BA and Qantas (my RTW ticket providers) didn't have any convenient flights to Washington DC from San Francisco, the reason for my stopover in New York, so on Friday I took an Amtrak train down to DC. Top marks to Amtrak for knowing the meaning of a comfortable train (think: proper legroom and wide seats - I know, Brits, hard to imagine).

No sooner had I arrived at the house of Gail and Dan, my dad's old DC neighbours, we were whisked off to Baltimore, Maryland, which is round the corner from Washington. Here, Dan keeps his 32-foot sailing yacht (yippee!) on Chesapeake Bay, where we stayed and sailed for the following three days.

After our first full day we moored up at a popular crabhouse on the waterfront and had a classic Old Bay crab dinner. If you've been anywhere near Maryland but not had Old Bay crabs, better luck next time. The crabhouse format is simple. A fresh roll of brown paper table covering; a mallet, a knife and a heap of napkins; and a tray of steamed crabs covered in Old Bay spice. It must be the carnivorous savagery of breaking apart the crabs with your fingers and smashing open claws which makes this style of eating one of my all-time favourites. I'm trying to imagine opening a crabhouse like this in France, and think I should probably do it myself, just for the reaction.

The next day, we discovered the boat engine was repeatedly overheating (probably thanks to barnacles on the cooling water intake) so had to hurry down to Annapolis, the state capital, which we spent the rest of the time exploring by land, and moored up in a boatyard (with showers! It feels like Easter already!) and thus ended our time on the boat at sea, a little prematurely. Even when immobile on it, the Bay is indefinitely picturesque though, so no hard feelings about that.

So here I am, back in Washington and more or less up to date with the blog again. Still a week and a half to go; I'll try to be good.

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