Annapolis and more

We left Solomons with the engines running and electricity coming from our house batteries. However, after only a short 6-hour motor up to Annapolis, we arrived, made dinner and the batteries died. We spent the next day and a half without electricity and running water. It was not very pleasant, mostly because it is was very hot and we really wanted our air-conditioning! The reason that we were without electricity and water was because the house batteries needed to be charged, but at the time, with our electical system still not fully set up, they needed to be charged by the alternator and regulator. However, those required 24-volt power to charge themselves, which we didn’t have because the batteries were the 24-volt power source! So it was a catch-22 situation. Therefore, Kevin needed to re-attach the generator to the power system because then it could be used to charge the house batteries. This was a long process of running several wires from one of the side of the boat to the other. And of course, there were small things along the way that took more effort than expected (for example, while feeding the wire through to the other side, it separated from the steel fish tape only 30cm from the end and had to be fed again). Our house batteries are what run our lights, including our anchor light, and the pumps for our water system. So, without the house batteries we had none of that. We hung a lantern off the mast to act as our anchor light and hoped that nobody would run into us while at anchor. The anchorage was very busy and right on the edge of the channel and everyone liked to cut the corner of the channel by going through the anchorage. However, we later realized that people seemed to just liked to go close to our boat. So close in fact, that we thought they could have reached out and touched our boat as they went by!

While Kevin did a marathon session, with Owen’s help, of wiring up the generator, the rest of us did other odd jobs around the boat. We were hooked up with electricity and water by the end of the day, just in time to make dinner at 8:30pm! Owen, Norah and I did escape the boat for a few hours to get some groceries. We walked from the dinghy dock closest to our boat and then through the main part of town, which had lots of restaurants and shops. There was also a solid wall of yacht clubs and marinas along the waters edge. Consequently, there are a ton of boats in a relatively small harbor. The town was again full of history with brick buildings and cobblestone streets.

The next day was a school day. We have decided to continue school for our kids through July because they have had several weeks with very little to no school work. We also plan to give them more of a summer break when we get to Europe. Kevin and I left the kids to work on school while we went to shore to buy some wires and connectors to help connect the air-conditioning to the new system. This took us to another part of town with the dinghy dock at the edge of a nature reserve. It also gave us a chance to walk a little further to stretch our legs out – especially Kevin’s after spending the last day (and more) cramped in the engine rooms. That afternoon I also took the kids into town to explore mainstreet and get a walk in themselves. I bought myself some tea from a tea shop, so now I have a good selection on board. For those that know me, tea is to me, like coffee is to everyone else. I am very disappointed if I go a day without it.

The following day we caught an Uber ride into Washington D.C. for the day. Turns out, it was cheaper to take an Uber ride 45minutes into town rather than rent a vehicle big enough to fit us all. It was super convenient, especially since we didn’t have to find parking in Washington or deal with the traffic. Plus, we had very lovely Uber drivers, both originally from Ethiopia, who regaled us with tales of their immigration stories, politics in Canada versus the U.S. versus Ethiopia and the ins and outs of being an Uber driver.

We packed as much as we could into our visit to Washington. The best part of all of this was that everything was free! Even the museums. We started the day by visiting the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. There is so much information in that museum, I found it difficult to decide where to start. Interestingly, all our children wanted to start in the ocean room. I guess they really are being influenced by our trip! From there we took a lunch break outside at one of the multitude of food trucks parked outside the museums. There are several museums lined up on Constitution Avenue and many very old, very big buildings that house the IRS, the department of finance and other government entities. They are impressive and very functional looking. They also, do not allow room for restaurants and such. I suspect this is why there are so many food trucks along the road. That, and there are a great deal of tourists!

After lunch, we went back into the museum for more learning. We walked through fossils of dinosaurs and other ancient creatures until we were ready to walk outside despite the warm weather. We headed down the road to the Washington Monuement, the Lincoln Memorial and the White House. It was a decent walk to cover all three and took us past the reflecting pool. On a cooler day, it probably would have been very nice, but it was very hot. So the kids were done well before made it all the way. But they persisted and I think still enjoyed seeing the historic sites, especially the Lincoln memorial, partly because it provided some shade. The statue of Lincoln is impressive, especially as it is so detailed. The White House however, was much smaller than we all imagined. Plus it was behind a very big black fence that blocked much of the view. We then set ourselves to walk a little more to an Italian restaurant for dinner. It was a good day. When we got back to our dinghy it had been sitting all day with the ducks and they had used it to their advantage. It was covered in bird pooh and feathers, so I spent the evening cleaning it out.

The next day we picked up our repaired mainsail first thing in the morning. Kevin hooked up our freezer compressor in an effort to finally fix our freezer. We have been using an electric cooler as a freezer. It actually works very well, but just isn’t that big. We would like to be able to store frozen meat for our 3-week passage across the atlantic and the cooler has been only able to store about 9 days worth of dinners. He managed to hook up the compressor and it did get the freezer down to 3oC, not not below freezing. So, still a work in progress. The fridge however, is working again after the power system reboot. We spent the rest of our last day in Annapolis grocery shopping and buying fly swatters. There are so many bugs in this part of the east coast! Poor Norah has 63 mosquito bites on her legs alone (a consequence of no air-conditioning; so hatches open and sleeping in shorts). We bought ourselves an electric bug zapper and it has been a bug blood bath ever since.

The next day we started the last leg of our North American’s journey, to New York.