We left Baltimore on a beautiful sunny but cold Sunday morning and had an fantastic sail for 2 of the 4 hours to Annapolis.  We wanted to visit the boat show and also attend a dinner of members of the Ocean Cruising Club and hoped to squeeze into the busy anchorage before it was too late to find a space.  Our timing seemed about right as we found a good spot in very sheltered “Back Creek”.  We stayed there comfortably for over a week and once we had deployed our second anchor felt quite secure despite strong winds on occasions (2^nd anchors are often problematic to recover and this was no exception – see next entry).

Annapolis is an attractive town, Maryland’s capital and famous for the US Naval Academy as well as for boating.  Many of its old houses date back to the 18^th century and at times the local version of Georgian architecture reminded us of Lymington.  The town is dominated by the impressive and historical State House, the oldest legislative assembly still in use.  Just as dominating are the boating facilities; almost every yard of creek is covered by docks and marinas and there are many good, but crowded, anchorages.  Unusually there are several independent chandleries, not just the one ubiquitous chain.

Annapolis’ state house, home to the US government for a brief while (1793-4):

This could be Captain’s Row in Lymington:

But this nearby street is very American:

We visited the Boat Show on its first, preview, day when entry was more expensive but the crowds were smaller.  We were glad we did as the sun shone all day and apparently this is unusual for this show.  Locals say it always rains and certainly this year it has been wet for 3 out of its 5 days.  The show is quite a bit smaller than the one in Southampton which surprised us and it was also a bit frustrating as there was very little you could actually purchase on the spot.  Most things had to be ordered, which is not much use when you don’t have a permanent address!  We enjoyed the day nevertheless and always learn something from talking to exhibitors on the stands and looking around a boat or two.

The lure of the show also meant we could catch up with some friends again and otherwise it has been a relaxing place to pass some time before we head on south down the Chesapeake.  We were still at anchor when all the sailing boats at the show went back to their marinas – what chaos!  They all seemed to arrive at once and milled around waiting to tie up: