Baltimore Inner Harbor - Harbor View Marina

Thursday September 12, 2013
39 16.625 N
76 36.109 W

Uneventful day. We dropped the mooring at about 10 AM and headed towards Baltimore in mild conditions. Arrived in the Inner Harbor just after lunch and greeted by a thunder storm. Our luck held and the storm cell split in two and left us unscathed in the middle, with just a bit of rain and a few gusts of wind. We were assigned a spot on the outside "T Head"  where we will sit until our "permanent" slip becomes available on Sunday afternoon.

View from our back door

Once Tide Hiker was hooked up and settled in we wandered over to find friends. Dinner out with Bonnie and Jon was fun.

Friday September 13, 2013

Very easy day today, settling in. This is a very posh marina with great facilities. We are located right in the Baltimore "Inner Harbor" which is in the heart of the city. Baltimore was once a busy industrial and port city, and a rather "gritty" place. But most of the industry left as the USA de-industrialized "last century" and the harbor area was left a depressed and polluted place. I used to come here back in my working days to visit the Bethlehem steelworks at Sparrows Point.

Water scooper-duper

Over the last 25 years or so the whole inner harbor area has been revitalized and now the Inner harbor is quite a show place for urban renewal. The harbor water is quite clean, and they actually have specialized watercraft that scoop any debris off the surface of the water. There are several large marinas, lots of new commercial and residential buildings plus public facilities. It is quite impressive and I am looking forward to our stay.

However I fear the blog will become even more boring. I will not be starting a new page till we head out on October 12.

Saturday September 14, 2013

Breakfast out, then shopping and lunch out with Jon & Bonnie. Bought oil and new gas cans for the dinghy.


Sunday September 15, 2013

Not much, few jobs. Arranged flights for Kylie and Mason to visit us :) Waited for our new slip J 09 to become available. Deidre went grocery shopping. Sorted thru our mail and paid bills. Drinks and dinner on board with Jon, Bonnie, Bill & Laura

Monday September 16, 2013

Pump out and flush. Moved Tide Hiker to J 09. Started work on the maceration pump.

Tuesday September 17, 2013

Walked around the Federal Hill area.
Removed the ElectroScan and macerator motor, which I believe has failed. Head in the bilge most of the day. Ordered the parts to rebuild the pump.
Dinner out at a nice pub in the Federal Hill district

Wednesday September 18, 2013

Another perfect day. Rode the free buses around Baltimore. Purchased a replacement phone. Lunch in the Fell Point district. This is a nice city. Great fall weather.

Back to the boat. Installed spare macerator motor. Went in well. Will leave the ElectroScan out till I can test the macerator.
Finally repaired latches on the chimney locker. Worked great.
Deidre had her hair cut and coloured.
Deidre helped change the oil in main engines and transmission
Cleaned up.

Thursday September 19, 2013

I will get one of my people to call one of your people!

Lets park the bikes and have lunch?

Another perfect fall day. Rode our bikes around the bay and enjoyed another lunch at Fells Point. Drinks and dinner on Bon Voyage tonight. Re-installed the ElectroScan (just electrically) so we can have the tank monitor working.

Friday September 20, 2013

Visited a cool chart store this morning and purchased charts and anchoring guides for the Bahamas. Lunch back on their boat.

Deidre and I launched the dinghy and I cleaned the mustache with lemon juice while Deidre walked up to the Post office. Tide Hiker looks a lot better. Quiet evening at home.

Saturday September 21, 2013

Breakfast and The Times at the place near the marina. Then took Tide Hiker over for a pump-out and to test the "new macerator pump" (which performed perfectly).

Deidre and I have been appointed "Social Co-Chairpersons" for the upcoming MTOA Rendezvous. This means we are in charge of all the booze, (bit of a "fox in the hen house" situation if you ask me!) but accompanied by some planning and supervision responsibilities. I am concerned the stress will get to me!

Sunday September 22, 2013

Bit of exploring and a dry run for picking up Kylie. Took the free bus to Penn Station. Rode the 'light rail" to the BWI (the airport) and back to Camden Yards (the baseball field) and then walked back to the boat. Total fares for the day was about $5.00

At about 9 PM a fireworks unexpectedly display blasted off about 100 yards from Tide Hiker. It was amazing to be so close.

Monday September 23, 2013

Just as we were having breakfast one of the last few remaining Liberty Ships was tug-boated in and docked 100 yards fro us, right where the fireworks happened last night.

Tuesday September 24, 2013

Today was the big day and I am pleased to report that both Kylie and mason arrived safe and sound.

Wednesday September 25, 2013

Thursday September 26, 2013

The USS Constellation got us out of the boat in our pajamas this morning. We are not too sure why but she was moved into the mail harbor and fired a gun (which upset the ducks) and themn was backed into her slip down town.

The USS Constellation was the last all sail warship built by the US Navy in 1854

Today is day one of "Trawler Fest". There is a couple of dozen new and "near new" trawlers on display and a whole lot of tents with exhibitors selling their wares. Its all a bit "old hat" for us "live-aboards" but I enjoyed wandering around and toured a few of the boats that interested me. We did buy a couple of "Cruising Guides" for the Bahamas.

Friday September 27, 2013

Bath time

Ky and I fired up the dinghy and did a tour of the harbor for an hour or so. We stopped at Fells point and picked up a couple of coffees. Came back and gave Mason a bath.

Tonight was the big Sangria test so most of the day was devoted to picking up supplies and cutting fruit and mixing booze. We made three batches, using two recipes provided by the President and one of my own. The former two were very heavy with liquor, super sweet and alcoholic. My recipe was much more "responsible". We had about 10 people on board for the testing, and being Americans and mostly female, the two sweet recipes were chosen.

Saturday September 28, 2013

Now that I have the final recipes I visited the booze store and placed our order.

Driving the dink

Tonight we rode in Bon Voyage over to the "Music Bowl" on the other side of the harbor where we anchored and watched/listened to the "Pink Floyd" follower band. We purchased a whole lot of Thai food to fed the crew.










Sunday September 29, 2013

The John Brown left this morning. Ky leaves this afternoon.
There is a video below.

In an effort to get a better photo, my favorite daughter walked off the end of the boat deck and onto the canvas. She is only tiny but certainly weighs enough for the canvas to give way. Fortunately she was able to recover before falling of the back of the boat onto the swim platform and breaking her neck in the process. I am happy she was not hurt, but now I have an awkward canvas repair job.

Monday September 30, 2013

First day of the MTOA rendezvous and the weather continues to favor us. The marina had been steadily filling up with boats over the last few days. It was fun to wander around the marina greeting acquaintances from previous events. There was not much scheduled, just registering and getting organized.

Tuesday October 1, 2013

Meetings and seminars began in earnest today. We also had "lunch on board" with our "Mentees". I dismantled the aft deck canvas and took it over the harbor in the dinghy to a canvas place. Big dinner over at "Little Havana" after which Deidre and I mixed up several gallons of Sangria on the boat.

The attendees





Wednesday October 2, 2013

Took the truck over to the booze store and picked up two kegs of beer. Met our crew at 4:30 PM and set up the bar and served until about 9 PM. Seemed like a good party

Thursday October 3, 2013

The bartenders

I had a busy day on the boat, did not participate much at the MTOA. A friend came over and helped me to re-install the canvas. It was a difficult job and the canvas stitching ripped again in several places. But its up again. Another social hour, another 4 gallons of Sangria, followed by the banquet and awards ceremony. I do not think we will be doing any more rendezvous. "Same ol same ol".

Friday October 4, 2013

Another beautiful day, quite warm. Most of the morning spent with clean up and schlepping. Bill and Tonni arrived about 6 PM.







Saturday October 5, 2013

Crew

Another perfect day so we decided to take the boat for an overnight run to Magothy Bay. The original plan was to go to Annapolis, but the Annapolis Boat Show has basically taken over the port. So we took 4 hours to run down to Magothy and anchor behind Dobbins Island.

Sunday October 6, 2013
The weather was forecast to break later in the day so we headed "home" first thing in the AM. Back at the dock Bill and I tested out the bikes and went for a ride into town. Sunday night we dines at "Old Havana"

Monday October 7, 2013
Breakfast up on Federal Hill followed by bank and Post Office. Then a cab into town to see "Gravity" in 3D at the movies. Dinner in Little Italy. Good day!

Tuesday October 8, 2013

The diver visited Tide Hiker this morning. He said all was well, we needed to replace the bow thruster zinc, but that was all. Once he was done, Bill and I headed off on our bikes and Tonni and Deidre headed into town to do some window shopping. We all met for lunch at a corned beef deli place. Bill and I rode to Fells point for a coffee. That night we invited Louise and Sean (two slips over in "Vector") to join us at Porters.

After dinner we were invited to tour "Vector". It is a 52' single engine steel trawler that weighs 110,000 lbs (Tide Hiker comes in at a slim 65,000) Unfortunately Bill took a tumble and we have just heard (Friday) that he has a twisted ankle and a broken toe!

Wednesday October 9, 2013

Bill and I rode over to the "Museum of Industry", Tonni organized her packing. The cab picked them up at 2 PM and they were on their way home. I did a bit more work on the ElectroScan and discovered another pump not working. We then both retired to our pajamas and read books. It rained.

Thursday October 10, 2013

Heading out for breakfast

Rained all night. The weather is not looking good enough for departure Friday. We invited Bonnie to join us for breakfast at a local spot. We ate, drank coffee and read the paper for hours while it poured outside. Deidre made it to the supermarket later in the day between showers. I downloaded a book.

Friday October 11, 2013

Should I let her in?

If I ever said anything nice about Baltimore weather I am officially retracting it. It poured with rain all night and the rain has continued all day. We are determined to leave in the AM Saturday even though the forecast is not so good, but this place is too expensive to sit around in.

Deidre just returned from a visit to the marina office. Five minutes after she left the sky opened once again and she has just returned drenched to the skin. The purpose of her trip was to pick up our mail - but it has not arrived. We will ask Jon and Bonnie to pick it up.

We are starting to get stir crazy. We are determined to leave in the AM