Chesapeake Bay

autumn colours
Originally uploaded by rosailither.

We have been travelling every day since leaving New York, usually setting off at daybreak to make the most of the short daylight hours. Flocks of migrating birds have been passing the boat so we guess we’re heading the right way – south!

The weather was flat calm as we skirted the coast to Cape May. We spent the first night in the fishing port of Manasquan and left the following morning at 6am with a mass of boats all crowding out through the narrow entrance – mainly sports fishermen going flat out and creating a huge wash.
The next day took us to Atlantic City, whose tall hotels and casinos were visible from miles away in the surrounding flat landscape. Apparently this was a thriving resort since the 1850’s, giving America its first Boardwalk, the first color postcards, the first Big Wheel and the first Miss America Beauty Pageant. We went ashore and walked along the famous boardwalk but were not impressed with what we found. Whole sections of the boardwalk had collapsed and what was left was in need of repair. Most of the bordering land was abandoned apart from some delapidated tower blocks and dodgy-looking housing estates.
A bit further along when we reached the ‘Showboat’ casino, the town suddenly sprang into life. Hot dog and popcorn stalls appeared, people were milling about on the nicely repaired boardwalk, loudspeakers piped music from the casinos, bars and restaurants were brimming with customers and touts were offering to push people around in giant covered ‘buggies’. Where did everybody come from??

Cape May, the following night’s stop, brought us our first foreign-flagged vessels for months, including another Brit who had sailed down from Lake Superior, inland on the Canadian border. From here a grey day’s motoring took us up the very commercial and uninspiring Delaware river, where we passed a scenic night anchored opposite a nuclear power station. Imagine our surprise to find it had completely disappeared in the morning – fog had come in!
A short trip through the C&D canal (where even the tops of bridges were invisible in the fog) led us to the long-awaited and much-praised cruising ground of the Chesapeake Bay. It was hard to tell whether it was worth the effort as we couldn’t see more than 200 yards… but we did find a pretty place to moor (even in the drizzle) at Worton Creek.

Luckily the next day dawned clear and sunny and we were treated to glorious autumn trees on our way down the bay. The wind slowly picked up and we had a nice sail under the elegant Bay Bridges to Annapolis. A huge boating mecca, this is still an attractive town with free internet access for cruisers and lots of little cafes and ice cream shops for the tourists. We anchored off the impressive Naval Academy building and were finally able to buy fresh bread ashore – a relief after my home-made efforts!

Another sunny but windless day took us to Solomons Island, also a big boating place, chock full of marinas but somehow still unspoilt. Maybe something to do with the wooden stakes and walkways rather than steel and concrete pontoons? Here we stocked up on groceries for the freezer (a little taken aback by the prices) and cycled down to the end of the headland to enjoy a beer while watching the sun go down and groups of bikers roaring up and down the main street on Harleys.
Yet another dawn start and a peaceful motor (no wind) down the almost empty bay to a lovely anchorage called Mill Creek. We arrived early enough to enjoy a bowl of ice-cream on deck in the sunshine, then our fellow anchorees (a French Canadian couple and a British-Dutch couple) joined us for a few drinks in the evening. We almost felt we were in the Caribbean when the rum bottle came out!

But what a difference the next morning – grey skies, gusty winds, big swells even in the Bay and an amazing 9.6 knots out of the boat under sail. Whew! We flew the 22 miles to Deltaville, where we met up with old friends from Barbados. We had arrived none too soon judging by the sound of the increasing wind outside, and were happy to spend the afternoon milling around Home Depot and Walmart with them before cosying up in front of the log fire with a big pot of curry for the evening. And our first taste of the very American ‘pecan pie’, very gooey and delicious!

Another grey and not-quite-so-gusty afternoon sail took us to Mobjack Bay, and from there a morning’s motor (in sunshine again) to the bottom of the Bay, Norfolk, a large naval base buzzing with helicopters.. That’s where we are now, spending a few days getting the boat ready for the passage to the BVIs. We may go straight from here if the weather’s perfect or else take the Intracoastal waterway to Beaufort (just south of Cape Hatteras) and go from there.

So what do we think of the famous Chesapeake? To be fair, we can't give an honest answer as we literally shot down the centre. It is much bigger than we realized, there are literally hundreds of creeks to explore on both sides of the Bay, you could spend months and not see it all. There is a great variety of both urban and out-of the-way anchorages, but a lot of these are restricted by draught. We liked the few places we saw and would have explored more if we’d had more time.