For traveling sailors, Annapolis is one of the best stops on the entire US East Coast. Tucked about halfway up the Chesapeake, the town itself is built around several wide, shallow creeks which are home to thousands of boats, and of course an entire industry of businesses and professionals to support them. If there’s something maintenance-related that needs to be done to a boat, Annapolis is a great place to find the parts to do it.
The town itself goes out of its way to support visiting boaters. Any public street or road that ends at the water is an official city park, which means that anyone has access to the water. Many of those parks also have small docks for tying up dinghies or launching kayaks or paddleboards, and many of those that don’t feature docks do have cleats on a seawall for mooring lines. There are a couple of places where anchoring is forbidden (like in a traffic channel or too close to the security-sensitive Naval Academy), but anchoring is expressedly permitted anywhere else.
Many places make it difficult to visit from a traveling boat – Annapolis makes a conscious effort to make it as easy as possible.
We of course take advantage of Annapolis’ marine shops for our ongoing maintenance projects for the boat. And we also take advantage of being in one place for almost two weeks by scheduling doctor and dentist appointments – maintenance projects for the crew.
