August 9
The boat is intow and we are off to Maryland for a week in a cottage we've rented on the Magothy River....the first river north of Annapolis and the Bay Bridge. We arrived around 3:30p.m., unloaded perishables, found the key to the gate at the community ramp and got the boat secure in her slip.....just in time for happy hour. It was a beautiful evening looking east, down the Magothy River. The cottage is nice, but no where near as nice as the cottage on Mobjack Bay. It is a work in progress. The couple who owns it are from Pittsburg and they are refurbishing it for retirement. Some newer furniture, dishes, soap and shampoo and other inexpensive perks to would go a long way to impress renters!
Monday
The weather is for rain until late afternoon. So after the Morgan's renowned leisurely start, we headed to Annapolis to eat lunch at the Acme Restaurant that is highly rated for their crab cakes......good but nowhere near the best we have had on the Chesapeake. A stop at the Annapolis town center for a few items we need for the week and some staples at Whole Foods completed our trip and got us back to the cottage by 2:30p.m. The weather cleared and we were able to explore down River where we found several marinas; one where we got fuel and the other that has a restaurant we will stop at for lunch later in the week.
Tuesday
Small Craft Warning on the Bay and thundershowers in the hourly forecast all day; not a day for boating but the rest of the week looks beautiful! Today, however, we implemented Plan B and took a trip to National Harbor on the Potomac. We walked around the waterfront, rode The Capitol Wheel and had lunch at McCormick&Schmick's Seafood and Steaks. Gretchen had a nice cold appetizer with mango, avocado, crab, orange basalmic vinegarette and basil infused olive oil!
The weather was not stormy all day and we were considering taking the boat out. But radar showed a severe thunderstorm approaching from the west and it arrived with force! Glad we live in the electronic age!
Double Nickels....remember the sculpture we saw on our DC bike trip? Well The Awakening was purchased by the National Harbor developers ($740,000.00) and moved from Hains Point to be the focal point of the Harbor waterfront.
Wednesday
Beautiful weather today so we cast off about 10:15 a.m. intent on exploring some more of the Magothy. First interesting spot we found was Blackhole Creek, with a very narrow entrance that opened into a basin with at least 25 large sailboats on moorings. Turns out it is the Potapskut Sailing Association. A little farther down river we found the glass house on Broad Creek; every wall in the structure is glass. Interestingly, we did not see a boat dock anywhere on the property!
The wind and waves were not reflecting the Small Craft Warning (due to expire at 2:00 p.m.) as we approached the mouth of the Magothy so we headed out into the Bay to check out the conditions which turned out to be fine. We turned south toward the Bay Bridge on our way to Whitehall Bay and lunch at Cantler's. The crab cakes were OK....we've had better!
After lunch we headed past the Naval Academy up the Severn River. I had never sailed past the first bridge on the river and wanted to check out Little Round Bay about 5 miles upstream. It is a very wide spot in the river that gets great reviews in the cruising guides. The Severn is a scenic river lined with beautiful homes. We circled St. Helena Island on the south shore of Little Round Bay where someone has an estate with a massive lookout tower? Or is there an American Rapunzel?
Traveling via motor boat is certainly a different experience than sailing. Today we covered 44 miles...the most I sailed in SunShower was 21 miles on a perfect broad reach day.
Thursday
Gorgeous day to be on the water and we're heading to Baltimore to tour the Harbor. Gretchen and I have not sailed up the Patapsco River to Baltimore; we planned to several times while sailing but weather did not cooperate. We passed by White Rocks at the entrance of the creek where the marina we stayed in last spring is located. In short order we passed under the Key Bridge and came upon Fort McHenry.
The cruising guide says there is a blue/white buoy marking the spot Francis Scott Key was when he penned the Star Spangled Banner....but our search came up empty.
The channel to the Inner Harbor is still quite industrial. But as you approach the Inner Harbor there are huge marinas, beautiful condos and restored water front complexes in Canton and Fells Point.
The Inner Harbor is a nice place to visit as we know from land trips. But it is not an easy place to dock for a few hours. Over night transient accommodations are no problem but at the only public dock the cruising guide warns to lock your dinghy to the pier. Since we can't do that with our little boat, we limited our visit to a harbor boat tour.
Leaving Baltimore we headed down the Patapsco for a late lunch at the Chesire Crab restaurant on Bodkin Creek. Crab cake sandwiches were great! Pleasure Cove Marina where the restaurant is located has the biggest boat storage building I have seen on the Bay. A worker told us there were about 100 boats stored in the building but it did not look crowded. A 60 foot trawler at the end of the building was so far away it looked like a 25 foot boat! Fun day on the water!
Friday
Today Gretchen and I set out on a trip down memory lane, to explore the Middle River and try to find the apartments we lived in the first year of our marriage! It's a ten mile run up to the channel that leads to a large expanse of water between Hart-Miller Island and the inlets for the Back and Middle Rivers. Hart-Miller Island was destined to disappear due to erosion, but it was reclaimed using the material from dredging the channel into Baltimore. Today it is a state park with restrooms, hiking trails and primitive campsites. On weekends one might find a hundred boats anchored off the beach below. There are even food boats that deliver orders to the anchored fleet!
Cruising up the Middle River we entered Frog Mortor Creek to find our lunch stop...the Sunset Cove Restaurant. On a previous cruise, I had a seafood club sandwich consisting of a crab cake, fried oysters and shrimp at this restaurant. I swear it was six inches high on my plate! It's no longer on the menu, but Gretchen says her crab cake was the best she has had this week and my oyster poor boy was great...maybe that's why the place was packed!
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| Captain Morgan relaxing after driving and navigating all the way from our cottage this morning! |
On the way out of the creek we passed the old ramp for sea planes at the Martin State Airport. The Glen L. Martin Company build sea planes here during and after WWII. Passing Wilson Point we headed upriver in search of Stansbury Manor, the apartment complex where we lived. It was not difficult to find. Gretchen looked them up on the web and says it looks like they have undergone extensive renovations since we lived there! The same is true for Wilson Point, where the houses are quite upscale from the ones we knew 45 years ago!
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| Stansbury Manor Apartments |
Heading back through the cut we took a picture to note the beautiful houses in the town of Sparrow's Point. When we lived here, Gretchen and I thought it was just an industrial area with a huge steel mill. We never knew this quaint little town existed down by the Bay!
Saturday
Last day to motor about as we need to get the boat out of the water this afternoon, clean her up and get her ready for travel. It's another gorgeous day, we have had perfect weather for motor boating this week! We want to explore the area around Gibson Island before heading to lunch at The Point Restaurant at Ferry Point Marina. On the way into the Gibson Island Yacht Squadron on the Island there is is a large bay where tens of boats were anchoring for the weekend....opposite a huge estate with horses playing in the water.
Next we could not resist circumnavigating Little Dobbins Island where we had anchored several years ago (most wind we have experienced at anchor!). The owner of the island built a house with a lighthouse attached without gaining permission....suits are pending!
Lunch at The Point was wonderful. We debated ordering crab cakes but could not resist. So glad we did because the cakes were the best we have eaten this week! We got the boat out of the water and cleaned up with no hassle. We did get the attention of several neighbors by driving our trailer down to the ramp attached to our hitch on the front of our car!
As the sun sets on this vacation we had drinks on the deck, feeling a cool breeze and enjoying one last night on the Magothy River. It's been a great week!
P.S. Gretchen did a great job as captain of the boat this week. She pulled in and backed out of docks and slips, navigated through harbor entrances and channels and spent hours every day at the helm. Ask her what the biggest danger is when driving a boat?
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