July 24, 2008.

We’re here in Baltimore. Let me start off with the list of negatives. It’s not really much of a list as there’s only one thing we hate about Baltimore. The water is absolutely filthy.




We’ve transited New York Harbor several times and have seen some pretty impressive chunks of discarded humanity floating around while there. But nothing could have prepared us for this. Every ten feet as you cross the harbor there’s a piece of trash floating about. Plastic bottles, bags and all the refuse of civilization, everywhere. Just today alone I counted 5 basketballs and a soccer ball.

Most of it seems to come from the street drains which empty through culverts into the harbor. The water doesn’t really flow out to the bay from Baltimore, it kind of moves out with the tide but rides the tide back in before it has the chance to escape the city. There are floating barriers across these drains which do trap a spectacular amount of debris. Then everyday a small garbage collection boat shows up and traps and collects most of the trash. There are even small Jon boats with guys wielding dip nets that move about in an effort to collect as much trash as possible. The city really does seem to be trying and I can’t really understand how with all this effort there are not better results. It’s disgusting.

So much for that. So far, everything else about the city has been great. Before we arrived here we had heard about the Aquarium and the revitalization of the Baltimore waterfront. We just didn’t have any idea of the scope of all these improvements. There’s a brick and board promenade that borders much of the waterfront. It’s in constant use by brigades of dog walkers, bicyclists, people strolling and runners. It seems like its miles in length.

There are several marinas convenient to the downtown area. We found a really good spot to anchor with decent protection just off the public dinghy dock. There’s a grocery store and a West Marine within a blocks walk. We’ve seen just about every store imaginable within a few short blocks with the exception of a Home Depot. Enough of my being ambassador to the city.

We’re anchored among five other sailboats in a spot that might hold 8 or 10 boats. On our second night here there was a line of violent thunderstorms moving through the area. At the Francis Scott Key Bridge there was 45 knots of wind, a deluge and golf ball sized hail reported. We’re 4 miles upstream of the bridge and only got 20 knots of wind so things were okay for us. We could see the rain just blot out the lights from that part of the skyline while we never had a drop. The forecast for the next night foretold of similar weather patterns forming.

Since there’s a few other boats in this fairly tight anchorage we are sitting fairly short scoped on our anchor. We’d decided that we’d get up in the morning and move to another even more protected spot just a half mile away. We had seen this spot while on a bike tour of town with the Makeitso’s and best of all it was empty.

But…….it didn’t happen that way. When I got up and checked the weather the forecast had mellowed a bit, although thunderstorms were pretty much still a possibility. The other boats in the anchorage hadn’t dragged or been a threat during the blow so we felt confident that they were pretty well set on their anchors. The new anchorage would also add a lot of distance to our twice daily dog walking so we decided to stay where we were. Actually, it could be argued that I was being lazy.

We spent the day out and about and made sure we were home when evening rolled around. And roll around it did. Ominous clouds swept past us on either side and when we checked the weather radar we could see that it was only a matter of time before something big and ugly set upon us.

As the wind started to build to 15 knots from a day long dead calm a new boat came into the anchorage. He did a quick tour of what was available to him before he decided to anchor at the edge of our little group. He was alone which meant he had to drop and set the anchor by himself. I watched with satisfaction as he did a real nice job of securing his boat without help. Or so it seemed.

Then the rain came and the wind started to howl. We were sitting in the cockpit keeping an eye on the situation when things really deteriorated in a hurry. It was pouring buckets and the water was whipped into a large chop. Then we were hit by a gust so violent that I thought we must have popped the anchor out of the bottom. As I realized our anchor was still set I looked out in amazement as one of our neighbors swung through 360 degrees in about 10 seconds. He was rolling, gunnel to gunnel while pivoting around through all the points of the compass. This was inside a harbor with great 360 degree protection. It must have been a waterspout attempting to form.

The majority of the wind had been from the west, then it hit us from every direction and then built tremendously and came from the east. I looked out and saw that the last guy into the anchorage had broken loose and was dragging away from us. I called him twice on the VHF with no response. The only chatter was from a couple of tug boat captains using phrases like, “penny sized hail, never before seen 4 foot rollers in the harbor and forty knot winds”. Not exactly the topics of conversation I was looking to hear.

Christy grabbed the air horn and gave it a couple of loud blasts in an effort to rouse the Captain. In another minute or two we could see him on deck running around. We realized that he was being blown parallel to the docks and had a good chance of hitting our friends, The Makeitsos. They’re tied to a face dock and are about 100 yards downwind of the dragging boat. Christy called them on the cell phone and warned them to look out, company might be dropping in.

They donned their foulies just in time to watch the wind veer and slam the dragging boat onto an unoccupied section of the dock well behind their boat. They ran down and helped the guy secure his boat and rig fenders to try and minimize damage.

He was the only real excitement of the evening and the wind mellowed for a while but continued to slam us periodically during the next several hours. When dawn came it was the beginning of a beautiful day. In the end we were fine but I was a little embarrassed about being so complacent. It won’t happen again but if it does I hope we’re as lucky then too.