US Navy Academy

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Fri 7 Jun 2013 02:30

38:58.5N 76:29.0W

 

Wednesday 5th June

 

Got under way around 0800 hours to make the trip north to Annapolis to complete the rally with a tour of the US Naval Academy and  dinner in the evening.

 

We arrived at the town quay at 1000 hours and found an available buoy to moor to and hailed the harbourmaster to make the various arrangements.

 

Next up we took a water taxi to the town quay and walked up to the US Naval Academy where we met up with others from the OCC rally and we were taken into the grounds of the US equivalent of Dartmouth and treated to a private tour of a brand new exhibition dedicated to the naval aspects of the War of 1812. Our guide was one of our members, Fred Hallett and he managed to explain and bring to life what is known here as the Forgotten War (except of course being two hundred years ago, they are celebrating it pretty much non-stop!)

 

From here we went to the visitors centre and were then taken on a full tour of the superb facilities here and treated to more facts and figures than we probably needed to know. For some reason we learnt that the dormitory block is the largest in the world (!) and cover 33 acres and houses all 4,400 midshipmen (students) in the single building.  Nevertheless it was a fascinating tour and very well presented and we left the place older and wiser.

 

At 1900 hours we assembled in the bar of the Galway Bay Irish pub and had an excellent and very noisy meal which ended the tour and so we all finished up saying our goodbyes and making arrangements to meet elsewhere along the way.

 

So by 2200 hours we were back on board Serafina and being bounced around by the freshening breeze that had picked up and was causing a slightly unpleasant swell.