here at Bert’s better than at Rock Hall with regards to riding out a storm. We’re on one of three long docks with 50’ between our dock and the next, so we’ll be able to string dock lines between the two and keep Mirasol out in the middle. Also, this marina is very well protected from almost all directions. The down side is that it is quite pricey here and we have a paid-up slip back at Rock Hall. We’ve decided to wait until Thursday to make the call. That way we’ll have a better idea of how strong Hanna will be if/when she hits. We’ll post updates as we figure out what we plan to do.