Chesapeake Sailing Meccas.......................from K

We anchored in St. Michael's harbor surrounded by seafood restuarants, huge Canadian yachts, tiny dingies filled with children and dogs and lovely homes on the water with lots of boat toys. St. Michael's is a lovely touristy town with convenient ice cream shops on every block. Hankering for (affordable) steamed crabs, we borrowed a car (thanks Ellen!) and drove 2 miles out of town for a dozen big crabs - cooked to perfection. When in Maryland...
From St. Michael's, we flew across the bay sailing close to 8 knots at times - while pulling our waterlogged dingy (our first and not last really dumb foible). Upon entering Annapolis, the boats took my breath away. Not only were they beautiful and big, they were fearless and abundant. The Naval Academy cadets were weaving their dinghies around huge motorboats and a "Pirate Ship" crewed by preschool bandits threatened attack on every passing vessel. There was even a windsurfer amidst the mayham. Why can't our harbors in Hampton Roads be this lively? Because it was Saturday afternoon, there were no mooring balls available so we anchored off the Naval Academy, a busy, bumpy, noisy basin, but we had a great view of the Navy football and lacrosse practices. I suspect they were focusing on THE big game in November (GO NOTRE DAME!).
Sunday morning was a delightful dinghy ride to town and we attended mass at St. Mary's - a beautiful, traditional service. Once again, P & I felt we heard a familiar message as the homily focused on a the need for listening, rather than words, in prayer. "Have a heart with ears." Although I have always found comfort in my familiar rote prayers and words of thanks, I am slowly and resistantly discovering that I don't need words to pray - in fact, the words get in the way! How limiting and defining they present my feelings of gratitude and fear. How invigorating to simply spend time with God, listening and accepting. I acknowledge that I am infinitely blessed to have this "time out" year to explore my prayer life, and in my guilt, I remind myself that even Jesus took time to go to the dessert to be with His Father. To further appease my guilt, I also recognize that I will continue to respond to God's calls to action; but right now, I'm in the listening mode. And on that note, I suspect that although P is not saying anything, he would really appreciate it if I would come take the helm so he can put up his drifter. Sail on.