Thanks to all of those who replied to my earlier inquiry about good
harbors, wifi connectivity, etc.

Those who recommended Baltimore inner harbor were right on the money as
it turns out. We arrived there right at the beginning of "monsoon
week" after detouring from Annapolis due to boat show crowding. Spent
a week at the Anchorage Marina in Baltimore which is a first class
facility with lots of interesting cruising folks. We went out to
dinner one night with 4 other couples, 2 of whom had already been
through the Panama Canal this year, including one who had traveled from
Alaska and another from the Pacific North Wet. Nice folks with lots of
storys to tell and solid boating experience.

Mid week an unusual looking and very salty boat pulled into the slip
next to us. It turned out to be a Skookum 53, which for those who
remember the "real" Skipper, was one of the long distance cruisers he
fantasized about owning. This particular boat had no sailing rig
although it looks like it should have one. Fuel capacity is 1700+
galons giving it a range under power of about 3500 miles. This
particular boat had been around Cape Horn, cruised the Chilean coast,
Greenland and the Falkland Islands. Not everyones cup of tea but
definitely an interesting boat for sure.

Virtually all of the inner harbor is covered with good WiFi service
provided by Port Networks. Not free, but reasonably priced at about
$25/month. From the Anchorage Marina it is a short walk to several
good grocery stores, a West Marine, and literally dozens of pubs and
restaurants. On balance we were very impressed with Baltimore and will
surely stop back that way again. The culinary high point was dinner at
Bertha's Mussels in the Fells Point area, fantastic crab cakes and
mussels at decent prices.


Saturday morning we left for St Michael's on the eastern shore and
stayed overnight at St Michael's Marina. Unfortunately we missed the
off season dockage rate by one day and ended up paying over $3 per
foot. The good news is that they were very helpful, had free WiFi, and
are convenient to the village which is quaint in a studied kind of way.
We had hoped to stop by Oxford today on the way south but the wind was
blowing like stink with gusts over 30 kts and solid 3 to 4 footers in
mid bay. After 3 hours of that it was good to pull in out of the
weather at Solomons Island which is very well protected and a major
boating center on the western side. Still haven't been ashore yet but
we'll be here all week and will get to do some land based exploring
later on.

Tom, check you inbox...