Chesapeake Bay Getaway
We wanted a relaxed vacation this summer. After the hard work of finding our new boat, getting her ready to put in the water, and bringing her down from New York, we just wanted time on the boat without any adventures. We wanted great day sails, quiet anchorages where we could swim and have happy hours followed by barbequed dinners, and easy port destinations when provisions ran low. These reasons among others are what draw recreational boaters to the Chesapeake Bay for vacation. We also wanted time to live on the boat to find out what we need to do to make her ready for a longer trip, perhaps across the Atlantic, down the Islands or just temporary living quarters to relocate to a warmer state.Planning the Trip
One thing to explain about planning a sailing trip, while one may hope to stop somewhere, the trip is determined by the wind, the weather and optimizing the experience—which means even though we have a new diesel engine that can reliably get us from point A to B, it’s just not vacation while it’s running. One way we make the most of our days is to plan our trip for early July when the days are 15 hours long. Evening stopovers usually happen with just enough time to set the anchor before the sun goes down. Going into a town marina takes a little more time and planning. Given all of the variables, we start our trip with some loose ideas and a wish list. The wish list for this vacation: getting as far south as possible, perhaps as far as Mike’s house in Virginia, a stop in Solomon’s Island, Annapolis to see family, St. Michaels, Kent Island (for the Red Eye bar), and anchoring in gunkholes for a front row piece of sky. With only 10 days, we weren’t going to be able to do it all, but we’d stay open to what developed along the way.Getting there…
From Philadelphia, the Chesapeake Bay is about a day away. Timing the current in the river and canal is the best way we know to ease progress to the bay. Catching the ebb in the Delaware late in the evening, a stop-over at Newcastle Flats just south of the Delaware Memorial Bridge is a welcome half way point to time the current through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. An ebb current through the canal means three hours' motoring gets you to the other side. So it makes a good time to multi-task—wash dishes, stow everything away properly, read the cruising guide, look at the charts, discuss possible itineraries—all while getting to the bay.
Once through the canal at the top of the bay, the sunset saw us anchored directly across from the Bohemia River. It was Saturday evening and our whole vacation was still ahead of us. Our Chesapeake Bay getaway would unfold over the next week in ways that we didn’t yet foresee. <check back!>
