Charm City – Baltimore

In an attempt to bolster the image of Baltimore, city officials branded it “Charm City” in 1974. The news reports the next day were filled with garbage strikes, police walkouts, and general looting. Town fathers would have to wait to earn their new name. The label did not catch on with the locals, but the Baltimore we encountered was charming. As much as I try to pretend I am now a cruiser with no home port, I am still a New Yorker. Those of you who hold some disdain for stuck-up New Yorkers can extend that feeling to me. I think that the biggest complement I can offer a city is “I could live here.”, when I am really just admitting that I have a hard time imagining residing anywhere other than New York.

We arrived in Baltimore while some large cargo ships were jockeying for position. Most of them responded to hails or announced their intentions on the VHF radio. The 800 foot roll-on/roll-off ship “Genius Highway” was trying to be stealthy, or as stealthy as a floating skyscraper can be.   Her AIS was indicating that she was turning to starboard, but we saw her turning to port.  We hailed her to find out her intentions.  No answer.  She then made some more unexpected moves, so we hailed again.  Her reply was hard to understand-the captain said he was going to a place not labeled on our chart.  So we slowed down and watched her do the unexpected.  She maneuvered closer to Two Fish, but Jason was able to keep us a safe distance away.   Reminds me of some cars on Long Island.   We tucked Two Fish away at Lighthouse Point and, with the help of Uber and the water ferries,  visited Fort McHenry, City Museums and Fell’s Point. Cruisers are waiting for the invention of the fold-able car, but, until that day we have used Uber.   Uber is a taxi hailing app for the iPhone which works wonderfully.  The best part was that our first few rides were in luxurious vehicles.  We realized we had the deluxe car option selected and changed back to normal.  In other towns, we have rented cars from Enterprise whose pick-up and drop-off service is valuable for cruisers.

Now back to my list of great city requirements.  My first requirement for a liveable city is great restaurants, preferably with fish tacos on the menu.

Second is water access. Third is walk-ability. Fourth – sports teams. Fifth – arts. Baltimore hits all of these points. For sports teams, I found myself rooting for the Orioles in the playoffs, but I could never support the Ravens. Yes, I could live in Baltimore. Now for some tourism.

For those of you who haven’t visited Fort McHenry, it was an important defense point against the British in the War of 1812.  The British had invaded the Chesapeake by land and sea and were on their way to Baltimore.  Francis Scott Key was aboard a schooner that was behind the British enemy lines.   I always had the image that he wrote the US national anthem while imprisoned in a dark dungeon, but the truth is much more comfortable.  He had a formal supper with the British aboard his boat.  After retiring for sleep, with a bit of sherry racing through his veins, he wrote  “In Defense of Fort McHenry”. Set to the tune of an old pub drinking song, it was later renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

Best meal of the stay was lunch at Milk & Honey Market. Who can pass up Kohlrabi Soup and a Spicy Tofu Sandwich? The nearby Washington Monument was scaffolded but we enjoyed the nearby Walters Art Museum. We were helped in our exploration by locals Eric & Carla, who introduced us to Fell’s Point and the Ginger(color not flavor) Beer at Max’s. We also tried the local beer, Natty Boh, mostly because of the omnipresent logo.

Our neighbor for most of our stay was the Pride of Baltimore II. She is a large clipper ship, modeled after Chasseur, an 1800s clipper, part of the privateers that preceded our Navy.  In fact, her dinghy was named Chasseur. Unfortunately, Charm City’s waters are a bit polluted and debris-filled, despite the efforts of the local trash sweeper boat, so Two Fish urged us to move on.  The trash sweeper boat, like a DJ, does take requests and did a special clean up near Two Fish to remove our growing soda-pop bottle collection.   The freshly washed topsides became covered in a stubborn brown slime that Jason would hose multiple times a day with no success.   Oddly, the subsequent waters of the Dismal Swamp seem to remove Baltimore slime.   The fenders required some hand cleaning. Not a ton of volunteers for that job.

We took Margy and Monty for a test sail after being asked to bring them on a test sail by the Antares Factory.  They were great crew and helped us sail Two Fish to Rock Creek.  The winds were predicted to get up to 40 knots during the night so we wanted a good anchor set.   After a day with no issues it took us four tries before our anchor would set properly.  As we picked up for the third time, Margy asked “How many times does it usually take you?”.   This would be the first time that we need 4 tries.   The creek bed was finally conquered.  We invited a bunch of friends over for movie night, and enjoyed the comfy seats and home theater set up on the boat. The movie was “10 Items or Less,” starring Morgan Freeman.  Definitely 2 thumbs-up for the movie and for the lighter than predicted breeze.