Annapolis in the Rain
Suzie Too - Western Caribbean
David & Suzanne Chappell
Thu 8 Sep 2011 13:07
From a very soggy Annapolis, it's funny how the weather makes or breaks a place, we are being told by everyone Annapolis is great, but we have had heavy rain and thunderstorms since we arrived so we haven't seen this delightful city in the correct light.
On our first night we had to anchor outside the harbor as we arrived on Labour Day which is a national holiday, but like our usual UK Bank Holiday weather it was miserable, rain and fog all day, soggy BBQ's and all the marina were full.
The only marina that could accommodate us eventually with our beam and depth was Annapolis Yacht club at $3 per foot, OUCH!!! Against the sea wall piles, so the big fenders had to be blown up and deployed. But anchoring so far out the town in the rain is rubbish so we booked in for 2 nights and got the umbrellas out. It's too warm to wear coats so shorts and a brolly and off we went exploring, first day we ended up in a mall to dry out as so wet the streets were awash. 2 teeshirts later and a haircut we were shopped out.
The yacht clubs over here are pretty special, with excellent facilities, restaurants, pools 100 times better than anything back in the UK but as you see very pricey. We had lunch consisting of Soup of the day, then I had Mussels cooked in white wine, garlic, chilli seeds, diced tomatoes and Parmesan and David had seared tuna rolled in Sesame seeds, with noodles and salad, both were fantastic and inc drinks and tip $50 no alcohol was consumed the Americans don't seem to drink especially at lunch times.
We walked the 2 main streets, had a delightful hour in Starbucks, we sat in the sofa area and within minutes were surrounded by 6 women from the courts all interested in us as they had never meet anyone that had sailed an ocean, most of then had never travelled out of the US.
We finished our town visit by having lunch at a place which was recommended to us as they have the best Sushi ever, I got to admit it was pretty good we had the lunch special of Miso soup, sesame salad, then sashimi tuna and salmon a California roll and 4 pieces of sushi with your Wasabi and Soy, fantastic lunch while we watched the street turn into a raging river with the amounts of rain we were getting.
Last night, we were invited on to a large motor yacht for drinks, 2 sprightly looking people both were over 80 and had a wonderful tales to tell us of there travels, they live in Charleston SC and invited us to visit them in November when we pass through. He had been a dentist and property developer and made his fortune in the 70 & 80's, he used to own his own plane so a very interesting evening with them watching movement in the harbour from their boat summerhouse.
We have decided that Annapolis is a place to redo when the weather is better as I am sure we have not seen it at it's best.
Bye for now
Suzanne & David xxx
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