Today is the first month anniversary of our departure on the boat, and when I say it feels like it’s been a year, it’s not what you think. It feels like a year in the way I remember summers as a kid feeling like a year. Definitely not too long, but like a lot of time has passed. As we observed in the first five five days of the trip, it’s probably just that we’re packing a lot living into our days.

We’re now in Hampton, Virgina. This is our view from the only free place to anchor in the Hampton River, across from the visitor’s centre.

It’s a tight squeeze, let me tell you.  There are pilings off our bow and stern (like the one the bird is on), shallow water  & crab pots to port and the channel we’re not supposed to block to starboard. Snug as a bug in a rug. It’s raining a bit – maybe you can see the raindrops on the water? – so we’re taking it easy this morning before we head over to Norfolk, VA. Two crabbers just came by to check their pots…here’s a picture:

I thought I’d fill you in on what we got up to in Annapolis, Maryland, a town National Geographic described as the “Camelot on the Bay”. It is a beautiful town.

Please skip this paragraph if you want to get back to the story, because this is just my own random observation (unrelated to Annapolis except in a way the National Geographic people didn’t mean), but there were a lot of Kennedy-esque people in town. Well groomed people, good-looking in a big, toothy-smile way, the men with full, sun-streaked heads of hair, and the ladies impeccably coifed with tasteful manicures. Navy cashmere sweaters knotted over the shoulders, striped shirts neatly rolled to the elbows, shorts with a crease down the front. I only point this out because I kept seeing people like this…getting out of cars, walking on the sidewalk, herding uniform-clad children into SUVs. I guess I also felt extra-slovenly, with my disintegrating flip flops, baggy but oh-so-comfortable clothes, wheeling my laundry bag around in my folding cart. Back to Annapolis.

Annapolis, Maryland (23-Sep-2012 to 27-Sep-2012)

We arrived around 6 pm on the 23rd, picked up a mooring ball, and didn’t do much else but go ashore, look around and have a huge crab cake from Chick & Ruth’s.

The next day was laundry and pick-up-the-stuff-we’re-missing-for-the-boat day. There is a single coin-operated washer & dryer in the washrooms at the Harbourmaster’s Building on the Annapolis waterfront, for use by boaters like us. I didn’t want to be doing laundry all day, so I opted to go to the coin laundry a couple of blocks away (Avenue Laundry, 74 Maryland Ave). There, I got the mountain of laundry going, set the laptop up on the table beside the window at the back of the place, and did a few blog posts.

Meanwhile, Phill took the bike to the local chandleries (West Marine, Fawcett’s) to pick up our missing stuff for the boat. Here are some things he saw along the way.

Among the stuff Phill picked up, was the Magma Gourmet Nesting Cookware! No more fry-pan chilli – or anything else fry-pan that belongs in a pot.

Phill also bought a crab trap, but more about that later.

As we’re getting in the dinghy to go back to the boat with the clean laundry and new boat stuff, a couple in their 50s or 60s sitting on the near-by park bench ask us where we’re from. We tell them, and they say “Wow. You goin’ south?” We strike up a bit of a conversation (she used to sail, he also had a boat, but they never ended up sailing together), and they gave us a few recommendations for happy hour in the city. So we go back to the boat (we don’t put anything away because happy hour ends at 7!), so we hurry back in search of half price appetizers and drinks.

We ordered “little-neck clams” at one place. Here’s what they looked like – I think we got five of them.

Unless you order a mountain of french fries or chicken wings or something, it’s tough to fill your tummy on happy hour. And not cost-effective. After stopping at two places, we figure we better just get a slice of pizza and go back to the boat. We were both pooped.

The next day, the 25th, was our bike adventure. We doubled all over Annapolis and did a bunch of errands. In case you’re wondering, I sit on the back cargo-grate-thing over the back tire, and Phill sits on the actual seat and pedals. It’s more comfortable than it sounds.

We dropped off our Bose iPod/iPhone player at an electronics place (it quit somewhere around the Delaware Bay and Phill couldn’t get it working), went back to the chandleries to get a few more things we forgot, and we saw some wine that rivals the Three Buck Chuck in extreme value.

We met a guy at Fawcett’s Chandlery who offered to give us, our bike, and all our stuff a ride home, but we declined his generous offer (we still had groceries to do). We go to the Giant grocery store, sign up for one of their super-saver cards using the address of the drug store in NY we used for our Internet do-dad, and dropped another $125. We called a cab, and Char picked us up. Not Charlie, but Char. His mother named him after his father Charles, but liked four-letter names. She named her other two sons Hess and Troy. Anyhow, Char says to me as Phill is loading the trunk “Your husband told me you’re on an adventure. I told him Peace & Blessings!”.

We had a really nice talk with Char on the way back to the dingy, we told him about our adventure and he told us about his five children (four sons, one daughter). His daughter’s name is Chartasia – he didn’t want her to be named after him, but his wife insisted. He helped us unload everything back at the dinghy dock – very nice man. We get back to the boat, put everything away, and call it a night. Pooped again.

The next day (26th), we filled up the boat with water & fuel, tidied up, and generally got ready to leave the next day. We went ashore and did a few more errands, like picking up the still-not-fixed Bose player, took a few pictures (we hadn’t really taken any of the actual town), then called it a day.

Oh, and here’s a picture of our dinghy! You may have to click on the picture to enlarge it to actually get a look at it, but there it is.

Okay, Phill’s waiting for me to finish this so we can go to shore and take showers and get out of here, so I’ll hurry up and get around to explaining the title of this post. Annapolis is a bit of a tourist town (Go Navy!, beautiful architecture, state capital, etc), so you see the inevitable T-Shirt shops. I’m strolling past one of them, and a T-Shirt catches my eye. It’s really simple; no graphics, just words. Here’s what it said:

Monday.
Tuesday.
Wednesday.
Thursday.
Friday.
Saturday.
Sunday.

See?

There is no Someday. Get sailing.

Struck a chord, as you can imagine. Also, there was a really nice power boat we saw each day on our dinghy ride to and from the boat. Navy hull, beautiful teak and brass. Big, but not too big. A modern classic is how I’d describe it. The name of this boat was “Someday Came“.

I guess my thinking in picking the title is that Someday comes for some of us, but not all, and when you boil it down, there is only ever today.

I’ll tell you about our adventures with the new crab pot next time.

‘Til then…