Inner Harbor, Patapsco River

Our original plan for today was to go to the grocery store in Fairlee in the morning and then either hang out for the day (the creek was a lovely, quiet place) or move part of the way to Baltimore. However, Graham was feeling some pressure to get home and take care of some business, so we decided to head directly for Baltimore and defer the grocery shopping until we got there.

After pulling up the anchor, we carefully motored our way out of the creek -- we left on an incoming (rising) tide so there was more depth under our keel, but the narrowness of the entrance and the shallowness of the channel still caused some consternation as we left -- fortunately, all went well and we shortly were back in the main Chesapeake Bay.

The sun was out, the winds were a moderate 8-10 knots out of the Northwest, the air was cool and Baltimore was South and West of us -- we would actually be able to sail today :-) Indeed, we had a pleasant 5-6 knot sail down the Chesapeake towards  Baltimore, which is about 9 miles off the main bay, up the Patapsco river. Once we arrived at the river's mouth, the wind's direction required us to tack back and forth across the river to make progress -- we turned on the "iron job" (i.e., the engine) about a mile short of the Francis Scott Key bridge and motored the rest of the way in, taking a slip at the Inner Harbor East Marina. We (Jack and Sue) immediately took off to do some provisioning while Graham chose to take a shower, hang and relax at the boat.

Baltimore is a small city with a large waterfront -- under continuous redevelopment since the late 80's, the waterfront has become a clean, modern and a large tourist attraction. The redevelopment has also improved adjacent neighborhoods -- downtown Baltimore is full of modern buildings and the adjacent Fell's Point neighborhood has been "gentrified" with numerous refurbished two story homes, restaurants and bars -- very cute and full of young people.

Francis Scott Key Bridge with Baltimore in the distance

The City from the Patapsco River

Marinas in the Inner Harbor

We had to walk about 1.5 miles through Fell's Point to get to the cluster of stores we needed (grocery, wine, hardware, West Marine), all of which were happily located within a block or two of one another. We split up the list: Sue did the grocery shopping while Jack went for the boat supplies and wine; we came back together at the grocery store, where the plan was to take a cab back with all of our acquired goodies.

Jack finished his shopping before Sue and arrived back at the grocery store before she was finished. He then called the Baltimore Cab Company, who was more than happy to promise that a cab would be there within "15-20" minutes, sufficient time for Sue to complete shopping. Alas, that was a promise that was to be broken-- the cab never showed up and after multiple attempts to schedule or hail another cab by both Jack and Sue, Jack literally "happened" upon a solution -- specifically, he saw a cab parked in a lot adjacent to the grocery store and happened upon its driver who appeared to be just coming back to work from a break. Jack asked the cabbie whether he would like a fare -- the cabbie, who had limited English skills and after thinking for what seemed a very long time responded "yes" --hooray, we had a ride!

Since it would have taken longer for the cabbie to drive back to the grocery store entrance where Sue was waiting with the goodies (traffic is awful in this part of Baltimore at 6pm), Jack went back, retrieved Sue and the goodies, walked them to the lot and we both happily loaded our stuff into the cab's trunk, ignoring the fact that the trunk had a huge dent in it, there was no "floor" covering the tire and the tools and that our food was being  mixed in with other, similar looking plastic bags containing God knows what.

We both got into the cab and the driver made multiple attempts to start the cab (oh-oh). He calmly asks Sue to see whether her door is ajar -- it is not. He then asks me if my door is ajar -- it is -- I open and re-slam it and the cab starts -- we are finally on our way.

It is quickly apparent that the cabbie needs some "coaching" on where to turn to get us to our destination -- we happily provide it; traffic is slow and we are inching our way through Fell's Point when Jack notices that the meter isn't running and that there is no picture license in the cab -- when asked, the cabbie says that the meter is "broken -- it doesn't work" but "don't worry" -- Sue and I look at each other and I am sure the same thing is running through both of our minds -- when we get to our destination, our goodies, all locked in the trunk, are likely going to require a high "ransom" to get them freed -- what have we gotten ourselves into?

Surprisingly for us, when we arrived at our destination, the cabbie popped the trunk, jumped out and was very helpful in unloading and moving our goodies over to the dock cart. He asked for $10 for the trip -- I gave hm a big tip :-)

The rest of the evening was consumed by unpacking the groceries, shower and dinner - the three of us walked over to a local Fell's Point Tavern called Kooper's -- the food was mediocre but we had a good time celebrating our arrival and past good times together. By the time we all got back to the boat, the only reasonable option was to turn in, which we all did.

The nighttime cityscape