...and back to Baltimore

The blue blip in the center
was our MOB exercise

The anchorage last night was dandy. Due to the tides we were in pretty shallow water at the lowest point, sub 2 feet. That's below our keel, so around 5.5 feet if you were to jump off the boat. It was dark enough that we (finally!) saw Neowise, the comet. 

We left in the morning around 8am, after coffee, breakfast, and quick dinghy ride to walk the dog.

Local kids at the anchorage
had some fouled lines on their
sailboat. You can see one of them
climbing the mast to fix it.

Getting back was a simple matter of following our "bread crumbs." We have a number of GPS software apps we use while underway, Navionics and AquaMaps being our 2 primary navigational aids. Both of them offer tracking, so we can see where we've been and how we got around. Handy when you just want to go back home.

Navionics is our primary app. We search for a destination and it plots a course, taking into account our draft and our size. It isn't 100% accurate, since it fails to take our height into consideration. We've had to turn around because that bridge up ahead won't open and we can get under it. 

AquaMaps is great for depth information. Russ keeps it updated with the latest Army Corp of Engineers scans. It's invaluable in much of the south on the ICW, where depths can be seriously lacking.

The boat also has a Garmin navigation system, but we use that more for an additional map. It does display AIS information (if a boat has it, like we do, we can see them, their speed, and direction on the map), which is useful. I'm a fan of redundancy. I like many things to agree "this is where you are," "this is what's around you," and "this is where you're going." 

Fort McHenry in the foreground of the Baltimore skyline.

And the flag IS still there. Moreover, it's the same flag.
Well, okay, not the same flag, but the flag of 1814 when the song was written.
Count the stars.

Blue Bob, recovering from his ordeal.

A little over a week ago we assisted some boaters, if you recall. We'd decided that we need to do something like that on occasion, so our reactions aren't so "Ahhh! What do we doooo??!!" On a side note, occasionally while traveling you see things that just shouldn't be on the water; mylar balloons are an example. We agreed that, if the circumstances allowed us (we inconvenience no one and it's safe to do so) we'd combine these two things; clean up the water and practice our MOB (or, Man Over Board) maneuvers. As luck would have it, today we passed a blue mylar balloon. With Russ at the helm, headsets on, and me on the swim platform with a net, we "rescued" Blue Bob. Okay, I just made that up. It was a little tricky but we got it done.

That little experience under our belt Russ piloted us up the Patapsco River, into the marina, and docked us. 

Strawberry Crumble.... Mmmmmm

All in all a great couple of days. No new issues, everything worked as it should. We celebrated with pie.