DC fly-by

We are at the Elks lodge in Alexandria, Virginia (map). We are just an hour from where we were parked yesterday at this time, in Baltimore, but we wanted to stop in the DC area for a day to possibly visit some folks before heading south toward Atlanta.

As it turned out, the logistics were not favorable for visiting, and this particular spot was a poor choice. We chose it because it seemed to be the closest DC-area parking spot to our planned route, as well as the closest to downtown DC itself, at least as the crow flies. However, to get to the Red Cross headquarters from here requires taking one city bus and two Metro trains, for a combined total of 1-1.5 hours of travel each way. On top of the unfavorable travel logistics, the lot is very sloped here and there was no way to get level. At least they have a power outlet for $10 per night, but we didn't really need it this time.

Since we were neither able to have dinner with our friend Glen, in town for a meeting of the International response unit, nor inclined to spend ~3 hours on transit just to go in to headquarters for lunch today, we are just going to move along. I'm sorry we did not get to visit with anyone, but we are on something of a tight schedule anyway. Too bad, because the weather is beautiful and it would be a great time to spend a few days visiting the area and its many attractions.

We had a great time at Trawler Fest. For one thing, we could not have asked for better weather, sunny and with the temperature hovering around 80 during the day. Also, this particular venue had a good selection of boats in the style to which we are narrowing our search. And we connected with many friends we've made over the years, including Mark and Jennifer aboard Starlet, whom we met at a previous Trawler Fest.

While Starlet was not in the show, we had a chance to tour her, and we were stricken by just how different and more usable her layout was than that of the nearby Jenny, a brokerage boat in the show that we had been interested in. Both boats are Nordhavn 46 models, just a few years apart, but we found the engine room access and below-decks layout really unworkable on Jenny, and struck it from our list. If an N-46 with Starlet's layout came on the market in our price range, though, we would consider it.

We are grateful to blog reader Laura of Kady-Krogen yachts, who provided us with day passes for the show for all four days. The two boats Krogen brought were beautiful, and I'd have to say the the Krogen 44 would be our perfect boat, except it is a bit out of our price range. They have not been out long enough to be readily available on the used market. We had hoped to get aboard an older Krogen 42 while we were here in the Chesapeake bay area, but the timing just did not work out.

We also spent a good deal of time with our broker Curtis and his wife Gill, who brought four boats to the show. Curtis is continuing to work with us on looking at some more Selenes here on the east coast, and it just so happens that two of them are in the New Bern and Morehead City area in North Carolina this week. So we are making a diversion from the most direct route to Altanta in order to see them. It adds 190 miles and four hours of driving (and $150 in fuel and maintenance) to do so, but it's hard to imagine that it will get much more convenient. We are due in Morehead City tomorrow afternoon, and so we will get rolling just as soon as I post the blog.