CHESAPEAKE BAY - week 1

Coming into the Chesapeake was like coming home. After the unfamiliar ocean passage, long days in grueling sailing conditions up Delaware Bay and hot endless stretch of the CD Canal, the waters unexpectedly opened up into fresh cruising ground not unlike the Muskoka Lakes. Along the main channel curved bays and little inlets branched off in all directions as far as the eye could see. Fluffy clouds scudded across a blue sky as weekend boaters dashed across the sparkling waters in their cruisers and sailboats. It felt just like being back in Ontario and for the first time in many weeks I felt really safe, relaxed and comfortable.

The land surrounding the Chesapeake is covered with a patchwork quilt of fertile farms. Fields slope down almost to the waters edge where a wide band of mature trees stop their descent at a sandy shoreline. Interspersed among the foliage is the occasional home, but more often as not, these are set back from the water crowning a grassy slope. There are no small cottages here—only gracious two-storey homes built in splendid isolation. About 95% of the shoreline is forested with no sign of human habitation. The few small settlements that do exist are crowded around small harbours or coves and are made up of weekend condos, a few beautifully restored colonial houses, and simple middle-class homes of the workers who keep the Chesapeake humming.

Despite its outward similarity to the Muskokan Lakes the rivers and bays of the Chesapeake are very different. You could never swim here. The shallow waters are murky, brackish and filled with “sea nettles”. This is what the locals call the clouds of jellyfish which we see pulsating in clusters around our boat when it is at anchor. The Chesapeake is a place of tranquility, beauty and boating activities. It is a place to go to get away from it all and the word that best describes it is “discreet”.

We spent our first two nights in the Chesapeake at Turner Creek—a tiny cove off the Sassafrass River. We were joined there by a young liveaboard couple from Charleston who we had met earlier in Cape May and had been traveling with since. They were very knowledgeable about tides/currents and we were happy to have both their expertise and companionship. We came in to Turner Creek at low tide just managing to squeak through the inlet’s entrance with our deep draft and, after Vince painstakingly set the anchor in the shallows, found that we had barely 6” of water below the keel! Worse case scenario—we knew things could only get better as the evening wore on and the boat rose on a full tide. Early the next morning—and I mean really early (4:00am. early!)—we were awakened by the noisy boats of watermen leaving the cove to bring in crabs. We brewed a fresh pot of coffee and watched the whole operation curled up in the cockpit under a moonlit sky. We had met these same men earlier in the day—rough, sunburned, not eager to talk to us and unwilling to look us in the eye when they did so. They sped past our boat leaving a wake and flashed their lights at us as they went by. Vince thought they were just being friendly but I took it as their watery way of giving us “the finger”. There is an obvious division in the boating community here: the watermen put in long hours of hard work on the Chesapeake but for the cruisers it’s simply a playground. And in the cove at Turners Creek, I got the feeling that we were unwelcome playing on their grounds.
At the Georgetown Yacht Basin we picked up a mooring ball and spent several days at a delightful marina with pool, bicycles and a courtesy car. We made ample use of all three. Here we met a couple of retired teachers from West Palm Beach who, unbelievably, have spent the last 21 years of their lives living with 2 labrador retrievers aboard a boat smaller than ours! I can’t imagine what it must be like inside when the dogs get wet—yuck! We shared the courtesy car with them and did some major shopping. They then came back to our boat and, among other things, gave us the name of a friend with a house on the water at Nassau where they said we could probably leave our boat when we return to Canada in January. After contacting her that evening arrangements were made and we now have one less thing to worry about. It’s amazing how things seem to be working out for us on this trip. Miraculously the “right” people seem to come into our lives when we need them the most. We had no idea what we were going to do with the boat when we flew home and now, it’s all been taken care of. There must be a guardian angel out there somewhere looking after us.

After Georgetown we sailed south past Annapolis and over to St. Michaels on the eastern shore. This area is known as the “crown jewel” of the Chesapeake. Many of its old houses have been lovingly restored and converted into offices and bed & breakfasts. The main street is crowded with tasteful boutiques and the little harbour is ringed with upscale marinas and seafood restaurants. There is an extensive maritime museum here filled with interesting exhibits and working models where it is easy to get lost for the better part of a day. We spent several days here exploring the pretty residential streets, poking about the shops and sampling the crab cakes that the various restaurants have on offer. Now that we’re in the Chesapeake it’s good to be able to “slow down” and not have to put in so many long hours out on the water. We have an opportunity to relax here and just enjoy everything that’s around us until Nov. 1st when our “insurance company” says we can continue the journey south from Norfolk.