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| Ghost Rider Comfortably Hanging on Her Hook at Horseshoe Bend in the St. Mary's River |
Just
as we were getting to launch the dinghy we received a visit (via their own
dinghy), from Don and Debra McCarty, who happened to be out for a spin and
recognized a fellow Nordhavn. They own
N55, Mondai Nai, (Japanese for ‘no
problem’) and live in the general area but were exercising their Nordy with
some local gunkholing. We had a nice if
brief visit, and decided we would reconnect that evening for a happy hour
event.
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| St. Mary's College Boasts a Fine Marina Facility for a Modest Student Population |
Early
that afternoon we launched our tender and after verifying its systems, we headed
out on an expeditionary run in the local waterways. First stop was nearby St. Mary’s College and
township. We walked the small but
picturesque liberal arts campus for about an hour, learning some interesting
historical lessons along the way. St.
Mary’s was originally settled in the early 1600’s (the first colony in
Maryland) and eventually became the first capitol of Maryland until that was
moved to Annapolis in 1695. The college
was founded in 1840 and remains viable and vibrant today; although its total
enrollment stands at only 1,800 students, last year it was ranked as the sixth
best "Public Liberal Arts College" in the U.S. It certainly has an enviable private marina
with all sorts of watercraft available to its students, many of whom were
enjoying watersports on this very hot Labor Day holiday.
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| A Replica of an Early Settelement Built on the St. Mary's College Campus |
When
the still air and heat got to us we headed back to the dinghy to get some
artificial wind going. Chelle piloted us
down river back towards the south and along the west side of the St. Mary’s
River and then into one of the westerly channels to explore a small marina and
potential restaurant. After that we
headed back towards the boat, but this time up the eastern shore of the river,
past the USCG station and back to Ghost
Rider.
We
got cleaned up and then took the tender upriver a short way to find Mondai Nai’s anchorage spot and joined
Don and Debra for an enjoyable happy hour, swapping boat stories and learning
more about mutual friends. We retired to
Ghost Rider just after sunset for
dinner aboard, celebrated our 24th anniversary and called it a night.
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| A Shot of Mondai Nai as We Approach in Our Dinghy |
Tuesday, 04-September, was another lazy day. It was already hot by the time we arose, with
nearly calm conditions and mostly clear skies.
The anchor and its snubber continued to hold firm. We worked on the next couple of routes for
the boat’s Nobeltec navigation computer and got those uploaded in preparation
for tomorrow’s departure. But during
that process Rick discovered the Windows 10 OS on the ship’s PC was trying to
upgrade itself to the next rev of the OS.
That’s generally a bad idea while you’re underway (especially on a slow
cellular Internet connection) as you risk bricking the computer; we always have
the Furuno MFDs as backup, but it’s a lot more convenient to plot and load
everything via the Nobeltec PC and let the Furuno units get it from there.
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| Another Nice Sunset at Horsehoe Bend, St. Mary's River, MD |
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| As We Cruised Down the St. Mary's River Towards the Potomac We Passed The Maryland Dove from St. Mary's City As She Headed South |
Overall
it was about a 7 ½ hour cruise, under clear skies with temps in the 90’s once
again and not much breeze (again.) The
river was flat as glass and nearly devoid of traffic. We arrived at our planned anchorage area just
before 1730, set the hook on the first try in about 10 feet of water, and
settled in for a quiet evening. There's isn't much around here.
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| Passing Quantico Marine Base Enroute DC....That's a V-22 Osprey on Final Approach Trying to Figure Out How to Land. |
We
got underway the next morning (Thursday,
06-September) around 1030 and continued chugging northwards on the wide Potomac
River. Weather and water conditions were identical to the previous
day (hot, calm) and we only had a short cruise of 35 NM to reach National Harbor
Marina near Washington, DC. We had a pushing current most of the
way, motoring 8 to 9 knots at a loping 1400 RPM the entire way; during our
daily WOT we even cracked the 11 knot barrier. Once again there wasn't
much to see in this area. However, we did pass by the Quantico
Marine base where Rick got a kick out of watching a V-22 Osprey (LINK) trying to
decide if it was a helicopter or a real airplane as it did some touch-and-go’s
on the riverside runway. We also noted that the further north we went,
the bigger the occasional home was….more like expensive estates perched on
bluffs.
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| Not a Lot to See Along the Northern Potomac, But There Are Some Nice Estate Homes in the Area. |
We
entered the marina basin around 1445, maneuvered Ghost Rider stern-in to her assigned slip (thrusters really
helped today in the current), and got tucked in. The boat as well as
the dinghy got a much needed hosing down after several days at
anchor. While Rick tended to some post-flight items Chelle went out
for a walk in the heat of the afternoon….and pretty much got exhausted and lost
trying to find a shortcut back to the marina. Uber saved her day.
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| The National Harbor Marina Has Nice Floating Docks But Also a 180 Foot Ferris Wheel and an Outdoor Theater |
We
took a break that evening to tour the marina and adjacent facilities; more on
those later, but as nice as Waterside was back in Norfolk, this place makes
that look like a slum. In addition to
scores of restaurants, condos, stores and shops, they also boast a 180 foot
tall Ferris wheel and their own big-screen outdoor theater. Mostly, though, we were just looking for an
eatery to grab dinner, and we found The Walrus Oyster and Ale House, where the
seafood was quite good and the sangrias came in 50 ounce glasses.
We (well, at least Rick) slept in the morning of Friday, 07-September, which started just as sunny, hot and humid as the previous several days. We had several routine boat maintenance items we wanted to get accomplished, so after a light breakfast we went to work on that stuff. Wheelhouse had apprised us that annual davit (boat crane) maintenance was due, so Rick took care of that, plus some routine stuff on the dinghy – checking oil, battery, and adding fuel.
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| Ghost Rider in Her Slip at National Harbor With the Capital Wheel in the Background; It's Gondolas Are Fully Enclosed and Air Conditioned. |
Additionally we spent time cleaning the horizontal surfaces of the
boat’s exterior with “boat soap” – not something we typically like to do even
though we use a very gelcoat-friendly mild detergent, but even with that it
tends to remove wax. Nonetheless it was time to muscle away some embedded dirt
and stains that had accumulated since we had the boat detailed back in February
in Fort Myers, so we scrubbed and hosed.
Then Rick kept finding new things that needed attention (weathered hatch
latches for the most part) and by the time all that was done it was late
afternoon and weather was moving in. The
predicted cold front was arriving and with it thunder and lightning. We lowered the big antennae, covered the fly
bridge and stayed dry and comfy in the salon for the evening.
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| Oh Joy, Five Tropical Storms Pinballing Around the Atlantic |
We awoke on Saturday,
08-September, to the predicted weather – overcast, cooler (70’s) with rain
in the area but not overhead for the moment.
Chelle headed off to a yoga class while Rick studied the weather –
mainly the Atlantic tropics, where storms were lining up like they were on a
busy assembly line. For the time being
we appeared to be in a good place, being 140 miles from the nearest shoreline
of the Atlantic Ocean; that said the NHC still seemed pretty clueless about
Hurricane Florence’s track, and model guidance was literally all over the map. For now we were staying right here as we didn’t
trust the predicted tracks of the other two or three systems stacking up behind
that one.
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| A Pic from the Apogee of the Ferris Wheel....You Can Just Make Out the Washington Monument in the Distance |
On her way back from the yoga session Chelle picked up brunch to
go…eggs Benedict and French toast. After
Rick finished his morning projects we got cleaned up and got off the boat to do
some local area touring. First stop was
the big Ferris wheel at the end of the marina pier where Rick overcame his fear
of heights (yes, seems a bit strange for a pilot) and we went for six revolutions
up to the 180 foot pinnacle.
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| The Brass Tap is a Happening Place With Lots of Brews |
After that we went for a long stroll around the National Harbor township; luckily we had the umbrella handy as the low overcast proved to contain copious amounts of rain. We were OK with that as the temps stayed in the 70’s and we were more than ready for a break from the weeks of summer heat. During one particularly stout shower we ducked into The Brass Tap sports bar which boasts hundreds of brews (Rick liked the hoppy Heavy Seas “Loose Cannon” IPA as well as the baked cheesy bread.) The rain wasn’t letting up much, so we retreated to the boat and enjoyed another quiet evening dockside.
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| Another Shot of National Harbor's Outdoor Theater....the Yoga Classes Are Held in the Same Locale and Broadcast on the Big Screen. |
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| A Shot of Ghost Rider's Slip From the Ferris Wheel |
