Cruising the Chesepeake Bay

As published in the February, 2018 Newslines

September 20-23, 2016, Andrew Vogel arranged a cruise on the upper Chesapeake Bay for myself and his sisters, Janet and Glenda. This is a brief description of our experience during a 4-day 3-night cruise on a brand new Benateau Oceanus 41 out of Havre de Grace, MD.

Andrew and I left Chelsea about 6am and arrived at Bay Sail, Tide Water Marina, Havre de Grace around 9am to meet his sisters and check out and provision the boat. We were underway by noon. Havre de Grace is about 30 nautical miles up the Bay from Baltimore. I spent some U.S Army time training at Aberdeen Proving Grounds which is just down the Bay from Havre de Grace.

It was a blast. Andrew and his sisters are very athletic, past competitive swimmers who had not had time together in many years. Andrew did all the grunt work finding a boat to charter and found that the further you go up the bay the more reasonable the rental costs for comparable boats. Andrews’ sisters got input from us re food preferences and did the purchasing and food prep. As part of the planning for the trip, I put out a call to Chelsea members for tips and found that no one had past experience cruising the Bay, thus, this little note.

On a Benateau 41 we were really were roughing it. The bottom line is we were CRUISING and getting from point A to B was secondary to just letting the boat do its thing while we rode along and had fun. This is a cruising yacht with huge below deck space, a small genny, and furling main and retractable swim platform. We had fun experimenting with the B&G system that could be set up to sail the boat on a given heading or wind angle and warn us if we were headed into shallow waters and we had fun learning the characteristics of the boat and sometimes working to get best performance. I believe the peak we ever got out of her to windward was about 7.5 knots. She had a bow thruster that made maneuvering in gunk holes and slips easier.

The bay has shallows and commercial channels in abundance as well as many crab pots, large commercial boats and fishermen, but nothing much to tax a Hudson River sailor. The shorelines are beautiful and the many types of boats a lot of fun to see. While we had done some rough planning before leaving from Chelsea we did not put any pressure on ourselves to meet a schedule except we would likely spend at least one night in a slip to eat ashore.

We determined that the bay is too narrow at its upper end for easy sailing and we motored down a narrow, twisting channel to the region off Aberdeen and pointed the boat southward. When evening began to approach we selected Swan Creek as our mooring for the night from the charts and the extensive list of gunk holes and mooring sites obtained from the marina and online. Take-home message – the gunk holes are the gems of the Chesapeake. Enjoy your daily sailing, but pick an evening anchorage early so you have plenty of time for swimming, beveraging, and laying back with a good meal.

The next day we sailed the area and then pulled into Rock Hall Harbor just south of Swan Creek and across the Bay from the entrance to the Patapsco River that leads to Baltimore Harbor. We spent the night in slip at The Sailing Emporium marina. We rode free bikes into town for a meal at a local crab shack, Fords Seafood, with real locals who provided a very welcoming environment and fun night. Reasonable prices:From what I have heard some places in Rock Hall can be very expensive. A word of caution that the channel markers in the Rock Hall harbor are confusing and we did put ourselves in the mud. The local who pulled us out said they are hoping the signage gets improved. If there are future trips Rock Hall would be worth even more investigation. There are many shops and restaurants, but still a small town atmosphere. Probably a bit crowded like Block Island at times.

We sailed the area out of Rock Hall down toward the Chesapeake Bay Bridge the next day and then looped northward to Still Pond just above Swan Creek for our 3rd night mooring. Repeat message – the gunk holes are a major part of the experience and many consider Still Pond to be one of the best. We were strafed by bald eagles and many other birds, watched deer and the family life of a group of vultures onshore with their young, swam, viewed a beautiful home on the shore, and had no one moored very close to us. Oh and a SUNSET!

On the 4th day we reluctantly pointed the bow north and motored back to Havre de Grace having had a very pleasant time on the bay. Got the boat back in to the marina, showered and stored our stuff back in the cars – we tidied up the galley, but the marina crew did most of the boat clean up. Andrew and I were back home by late evening. Of course, one could set up a longer cruise or do more motoring and make it down to Annapolis or up into Baltimore Harbor. I have done several Oyster Roast Thistle regattas out of Severn Sailing Club, Annapolis and attended an annual work related convention there a number of times. I am glad to now have had the opportunity to experience the beautiful upper bay and the gunk holes.