Day 1 : Baltimore to Crisfield

Our first day is in the books, and it was perfect. Awesome weather, flat water, boat ran great - made excellent time - what can I say, sometimes everything clicks!

Today's trip was scheduled to take about 4.5 hours and cover just over 100 nautical miles.

Baltimore to Crisfield

I woke up at 6:45 and went up top to eat breakfast on the flybridge while everyone else was still asleep. I waited until 7:30 before waking up Elana (accidentally woke up Benny first because I forgot which cabins they were in). Elana wants to learn everything about running the boat, so I walked her through the entire process letting her perform each task while I guided her. The two of us did it alone since Benny was still sleeping, and Ann has an issue with her shoulder and can't put any strain on it.

By 7:50, we were off the dock and on our way.

Heading out early and leaving Inner Harbor Marina in Baltimore behind.

Pulling out of Baltimore with our route in the chart plotter

The temperature was 75 degrees, the water was calm, and not another boat in sight. A dream start to the trip. Having experienced other conditions, and knowing that we will at some point, we really appreciated a day like this. We left the Key bridge behind and passed under the Bay bridge.

Just passed under the Key bridge

Approaching the Bay bridge

Most of the trip was just chillin' with the auto pilot tracking to a distant waypoint. No boats to be seen, no crab pots (for the most part), everybody relaxed.

Ann and Elana hanging out while auto pilot does the work

There are all kinds of beautiful lighthouses on the Bay.

We pulled into Crisfield around 12:15 pm. I had entered our route into the chart plotter, and arrival was straightforward. Deep water, wide channel, and no other boats.

The approach to Crisfield

Benny helped with the lines and fenders as we approached the fuel dock. We filled up Sababa with diesel and the dingy's tank with gasoline, moved into our slip and checked in at the marina.

Benny helping with the fenders

Tied up in Crisfield on a floating dock

Once we checked into the marina, we put on the World Cup semifinal and watched an incredibly exciting match where Croatia came from behind to beat England.

Watching World Cup Semifinal on the boat

After the game, we took a dingy ride to the city dock, where we tied up and explored what we thought would be a quaint little town. What we found instead was a ghost town where the only decent looking restaurant does not open on Wednesdays, and most of the eateries appear to have been abandoned and shut down years ago.

Riding the dingy into town

Tied the dingy to the city dock and climbed the ladder. We were so happy it was
there when we returned (the dingy, not the ladder)

After walking the main street back and forth a couple of times looking for a reasonable dinner, we took the safe route and ate at Subway. A pretty good choice for my vegan travel mates, but not the most exciting dinner option on a vacation. I have much higher hopes for culinary adventures in Norfolk tomorrow night.

Fancy dinner in Crisfield - Not!

Anyway, while the town was nothing to get excited about, we did experience a nice sunset.

Sunset in Crisfield

Tonight, we'll watch a movie on Netflix that was filmed in Hatteras, where we're heading, to get a preview of that destination. I installed a high end WiFi antenna on the hard top bimini of Sababa, and I'm finding that it works amazingly well. We are on a T-head as far as can be from the marina office, and they warned us that the signal can be weak there, but we are having no trouble streaming video.

Day 1 was a great success (except for dinner). Cannot wait to see what awaits us.