Day 110 to 116 / 1400 Statutory Miles: The Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is a much bigger body of water than we anticipated and we only skimmed the surface with our visits to Deltaville, Solomons Island & Annapolis.  Because of the vastness, we found ourselves so far offshore most of the day, you really couldn't see and appreciate the beautiful coastline.  If you want to "explore" the bay, you really need to get yourself "into the rivers" that are along the shoreline.  With that said, it might just alter our plans for our trip back south so that we can do some additional exploring in this area.  What we did see was simply beautiful, and each place different from the place before it.  We also enjoyed (through the binoculars) the numerous lighthouses that dot the bay. These are a few of the ones we passed.

Deltaville: 

Deltaville is located in a fairly rural portion of Virginia.  There are a couple of stores, restaurants and most every kind of support service for sailing within a 5 mile stretch along a main road.  The bay is really a haven for sailboaters.  The marina was a working yard catering to sailboats.  This is the first place we realized they have WINTER here.  It's a week after Memorial Day and there were still a lot of boats on the hard.  Some still in shrinkwrap. Deltaville has a maritime museum focused on the deadrise boats that are still used in these waters today for crabbing and fishing. We spent the day on the bikes checking out the local scenery and the afternoon in the marina pool. 

Solomons Island

Gorgeous little island located on the Patuxent River in Maryland.   Much less rural than Deltaville and had a lot more going on as far as restaurants and shops.  Very picturesque.  We had the pleasure of a mooring in the prettiest lagoon for the evening. This makes the "Do again" list for sure.  

The south bank of the Patuxent River, is home to Headquarters, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, the Atlantic Test Range, and serves as a center for test and evaluation and systems acquisition relating to naval aviation.  This also meant that we were treated to our own private airshow for a few hours, which was VERY COOL!. This short video doesn't do justice to the experience - they were so loud and some so low, you could feel them in your chest.

Annapolis

Spent 2 nights in Annapolis which, for anyone who know us, is one of our favorite places to visit. Our first time arriving by water (which was a real treat for us).  Visiting some of our favorite "haunts" Rams Head, Prussers and just wandering the streets was just the best.  We stayed in the mooring field located in the harbor just off the Naval Academy giving us the best views of the capital building and Naval Academy Dome that were lit up each night.  Water taxi's were available on demand to take you almost anywhere along the waterfront for $3.  Even with our own tender, it was pretty handy for venturing out at night, when the harbor seemed to get churned up.  

Saturday was a sunny warm day to explore with the dingy.  We discovered Spa Creek which runs between Annapolis and Eastport. There are a few marinas and mooring fields in very protected waters and still very accessible to town.  I think we've made this our stayover of choice for Annapolis when we return in the fall.  Eastport is the city next door to Annapolis across Spa Creek.  We spent a little time here on Saturday afternoon and wish we could spend more.  Same feel as Annapolis, but much more residential and home to several restaurants on the water.  We had the best dinner at a place called O'Leary's Seafood.  Highly recommend it!

Annapolis provided some of the roughest waters for overnighting so far.  There is a huge amount of boat traffic (harbor boat tours, folks cruising the waterfront and extremely windy on top of all that. To say we got ROCKED to sleep each night is an understatement.  Our last night here felt like we were sleeping in a washing machine.

To C&D Canal

North of Annapolis, you could see both sides of the Chesapeake, which was very different than the previous days travels.  A significant portion of the western shore, north of Baltimore, is occupied by the Aberdeen Proving Grounds.  We were racking our brains trying to remember what was "special" about this area - so our friend Google enlightened us.  Wow, there is/was some "badass" stuff taking place at this Army facility.  Once again, glad to have US on our side.

  

Located at the northern tip of the Chesapeake is the C&D Canal.  It is the waterway that connects the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays.  The Chesapeake Bay has spoiled us with its consistent water depths of 15 to over 100 feet everywhere! Expecting the canal to look more like what we are used to boating the ICW in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, we were quite surprised to find it meandering, wide and lots of communities and activity on both banks.  Making our way approximately 1/2 way through on Sunday, there was little commercial traffic, but lots of pleasure boaters buzzin around.  We are spending the night at the North Summit Marina before making our way down the Delaware River to Cape May, NJ. Looking ahead at the weather and water conditions, it is likely that this stop will end up being a 2 night stay. The marine forecast is calling for a low front to pass through today with a S winds and 2-3 foot seas.  No SCA, but with our next leg being southerly, higher wave action and opposing winds, we have learned, end up resulting in a very long uncomfortable day.  Tuesday is calling for north winds and 1-2 foot seas and sounds like a much nicer day for a boat ride.

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