Jose, Can You See....?

 Last Wednesday (7-2-14) we sailed up to Baltimore Harbor.  We had Cheri's grandson, Jack, along with us and wanted to have something special to do for the 4th.  Reservations had been made two months in advance at the Inner Harbor Marina and they had given us the best seats in the house for the upcoming fireworks display.  Coinciding with this was Hurricane Arthur which was working it's way up the coast and predicted to be off the Maryland coast on Friday the 4th.

Sailing up the Bay on Wednesday we had perfect weather with temperatures in the mid 80's and about 10 knots of wind from the SE.  We managed to sail the entire way up to the Patapsco River before we ran out of wind and had to finish the trip under power.  It's a long haul up to the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, about 9 miles from the mouth of the river.  It's mostly heavy industry along the shores but every now and then you see something that really stands out.  Fort Carol near the Francis Scott Key Bridge is such a place.  Robert E. Lee designed it as a front line of defense for the city of Baltimore and he supervised construction which began in 1848.  It was originally intended to have 30' high walls but construction was interrupted when the Civil War broke out.  The facility was never fully completed or even fully gunned and manned.  It's been privately owned since the mid 1950's and is in poor derelict condition.  Atop the western wall is the remains of a light house.

Just past the Key Bridge is a red, white and blue marker in the water showing the spot where Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" while he was on board a British ship trying to work out a prisoner exchange.  We were surprised to see how far this spot was from Fort McHenry which is located at the entrance to the Northwest Harbor and Baltimore's Inner Harbor.  Doing some research I was also surprised to find that Key had been a lawyer and a pro-slavery activist and had instigated a number of lawsuits against the anti-slavery movement.  Interesting.  It was cool to see Fort McHenry from the water.  Directly across from the fort are some grain silos and at their base is a small light house that appears to be in good condition, another interesting sight.

We wound our way into the Inner Harbor, passing the Under Armour factory and the Domino Sugar processing plant.  At the very end of the harbor is the Inner Harbor Marina where we had our reservations.  The marina has three floating docks (A, B + C) laying parallel to the harbor.  When we arrived at 1630 we were given a slip half way down B dock which turned out to be the primo location for the fire works show on the 4th.  The IHM is a nice, clean facility, expensive and 99.9% power boats.  Really big power boats.  We had an early dinner at the Rusty Scupper and spent the evening on the boat.

Thursday we got started early and went to the Aquarium shortly after they opened the doors.  This place had been built (1981) not too long after I had joined the Navy and this was the first time I'd been there.  Wow!  I was impressed.  Even nicer than the Monterey Aquarium in California.  This day turned out to be blistering hot, heat index of 109F, so we divided it up into aquarium (cool), tour sub (hot), aquarium (cool), tour Constellation (hot). 

Touring the Constellation turned out to be even more interesting than I had hoped.  There were actually two Constellations.  The first was a 36 gun frigate built in 1797 to defend American shipping from pirates along the north coast of Africa.  She served in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812.  She was scrapped and dismantled in 1853 at a yard in Norfolk, VA.  In 1854 the second Constellation was built as a sloop-of-war in that same yard.  She served mostly in diplomatic service.  By the beginning of WWII she had become widely confused with the original Constellation of 1797.  In the early 1960's she was given to the city of Baltimore where she was hyped as the modified original frigate and went through a restoration in the 1970's
that attempted to rebuild her to the 1797 configuration.    In 1996 she underwent a four year, $9 million restoration to her original 1854 configuration and it was at this time that her true identity was verified.  The FBI even found "historic" documents that had been forged to prove her identity as the 1797 frigate.  The USS Constellation sitting in Baltimore is now officially recognized as the 1854 sloop-of-war.


On Friday we spent almost the entire day at the Science Center.  I gotta admit this was pretty low on my list of things to do and I figured we'd be part of a small crowd with mostly little kids.  It turned out to be very interesting with lots of hands-on stuff explaining how sound, light and electricity works as well as great exhibits, one on dinosaurs and another on weather.  We spent several hours sitting in a shop on the third floor making stuff with clay.  It was very relaxing, informative and a great way to spend time with a 12 year-old.  I guess we're all little kids at heart.

By the time we left the Science Center it was late afternoon so we headed back to the boat for dinner.  Afterwards we walked back over to the area by the Constellation.  The place was packed.  In the corner of the harbor a stage was set up and music was supplied by a rock-n-roll band from the US Navy.  These guys were wearing their summer whites and they were rockin'!  Earlier I had read that the Navy band was playing and had been expecting "Anchors Aweigh" and ceremonial stuff.  This was a pleasant surprise.  We stood and listened to the band for a while and then worked our way through the crowd back towards the marina.  We had about an hour before the fireworks and wanted to get things set up on the boat.  Back at the marina things were really jumpin'.  Every slip was now taken and every boat was packed with partiers.  Of all the boats there I'm pretty sure we were one of maybe three sailboats.  That's OK.  Everybody was having fun.

The fireworks started at 2130 and lasted about a half hour.  The display in the harbor was launched from a barge that was located straight out from us about 200'.  As they went off the sounds from the display and the crowds echoed off the buildings. They kept the display to a low altitude for safety, I'm sure, but at the other end of the harbor was the display over Fort McHenry and that was full size and awesome.  We had a great location to watch them both from.  We had set up some canvass beach chairs on the forward deck and watched it all with a cigar in one hand and a bourbon lemonade in the other.  Well, uhm, Jack had a Coke.  We had a great time.  I guess I should point out here that the hurricane cooperated by staying far out to sea and we had beautiful weather for the fireworks display.

We had to depart early Saturday morning to get Jack back in time for a visit with some friends in DC.  There was a nice breeze out of the West as we motored out of the harbor so we took a moment to set the sails and glided down the Patapsco River at about 5 knots.  As we sailed past Fort McHenry they were demonstrating one of the canons for the tourists and fired directly at us.  All noise but no ammo.  Once we recovered we continued to the mouth of the river where we turned to the SSW, almost directly into the wind.  Being on a tight schedule we were forced to make the decision to run home under power.  So embarrassing to drive past all those billowing sails and there were lots of 'em too.  Everyone in Annapolis with a sailboat was out there.  We finally got home around 1800.

OK, here's some historical tidbits.  The Inner Harbor is not very big and was originally the location for ferry terminals providing services (both freight and passenger) to other parts of the Chesapeake Bay.  Before the advent of highways and the Bay Bridge this was the major form of transportation for towns around the Bay.  Overlooking the south side of the harbor, directly behind the marina where we stayed, is a large hill called Federal Hill Park.  I asked several locals about the history of the hill
but no one seemed to know.  I looked it up and found that at the start of the Civil War, 1861, Baltimore City, like much of Maryland, was severely split in their politics.  Troops from the North were being brought into Washington DC through Baltimore and on April 19th riots broke out with four soldiers and twelve civilians being killed in the streets.  Martial law was declared and 1000 Federal soldiers built a fort atop the hill with canons aimed at the financial district.  They remained there throughout the Civil War to ensure the city and state of remaining a part of the Union.  Interesting.  They didn't teach that to us in school.  It's also not even mentioned on the plaque they put up.  I guess that wasn't one of Baltimore's finer moments.