Today was our first day on the water. We started off in Baltimore Harbor, which is really an exciting place. There's an aquarium, Maritime Museum, tons of restaurants, giant ships, interesting office buildings, indoor/outdoor malls, etc. There's even a trapeze training site right next to the docks. Our boat, Razzmatazz, is docked here, and we are in the front row seat to this beautiful scenery. When we woke up this morning, Jack and I walked to a 7-11 for bread, chips, and snacks. We the fueled up Razz and headed out for Saint Michaels, a small port town about 40 miles south.

It turned out to be a good thing that we topped up the fuel, because there was no wind and the Chesapeake Bay was glassy smooth. I steered the boat and learned how to navigate by bouys, operate the GPS, hail somebody on the radio, program a route and waypoints into the electronic map, read a chart, and much more. Towards the end of the trip, I took a break at the helm and practiced a monkey fist knot, which Jack taught me. I almost got it right (had one section overlapping wrong), but untying took about 10 times longer than tying it.

Saint Michaels does not have slips for boats our size, so we anchored just off shore and motored in on the inflatable dinghy. Saint Michaels is a very cute touristy port town with a row of antique shops, old churches, and restaurants. We ate dinner at the Crab Claw restaurant and then headed back to Razzmatazz, after Jack slalomed the dinghy through the pilings at the dock.

When we returned to the boat in our dinghy from Saint Michaels, we saw an amazing moonrise. The moon was completely full, low on the horizon, and shrouded in cloud cover that turned it pinkish orange. It cast a reflection on the water unlike anything I've ever seen.

Once aboard, Jack and Joan taught me how to play Mexican Train, a dominos game. I lost badly, but in the words of Liam, "I will be avenged!"