Annapolis

This is the second post for today.


We arrived in Annapolis and took a mooring ball in the harbor. This is a very historic town and has a great waterfront harbor.

The state house here is the oldest continuously used state house in the country. We toured the state house and saw the room, still in use today, where George Washington resigned his commission as Commander of the Army.

In Annapolis we met up with friends that we had originally met in Ft. Myers Beach. Chuck and Chris Hewitson. We joined them on their boat for dinner and Stacy and I took them to breakfast the next morning. We went to Chick and Ruth's Delly (sic) for breakfast. This is the place where more Maryland politics takes place than any other. Something unique here is that every morning at 8:30 everyone stops and recites the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.


After checking with the Naval Academy, we found out that we are here for the week leading up to commissioning (graduation). We headed over to the Academy the next morning for the formal parade and then toured the campus. Chuck, Chris, Bill, Gail, Gail's sister and brother-in-law, Stacy and I formed our own review of the proceedings.




We toured the grounds and had a great view from the visitor's center overlooking the harbor where we are moored.

There were a few very interesting exhibits at the academy. Inside the chapel is a pew reserved for POW's. It is never used but the candle is lit for each service.

Many of the stained glass windows here are Tiffany windows and there is a special cobalt blue glass that is blue when viewed from the outside but clear from the inside. We were told that this glass was made by a glass company in Germany prior to WW2. The glass factory was bombed and the formula for the glass was lost. To this day, the glass has not been able to be duplicated. Under the chapel is the crypt of John Paul Jones, considered America's first Naval hero.

The academy is also the repository of the largest collection of ship models in the world. These models, dating from the 1700's were originally built by the shipwrights prior to building the actual ship under contract. The detail in these models is incredible and there is detail in the lower decks that can be seen using fiber optics. The other group of models were built by prisoners during the Napoleanic wars. These are made almost exclusively from bone and woven hair for rigging. These are kept under diminished lighting and they were as intricate as the shipwright models. Needless to say this was a facinating display for me since I am in the middle of building a similar model.

The other interesting location here is the place where the speed of light was first measured. The dots in this courtyard is the line of sight used by a professor here to first measure the speed of light. Because of this finding, he was the first American to win the Nobel Prize.

We had been told by some other boaters in Portsmouth that there were two places in Annapolis where you could get free appetizers during Happy Hour. We all went to one of these after the Naval Academy tour and they were serving shrimp and mussels. This was basically dinner for Stacy and I.

While at the Academy, we found out that the next morning was the traditional "Herndon Climb". This is the culminating event for the first year students "Plebes" and completion of this tradition brings them back to human level. During this entire year, the Plebes are basically sub-human and it is a very testing time for them. One parent we spoke with said that most of the students come here after being "stars" during high school and get a strong reality check in the transition from civilian to military life. The Herndon monument is an obelisk of granite that has a "Dixie Cup" (the traditional sailors cap and the one the Plebes must wear) taped to the top. The monument is then completely covered with lard (thick enough that a thrown shoe sticks to it). The Plebes must climb the monument, remove the Dixie Cup and replace it with an Officers "Cover". Tradition has it that the one that succeeds in this endeavor will be the first in his/her class to achieve the rank of Admiral. This has never actually happened, but why mess with tradition. This year the time to complete this event was just over 1 and 1/2 hours. The longest recorded time was over 4 hours. It is an exercise in human nature. Since only one person can be the one awarded the Admiral Board, it seems to be every man for himself. Eventually they figure out that it will require teamwork and the task is completed. This is a very celebratory event as it is the event that transitions these first year Plebes into "Youngsters".

We had a great time in Annapolis but looking at the weather again we determined that we need to be staging for the Deleware River and Bay down to Cape May, NJ and then around to New York. It looks like this next week may be the time so we are moving today to Chesapeake City on the C & D Canal to stage for this part of the trip. We need good weather for this trip to NY so we will wait at Chesapeake City for the weather to be right for us.