WPSU

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Ego Alley

Spotted today:  Ah, NOW we know what happened to Tom Hanks's
 friend, Wilson.  He's drifting down the Chesapeake Bay
We left Annapolis early this morning and motored till dusk. Midday a squall came up; later, the water around us turned deep muddy brown, colored by silt.

The mouth of the Sassafras River was barricaded with rafts of debris, mostly big dead tree limbs. (Though we also spotted two basketballs and a soccer ball.) SlowBoat had to juke and jive to avoid mashing her prop. Almost like being back on the Mississippi River!

Finally dropped anchor tonite in a little cove on the Bohemia River. Hey! If you're thinking of visiting SlowBoat, next week we'll be cruising down Delaware Bay to Cape May, New Jersey.  Then up the Jersey Coast (Atlantic City, anyone?)  Brigantine National Wildlife Refuge, all youse birdwatchers? Greet us in Asbury Park? We should be anchored near the Statue of Liberty after May Day.

We've enjoyed recent boat visitors:  Science journalist Elia Ben-Ari and her family checked out the boat in Chesapeake Beach on Sunday. Then on Monday, Bill and Ellen Woodcock found us docked in "Ego Alley" at Annapolis.


Back to Annapolis: We stayed on "Ego Alley," the a line of docks that slices through the historic downtown district. Apparently, in fine weather, this is where the biggest, fanciest yachts dock, to see and be seen.
Dolphin?!  Nope, just another amphibious assault tree branch.

But yesterday was a cold and cloudy day, and we had the place pretty much to ourselves, except for a sailboat that had passed us on the way in to dock in the next slip over. The crew in their oilskins clambered off, and twenty minutes later returned: woman in a short, very bouffant white dress, man in a kilt, another woman in a floor-length black robe.  Boat wedding! I must say, they washed up real nice.

Our anchorage tonite is the inverse of Ego Alley. It's a quiet cove. Trees. A few pretty houses.  Outside, thunder is rumbling, and the boat is rocking in the wind.

"No worries," says Cap.  "We're anchored in six feet of water.  If the boat sinks, we'll just stand on the roof and yell for help!"

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