From Rock Hall to Baltimore was about twenty three miles, so we slept in and departed around 10am. It took us about three and a half hours to make it to the anchorage, but the last hour was spent coming up the Patapsco River. We took our time and marveled at the bridges, industrial ports and traffic. We also passed Fort McHenry, which “was built on the site of the former Fort Whetstone, which had defended Baltimore from 1776 to 1797… Beginning at 6:00 a.m. on September 13, 1814, British warships under the command of Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane continuously bombarded Fort McHenry for 25 hours… Francis Scott Key observed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814 during the War of 1812. He was inspired upon seeing the American flag still flying over the fort at dawn and wrote the poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry”; it was published within a week with the suggested tune of the popular song “To Anacreon in Heaven”. The song with Key’s lyrics became known as “The Star-Spangled Banner” and slowly gained in popularity as an unofficial anthem, finally achieving official status more than a century later under President Herbert Hoover as the national anthem. The national motto “In God We Trust” derives from a line in “The Star-Spangled Banner”… and there is some American history for you.
We wound our way up to the Inner Harbor and found there were no boats anchored there, so there was plenty of room. I wasn’t exactly sure of where we were allowed to anchor so I called the marina across the harbor. The harbor master told me we could anchor between the buoys that were there and we should be fine. Unfortunately Baltimore does not have dinghy docks accessible to boaters, but she said I could come use their dock. We dropped anchor and hung out while making sure the anchor was secured. We were right in front of a submarine museum the USS Torsk, USCG Lightship Chesapeake and the Baltimore National Aquarium. There were restaurants all around and it was pretty cool to be right downtown. There was a little bit of small boat traffic cruising around as it was a Saturday afternoon and it was beautiful weather. We heard sirens and helicopters flying above the city and over us at times and found out there was a protest march going on in the city, but we were in the middle of the harbor so we didn’t worry about it.
Lauren has found a Whole Foods nearby so I took her and dropped her off at a water taxi dock that was nearby. The water taxis were not operating yet still due to COVID, so I docked and took Frank for a short walk while she did her shopping. I then went over to the marina and filled the dinghy fuel tank. As I was finishing this up Lauren called me and was ready to be picked up. Perfect timing. Frank and I picked her up and we all returned to the boat to relax for a bit. We had lunch and later decided to go back to the water taxi dock so we could walk around some more around town. We took Frank with us and walked a couple of the downtown neighborhoods. We found a Little Italy neighborhood close by and circled around there, then back through downtown and back to the dinghy. We had had enough walking for the day and went back to the boat for the night. I watched a Police and Coast Guard boats circle around near us, but they never bothered us or asked us to move. Dinner was made and we listened to the commotion of the city going on around us. The cityscape and light were cool to see at night.
We retired for the evening after deciding on our next stop: Still Pond Creek anchorage, which is on the other side of the Chesapeake again, but we are getting toward the end of Chesapeake Bay. Lauren has done a little more research on Long Island Sound and is warming up to the idea of going there, but first we will have to get through New Jersey…