On the way down the Chesapeake, we ran into a sudden squall. Just then the VHF weather alarm signal wailed and told us that the weather doppler had just picked up a decent sized storm for the area and that all boats are advised to seek safe harbor. After the first small squall, the wind up gusted up to 34 knots ( 35 knots is considered gale force). Jon and I were not overly concerned because the waves were not very high, but we would make a decision on to whether to tuck in when we reached the Sassafras River which is a well known hurricane hole if the weather got worse.
FBG kept pushing us through the weather and eventually clear skies appeared and it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day with a nice warm wind. I sat up at the front of the boat and stared out at the wonderful beauty of the area. This was the view that I was looking for on this trip.
As we entered the Baltimore harbor, off in the distance, a Carnival Cruise ship was turning a corner and looked like it was heading out to sea and shortly would be occupying the same same channel we were in. I advised Jon to give this boat a wide birth and do it soon because I know deceptively fast these large cruise ships are. Jon actually steered us outside of the channel markers. As the boat came closer, two coast guard zodiacs with those large machine guns on the front speeded over to us and yelled out that they were declaring a 500 yard security zone around the ship. We were probably about 200 to 300 yards away so the coast guard told us to remain on our present course until we reached the 500 yard minimum. Once we got there, the coat guard then spun around to go back and escort the ship out. That was exciting and threatening all at the same time.
The Baltimore harbor is a marvelous waterfront with marinas and restaurants galore. FBG looked a little out of place beside these big fancy yachts with her 2 diesel and 1 gasoline fuel tanks on deck. I felt like a hillbilly. I was little afraid to hang out our wet clothing and towels on the outside of the boat but we managed to hang them discreetly in the cockpit area.
