May 9, 2016 – We left Annapolis and headed for Inner Harbor in Baltimore, MD.    Bill,  an army buddy of Bob’s,  joined us with his wife Cathy and daughter Joan.     Bud, Cathy’s father, and a naval aviator back in the day, joined us for dinner. The food and company were both outstanding, and Bud has some great and interesting stories about his navy days, flying C-130’s as well as seaplanes.    The next day we enjoyed a glass smooth ride to Inner Harbor, and I’m sure some of our prior passengers wished the entire Chesapeake transit was this smooth (Rick – I know you would agree with this!).

Inner Harbor is in downtown Baltimore, several miles from the Chesapeake Bay, and very protected.     Along the way there is much industry, but the harbor itself is very scenic.    Once there Bill, Cathy and Joan departed, and we picked up Bob’s brother Jim at Tidewater yacht center, where we will keep the boat for a week while we go home and catch up.

Jim knew some folks that were working on a marina in the Inner Harbor, and they graciously let us dock there for the night.    We were in a fantastic spot.    Daniel, one of Jim’s acquaintances, is one of the founders of a company that has developed a device to clean trash out of our waterways.   Called “The Wheel” it is driven by both solar power and river currents.     The Wheel picks up floating debris such as bottles, styrofoam etc..   You can see it in the pictures – looks like a boat with black solar panels in a creek downtown.     The Wheel was just featured in a recent addition of National Geographic, and we got a first hand tour of the device. The amount of trash collected is amazing.  These are sorely needed in lots of harbors to clean our waterways.  Here’s a link to info on the wheel –

http://baltimorewaterfront.com/healthy-harbor/water-wheel/

Inner Harbor has grown significantly in recent years, and Fells Point nearby has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts, with great restaurants and is the trendy place to be.   We had dinner there with Jim’s friends and his niece, all super nice folks.

Tidewater yacht services is a few miles from Inner Harbor.   We will keep the boat here for a week while we head home.   Directly beside our boat are a couple of huge (HUUUUUGE)  naval troop transport type ships.   In one of the pictures you will see the life boat for one of them – must be 50 feet in the air, and is apparently deployed by sliding down a ramp and plunging into the water.     I’m not sure which would be worse, the boat sinking or having to ride this into the water!