Could hardly see those buildings when we landed yesterday.

The current in the C & D canal over to the Chesapeake Bay can get to 3 mph, so we did time our passage there, leaving at 9 to get into the canal about 9:30. We started out with little help, but soon were getting a 1½ to 2½ mph boost. After leaving the canal we kept this boost half way to the entrance to Baltimore harbor.

I rechecked the weather when we woke up Saturday and found that the small craft warning out for Sunday had been extended back. We decided to leave anyway, since the specific wave and wind predictions didn’t seem bad for a boat our size, and most of the rain was predicted to end by noon.

Once on the Chesapeake waves came at our back corner making us wallow back and forth more than I like. It’s called “following seas” and can be dangerous in some cases but was just pretty annoying in ours.  The rain was still with us when we arrived in the Inner Harbor at 4. That made coming in a little wet because I keep things opened up for visibility in a busy and constricted harbor.

What a coincidence! The Baltimore pier at high tide is the closet to the water of any we have ever encountered. 66″ from the side door to the dock. This also shows the sorry state of our railing. Got to get that refinished.

The biggest surprise came when I went to get on the dock to tie us up. The back stairs down to the swim platform were gone, lost while crossing the Chesapeake. We just get the boat fixed, and then this! Once I thought about it, there was an obvious design defect that allowed a wave we hit at 10 mph to swirl around the back corner and slap just right into their underside, tearing them off their mounts. We’ll have to replace them, but this time with a side panel to prevent water from channeling in underneath.

Starboard side back stairs ripped away from mounts. Mounts not that beefy, but nice that the stairs tore, not the back of the boat or swim platform.  I know more now and will get that replaced correctly.

In the meantime the aluminum steps we carry normally enables Sue to get to a low dock, but the docks here can be the closest to the water at high tide for anywhere we’ve gone. We’ve timed things OK so far, except for one rather undignified entry at 3/4 tide when we came home from grocery shopping. Didn’t think to get a picture of that. I’ve ordered a new higher set of foldable steps from Amazon which should arrive at the visitor center here at the end of the week.