Road trip to the Seven Seas

Jimmy Lee
3 days ago
5 min read

Friday, September 26– Wednesday, October 1

0 nautical miles (NM) / 0 statute miles

We hit the road this week to the Maryland Yacht Club to attend a gathering of members of the Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) and then back to Annapolis to watch the Boat Show Rising getting assembled.

Annapolis, MD to Pasadena, MD (By Car)

Friday, September 26 - Sunday, September 28

What is the Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA):

The Seven Seas Cruising Association is the oldest and largest worldwide organization supporting the liveaboard cruising lifestyle. Founded in 1952 by six liveaboard couples in California and now with members worldwide, today’s SSCA remains true to the traditions of its original members—sharing cruising information, fostering camaraderie, and leaving a clean wake.

During our last visit to Annapolis in 2022 (while we were still working) we joined the Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA). This organization has a global network of cruisers and regularly hosts gatherings, or as they call them “Gams” throughout the world. Each autumn there is one near Annapolis.

What is a Gam? In days of olde when whaling ships encountered one another in calm seas they would heave to and the crew would line up at the railing to shout news across to one another. This was called a gam. An SSCA Gam is a get-together of members, with an emphasis on camaraderie and sharing of cruising information.

Knowing this event was coming up, we (me, Sondra, Cam, and Denise) had planned for several months to attend this. Since it was about an hour north of Annapolis, we didn’t want to commute every day from the boat, so we rented an house near the Gam.

A bit of coordination went into this:

Cam picked up a car on Thursday and found a parking spot close to a dinghy dock.
Since Baxter was not allowed in the rental house, we had to get a Rover sitter to watch Baxter for a couple of days. We got up early on Friday, then Cam, Sondra and I loaded up Baxter in the very full dinghy and drove Baxter to the Rover sitter.
Then we came back to the boats to get more of our stuff, pick up Denise, and to lock up Utopia and Quest II.
We dinghied back to the dinghy dock to drop off luggage and people.
Not wanting to leave the dinghy at the dinghy dock for two days, I took the dinghy back to Utopia and hauled it up in the davits.
My plan was to pay for a water taxi to take me to a dock somewhere in town and for the crew to drive the rental car to my yet-to-be-determined location. Luckily Alboe showed up and took me back to the dinghy dock.

The expectation is that we would reverse all of this when coming back on Sunday (and we did).

We arrived at the Maryland Yacht Club in Pasadena, MD, just south of Baltimore, in time for our noon CPR and first aid class that lasted the rest of the afternoon. Sondra needed it for her offshore medicine class she has coming up at Cruiser’s University. I took it too since it is a good thing to know or at least get refreshed on. There were about 20 other cruisers in the class, and it was nice getting to know some of the other SSCA members. We even reconnected with some cruisers we had met in the Bahamas this past season.

The class ran a bit late, and we needed to jet over to our rental house to check in and change clothes for a happy hour and dinner back at the Gam. We were beat after the long day, so we ended up not going back that evening and just went out for a bite close by.

SSCA Gam @ the Maryland Yacht Club

Saturday was a full day full of seminars including weather routing, Caribbean Cruising, processes for entering various countries (customs and immigration), emergency equipment for the boat, medical challenges at sea and communication (from VHF to Starlink). At the end of the day there was a happy hour and then dinner. Our keynote speaker for the evening was Nigel Calder (i.e., a true rock star in the cruising circles). It was great and funny talk.

Nigel’s mini bio: Nigel Calder is a renowned British-American sailor, author, and leading expert on marine systems, known for his extensive cruising and his influential books on boat maintenance, such as the Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual. His career is marked by extensive global sailing, living aboard boats with his family, developing standards for boat systems, and advocating for safety and reliability through proactive maintenance and innovative designs.

Sunday, we had some more seminars including sail care and types, cruising the Bahamas, insurance, and a roundtable of bluewater cruisers.

In the afternoon we left the Gam, picked up Baxter from the sitter, and headed back home to Utopia. Overall, it was a great weekend, and we met a lot of other cruisers that we will see again this coming up season as we head south.

Annapolis, MD

Sunday, September 28 - Wednesday, October 1

The rest of the week was spent doing chores on the boat and watching all the activity around the boat show as they assemble many acres of docks (and even driving lots of piles) to support the hundreds of incoming power boats and displays needed for one, if not the largest boat show in the USA. It’s amazing all the work done to get the boat show up and running.

The powerboat show is from Thursday-Sunday (Oct 2-5). Then there will be a whirlwind of activity on Monday and Tuesday (Oct 6-7) as all the powerboats get moved out and the sailboats get moved in. We look forward to seeing that transformation too.

We also said goodbye to Alboe as they head south. They did not intend to stay for the boat show, and they needed to get to Norfolk. Their plans might mesh up with ours at some point so I am sure we will catch up with them sometime in the next few months.

As a side note, we have begun the work needed to bring Baxter the Cat into the Caribbean starting in January. There are all sorts of requirements for each of the several countries we will be visiting, and we need to make sure he is legal to enter. I might do a stand alone post on this in the future as we proceed with the process.