Originally Posted October 2014

Been a while since I have written anything but must try to keep up with this.We traveled to

Sailing Capital. Wonder what Newport and San Diego think of that?

  Annapolis earlier this month to attend the Mecca of sailboat shows, the US Sailboat Show. We had been before but this time we were actually shopping for things for our boat. Before we had just been lookey loos. 

  On our first trip we had spent time enjoying the boats and this time we did not climb on a single one!  Now I don't know if that is a good or bad thing but we sure did not need a boat. 

  We spent two days in the tents talking to all the vendors who were selling things that we needed for the boat. We had done a lot of research and we pretty much knew who were going to talk to and what we wanted to get. And we even managed to avoid any impulse buying! Man we sure could have though, so much you can add to your list.
The best thing was being able to eliminate and add things to the list. We did get several things but nothing to big,  a fancy boat hook and parts for our port lights.

  We had planned to buy solar panels but the shipping on those eliminated the savings they were offering.  We did however find the wind generator that we were interested in, Marinekinetics, they gave us great deal so we bought that. If you have not shopped at Marinebeam  you need to. Lots of affordable, yet well built, items, especially LED lights. I guess they have been written up recently in a couple of the sailing mags.

The generator arrived today so now we have to get it to the boat and get it mounted.

Our new wind generator from Marine Beam and Cruising Solutions

  We did not get on any of the show boats we were able to go see our friends Dwayne and Carla's new to them 38 Catalina.  They are planning to cruise for  a few years and chose this very nice boat to do that on.  They bought the boat in Connecticut and were able to bring it down through New York harbor.  Something we hope to do one day.  They had the boat on the Bay south of Annapolis in a very nice harbor called Harrington.  Might be a place we will stop at one day.

  We were also able to spend time with my brother and family, always good to connect with family.  My nieces are now well into their teenage years, just so hard to believe.

  Our final boat discovery was finding Bacon Sails and Marine.   This was a true treasure trove of all things second hand that a sailor could ask for.  It was well organized but your head just started to spin looking at all the stuff.  This would be a place you will need to go to with a list!