Annapolis - the Quest for Navy Blue

Hi everyone and welcome to the part where this blog gets seriously maritime at last!
This beautiful small city on Chesapeake Bay lives and breathes boating. Its complex and convoluted shoreline has so many little nooks and crannies, jetties, marinas, rivers and streams, and every one of them is crammed with craft from sublime 50 footers belonging to the blue-blazer set to the tiny racers or tin dinghies that every kid seems to own. I'm glad we came here with a fair idea of what we were looking for, or we would have been totally overwhelmed by it all.

So, after a week of orientation (including a couple of days sailing to equip me with some basic skills), today we had a look at a serious contender. It's a 42 ft Catalina that has pretty much everything we're looking for, including some extra features that will make it easier for a couple of creaky fifty-somethings to operate. We're planning to make an offer on Monday - very exciting!! The boat comes with the use of the pen for the rest of this year, so if the offer is accepted, we will make this our base for a while and explore the surrounding areas. The Bay itself is endlessly interesting, and you can access Delaware, DC and Virginia easily from here. We'll probably cruise north up the coast as the weather warms up, then head down to Florida and the Bahamas for winter.

There is a lot to like here besides the sailing and the bay: heaps of great little bars and restaurants; crabs and crab-cakes; gorgeous parks and gardens; woods with massive trees, deer, squirrels and other critters; good bookshops and galleries; fresh blueberries and raspberries; friendly people who love telling you the stories of their town; fireflies when you go for a walk at night ...

By the way, the prospective boat has a very nice guest cabin with its own head, so start making your travel plans as soon as you like!