For such a small place, there are a lot of people who know us in Pasadena. Kit and Nolan, the friends we saw briefly in Baltimore now live there; eight people who are chartered with us on Jeannius for two holidays live there; the Crazy Horse gang keep their boat there; and now we have been contacted by someone on TTOL to drop by and say hello as they live there. We have been invited to an evening of fun and revelry tonight Chez Klein tonight so we head off north again in the late morning, dodging the pots, the naval college midshipmen playing at being sailors in their pretend destroyers and idiot people going too fast in motor boats. Before long we are at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge again.
We arrive at Bodkin Creek in the early afternoon and as this is where Pleasure Cove Marina is (where we will be hauled out next week to get the screw out of the sail drive surround – grrrr) we go slowly in to have a look. There’s not a lot of depth in here and we are careful to keep to the channel, me once again being relegated (or promoted, I’m not sure) to chief foghorn at the chart table.
Having found the marina and discovering that there’s not really any room to anchor outside there, we turn around and go back to a wider bit to do our free parking.
While I am drying my hair, Kathy and Andy (the TTOL couple) arrive in their motor launch to say hello – they live literally 1/4 mile away on the banks of a little inlet on the creek.
Just as we are getting ready to leave the boat, Craig, one of the Pasadena octuplets calls us. He has arrived at the Ventnor Marina to pick us and has discovered that the gates are locked and everyone else has gone home as it is past 5 pm. We had been going to take the dinghy there and walk through to meet him. I have a brainwave. Kathy and Andy live between us and the marina and they have a dock! I get Mike to call them and ask if we can use their dock and traipse through their garden to meet Craig and they are happy for us to do this. We give Craig the address and dinghy over and for the first time I meet a couple that I don’t know, whose garden/house/dock I am making use of and who have invited us to dinner tomorrow. What a friendly, helpful world we live in – sometimes!
After the introductions at their dock where Craig is waiting for us, we go over to Robbie and Cathy’s house which is situated in the middle of a links golf course. I am constantly amazed at the difference in sheer size between British and American houses at comparable cost. You get so much more for your money here, probably because there so much more room to build on. It’s only in the big cities where that changes.
It’s lovely to see them all again. This group of friends chartered with us back in 2009, then again in February this year, adding another couple to the original guest list.
When I see the sheer amount of meat going onto the barbecue, I think I am being offered a ‘Chick and Ruth’s challenge’ – they like their meat here and it shows!
Robbie is in charge of the BBQ with a little help from Sean and Craig and I have to say they do a really good job. After a delicious mix of beef, pork, ribs and sweet potato, Cathy shows me around their lovely house while the others descend to the games room in the basement of the house.
Robbie knows a thing or two about basements. His has a full size bar, from which he pulls draft beer and mixes cocktails. There are two huge TVs showing the Baltimore Ravens’ football game and there’s a third projection screen showing the same (this one’s about 10 by 8 feet). Because he brews his own beer, he has a proper brewery in a separate room, dispensing it when ready for storage in a special refrigerator which in turn pipes it out to the bar. Impressive! Now if I could just talk him into making SB …!
On screen, we can see the Baltimore Ravens playing in the pouring rain and it suddenly occurs to Mike that the rain is coming our way and we decide it is probably time for us to get back to the boat before it does. Joe gives us a lift back but by the time we arrive at Kathy and Andy’s dock, the rain has started. As Mike tries to pull the dinghy towards us he realises that it is stuck fast to the bottom – the tide has gone out leaving it in just 9 inches of water. Poor Mike. He has to go down the ladder and wade through the water to push it further out and into deeper stuff and I clamber in from the dock. By the time we get back to Jeannius, we are soaked through and have to put the heating on to dry ourselves out but we have had a thoroughly enjoyable evening with a great crowd of people.
Position: 39 deg 10 min N, 76 deg 31 min W
Distance so far: 2677 miles
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