Thanks to my dear friend Bonnie, I got an invite to head up to Annapolis (after 5 long years away) to do the Annapolis to St. Michaels race over the Memorial Day weekend, on our friend Lynn's new J110, called Cimarron. It was like a BearAway reunion! With Original Lynn and Other Lynn and Manuel and Cynthia and Eduardo and Bonnie, the only two I didn't know on the crew both were named Michael so I only had ONE new name to learn! How lucky can an old girl get! LOL!!
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The upgrade to first class was well worth the $80 since it was a very FULL plane and I like my comfort! The flight was not only on time, it was actually about 20 minutes EARLY and best yet, my checked bag got there too! Great start!
Bonnie got there for me soon after and off to Annapolis we went. Traffic wasn't even too bad. Great to see all the masts everywhere again.
Bear Away looked great and well loved and cared for and Bonnie had even added shore power connections with a few outlets below, (nice for charging phones, etc.) and roller furling now that she's a cruising boat.
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Well, we did the required (by me) dinner at Lewnes' Steakhouse (YUM) and then went to the Grand opening of the new poolside bar/restaurant at Mears Marina. Nice crowd, good drinks, even fresh squeezed grapefruit (hard to find even in FL bars, land of Citruis crops) for my Mt. Gay! But we had an early dock call to go racing so we quit early.
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Breakfast at the pavillion but the Bagels were late so coffee and Donuts had to do. Off to the boat, load the food and gear and head to the start line. Sea of masts! I still wish I could transplant all these sailors and boats down to where it's WARM all year with good breezes.
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Across the finish line and, of course, a drink or 2. Lynn was thrilled to get a 4th place trophy in her very first race in her new boat! The R/C had a 'screw up' in the results and first awarded it to Lady Gray, but the video of the finish (as I learned later) proved Bonnie was correct with her time and the R/C had an error.
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I took Bonnie back to the Harbourtowne Golf Resort, where I had a room and we cleaned up then went to town to meet the crew. I must remember the problem in St. Michaels, is that there are NO TAXIS! There is ONE driver with a van who drives all over the place doing pickup/drop offs for $5 person each way. It can take awhile to get your ride but he did a good job showing up in the morning to get us back to the boat on time.
It seems we promised Lynn we'd do the race back ONLY if she promised that if the wind died and it became a drifter, we'd quit and motor back. Some of the crew had plans later in the day. Guess what! See the glassy water? We held out as long as we could stand it though!
Back in Annapolis and barely time for a change of clothes and back to the car to hit the road to drive back across to the other side of the Bay. Bonnie had a dinner party she wanted to go to at Rock Hall so off we went. Long drive over and long wait for dinner and the food was less than wonderful, but I couldn't leave Md. without having some Crab Cakes at least once.
Long drive back to Annapolis and a 'night cap' aboard Bear Away and off to sleep. Morning breakfast at the Pavillion again with Bagles and Lox this time! A few of Bonnie's friends were coming over for a day sail. We had a lovely one!
Tuesday morning we had time for my required shopping trip over to APS Ltd. and then to the HH store and still even time for a stop at Fawcetts. All the important sailing gear stores that I don't have here in Fort Lauderdale! Recognize any of the names?
From the shopping spree to the airport for my flight home in my upgraded seat. Amazed to find out that my pre TSA pass had come through while I was up there and was already applied to my ticket so right through the line with shoes ON and laptop IN the case!
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