Galesville: Our home base in the Chesapeake

Well, here we are!  Nine weeks and a couple of days after departing from south Florida, we finally arrived in Galesville, MD which is a small "town" just south of Annapolis on the western shore of Maryland. 

Our journey from Reedville to Galesville was an 8 hour passage on August 30th in which we motored, motor-sailed and sailed without motors. 

One point of interest along the way was a huge floating platform, which we identified as a Liquid Natural Gas terminal associated with the Cove Point Liquefaction facility located on shore.

Cove Point LNG terminal

The entry to the West River was a little challenging as a storm approached right at the time we were ready to drop the main sail. A grid of many, many crab pots made Steve's job holding Starry Night's nose into the wind while I dropped the sails even more interesting. 

We're staying at a quaint marina called Hartge Yacht Harbor, which is located in the West River and was founded in 1865. We selected this location so that we're within a reasonable driving distance from Jessie and Will, but in a quieter place than Annapolis or Baltimore. The mooring field is very well protected and the facilities are very nice here and include amenities such as courtesy bikes, pool access, weekly bagel breakfasts and monthly happy hours. The main disadvantage to this location is the lack of a grocery store within walking distance, but Jessie is currently working remotely and has generously loaned us her car. 

Entry to the Hartge Yacht Harbor (HYH) grounds

HYH is beautifully set up for yachties to enjoy their time ashore

Marina office at HYH

Local Color in Galesville, Maryland

We strategically arrived here the week before Labor Day so that we could have a long weekend with Jessie, Bridgette, Will and Elliot. We had perfect weather and enjoyed all of the traditional Labor Day activities:  swimming, bike riding, kayaking, hamburger grilling and transporting many dogs (e.g. three)  to shore by dinghy twice a day. 

Gir (left) and Mae (right) waiting for Jake to board 

Jessie, Bridgette, Steve and Elliot checking out the West River by dinghy

What dogs do when their people have left the boat

Dinghy boarded by fe

Pirate reunion: Blackbeard and his lesser-known

 comrade, Elliot the Blond

Pirate gets the girl

Dr. Ryan exploring by kayak

It is currently mating/spawning season for sea nettles, and Will and Elliot collected a couple of samples, which were easily netted while standing at the stern of Starry Night.  After confirming the nettles could survive captivity, I was recruited to gather a few more for Will's zoology students to observe.  

One of the nettles collected from Starry Night...

I'm totally loving my new role as "citizen scientist", and Jessie and I spent one afternoon in the lab sorting specimens that Will had collected during a day trip to Delaware. The best part was that he set me up with a few of the samples and a microscope.  What looked like some kind of plant matter turned out to be these fabulously beautiful animals, called hydroids, when seen under the microscope. Hydroids are related to jellyfish and come in many fantastic shapes and sizes. I've pulled a couple of photos from the internet which look like those that I viewed in the lab. 

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Hydroid photos representative of those I observed at the Towson University lab

I visited Jessie and Will for a week at their new home, and when I wasn't in the lab, I was at "sewing camp"! Buying stuff for boats, such as curtains or seat covers, is typically very expensive since the sizes and shapes are unusual and need to be custom-made.  Steve and I have been talking about getting a sail-maker's sewing machine so that we can make things ourselves. The problem is that neither one of us sews!  I think my last project was a skirt that I made in Girl Scouts when I was in sixth grade!!

I started on a simple project making a set of place mats and napkins, which was perfect for relearning the basics. I'm sure I didn't save any money on this particular project, but it was a lot of fun shopping for the perfect fabric and, as usual, I learned a ton!  The good news is that I have an expert seamstress in my mother when I'm ready to move beyond rectangles 😀

Sewing camp supervised by grandpuppy, Tito

Laura's handiwork

Not to be outdone in the project department, Steve spent his alone-time on the boat working on installing the new inverter and control panel. The control panel was smaller than the one it was replacing so its installation included fabrication of an adapter plate, which turned out quite nicely! 

  

Inverter installation

New control panel with adapter plate

In addition to spending time with our kids and working on projects, we've done a bit of day sailing here in the Chesapeake to work on our sailing skills and learned how to rig our asymmetric spinnaker, which is a large sail - sometimes also called a kite - used in very light downwind conditions.  There have been several occasions when being ready to use the spinnaker would have been nice.  

We also spent a day visiting Annapolis, which is only 10 or 15 miles from here, and is home to the US Naval Academy and is a sailing Mecca of sorts.  We continued our "wonderful weather" streak and strolled the historic downtown and waterfront.

View from the Annapolis Bridge

Annapolis architecture

Maryland State House

Tonight, our marina is having a catered event complete with live music so we're looking forward to chatting with some of our new acquaintances and swapping boat maintenance tips and horror stories.

We're planning to stay here in Galesville until mid-October  (which is rapidly approaching!) and then start making our way southward, with a stop in Deltaville for a couple of weeks to haul the boat out for a good cleaning of the hull and fresh coat of paint.

Until next time, Happy Fall!