The Chesapeake Bay

Discussion about the Chesapeake Bay always takes me back to memories of cruising the Bay. To me the Chesapeake is like cruising no where else. It is definitely not island cruising. If you are looking for beaches you will be disappointed. Water clarity is not part of the equation. No, not any of those.

The Bay takes adapting to a little change in cruising attitude. It is about coves, villages, tradition, wildlife and food. The season changes are the best times. Slow down, and enjoy what it has to offer. I love it.

Timjet and wife are on their first cruise of the Bay. I can't wait for their report and impressions. After slowing down to the short distances and many places it just gets better. I'm waiting Capt. Tim.

Don...I think hope you are correct that every first timer to that bay should slow down and drink her in....it is geologically a unique place ...I believe that magic is true and therefore it can give back the same.

Funny though the mind.....

I have been assistance towing in the same place now and finished 12 years of between 200-300 runs up and down an 18 mile stretch of NJ ICW each year to the point I can almost do it blindfolded with a little hint or two . At about year 6-7 I started wishing I had more room to run...new sights, sounds, smells, wildlife, etc...

Then in a year or so I knew change wasn't in the wind so I went back to looking at everything a little differently...the grass growing on the dayboard pilings at low tide, how each and every osprey nest was a bit different, the ripples in the waters and exactly what they meant.

This all was a good thing..as I grow older I realize my wild and crazy days of thinking space, flying, world travel and even mega-boat deliveries are all getting way fewer and farther in between....

So slowing down and appreciating things on a micro-scale instead of the macro-scale should become my focus...I think some philosophies accentuate this...such as the raked sand garden in Japan.

Many say the Chessie is a cruising ground no one will master or become bored with in a lifetime of boating...I agree...all you have to do is embrace it.

Reading James A. Michener's Chesapeake will either bore you to death or make every cruise there a permanent piece of your life.

Probably my favorite part or the bay are the tributary rivers. Wonderful cruising, beautiful scenery, interesting towns and many to choose from. Plan to spend every other week cruising the tributaries next summer.

Ted

Those are great words. We are scheduled to start the
Loop next summer, when we head North for the summer of 2016 we plan on spending the entire summer in the "Chessie" and retreating back to Fla. for the winter. Then go back North the next spring. I just couldn't imagine only spending a couple of weeks there and being satisfied.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Trawler

I have been boating on the Chesapeake for over 30 years and still haven't seen it all......it can be the most beautiful water one day and the most challenging the next.

I became intrigued with the Chesapeake when I read James Michener's book of the same name. I have no idea how accurate the book is, nor if his rather romantic portrayal of the bay has much or any relationship to reality.

I remember reading his "Hawaii" way back when. The book was a good read, but I was living there at the time and had been for awhile, so even at a young age I recognized that it played pretty fast and loose with reality more often than not.

I have to say that to me, the United States stops at the eastern bank of the Mississippi River and the southern border of Oregon. Outside of that rectangle, it can be given back to whoever we got it from with the exception of Maine, which we should keep because the coastline and the boating up there (and the boats) look almost as intriguing as out here.

But the eastern seaboard below Maine has never held any interest for me with the one exception of the Chesapeake because of the book. I'll never see the bay in person, but I would be interested to know from people with a lot of time or experience there if Michener's portrayal of it bears any resemblance to reality.

Granted, the book was written a long, long time ago and things change, even faster today than yesterday. But I wonder if the nature and feel of the bay itself ever was, or still is, as he tried to portray it?

To me a lot of cruising is like no place else as all areas are different. But that said I completely agree with the wonder of the Chesapeake Bay. We'd never been there until the last two years. Now we've been four times. Annapolis is one of our favorite places. We don't normally sail and never do the actual work but we've gone sailing on captained boats there and enjoyed the beauty of the bay. We've cruised the bay slowly and faster. Starting at Virginia Beach, Hampton, all the way to Baltimore. We also fell in love with Cape Charles. Then of course add a side trip up the Potomac to Washington or through the canal to the Delaware. Not to overlook the James River or York River. There's just a world of so many wonderful places to cruise and visit. And if you depart through the canal to the Delaware or come to it that way, there's a whole river of sights to see on the Delaware too. Not the expansiveness of the Chesapeake but a much neglected area. Seems like we forget it though.

I believe you could return to this area hundreds of times and still see something new each time. Our kind of place. The one we leave always knowing there is more to see next time.

There is a reason the area is called, "The land of pleasant living." And it ain't just because of the Natty Boh.

Marin, Michener's book, while fiction, is a plausible example of a Chesapeake family followed through three centuries. It took place along the banks of the Choptank River with the plantation located on an island at the mouth. There was an island there that was "drowned". That is what happened to the plantation in his story.

I would not expect everyone to see the Bay as I do. After being around its shores and cruising it for 40 years, it still has a draw for me. The fall is absolutely the best. I'm sure I would feel similar about the PNW, but this is what we have. If Maine were not so remote, it would probably be my favorite east coast cruising area.

No, we don't have the mountains and beauty of Alaska. We do have Maine, New England, the Chesapeake, the Carolina/Georgia low country, Florida, and the Keys. A short hop off shore to the Bahamas. I'll take it. That doesn't mean that I won't charter in the PNW. Just waiting for the opportunity to do that.

Moonstruck said:

If Maine were not so remote, it would probably be my favorite east coast cruising area.

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If Chesapeake Bay, the PNW, the Carolina/Georgia low country, Florida, and the Keys, or wherever else, weren't so remote for us Mainers.....

We need technology to come up with an instantaneous boat transport device so we could all explore all these great cruising areas whenever we wished.

No, on second thought, maybe that's not such a good idea after all.

Michener's book got me interested, then a friend asked us to spend a long weekend boating on the Chickahominy which we took to the James then out to the bay proper, then i helped another friend bring his boat from Solomons Island to Annapolis. All 3 of these events happened one summer in the early 80's and I was hooked. bought a boat, then another boat then another boat! I figure that since that time I've cruised about 10% of the bay and its tributaries. I read once that there is more coastline in the Chesapeake than the rest of the U.S. combined. when we finally retire in two years we will start at Havre de Grace on the northwest side and head south to Virginia Beach then cross over to Cape Charles and head north to the Chesapeake and Delaware canal at the very top going up each river and creek on the way. Doing that from mid April to mid November i plan to take two years to see it all. I've been from the canal to Norfolk many times, but that's no way to see this bay properly.
John
MS390

dwhatty said:

No, on second thought, maybe that's not such a good idea after all.

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Well, you can stay up there, but you won't get the T shirt.

Moonstruck said:

Well, you can stay up there, but you won't get the T shirt.

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Too cold for T shirts up (down east) here anyways.

And between Maine and the Chesapeake, you have coastal NH and, MA the islands (Elizabeth, MV, Nantucket, Block), Narragansett Bay, Long Island Sound and it many offshoots, New York City, the Hudson River, Lake Champlain, and on down the line. And of course north of wonderful Maine, the fabulous Canadian Maritimes.

As I have posted before I have been very fortunate to have cruised and boated both coasts fairly extensively, including some of the Great Lakes and most of the Gulf Coast.

When it came time to go cruising and living aboard full time, we were in Dallas. It took us far less than a minute to decide where we would do that. Never regretted it for a second.

I feel (mostly) sorry for people with closed minds who judge and write off places they have never seen. I did some of that when I was a punk kid; couldn't understand why you'd want to be anywhere but California and the west. Then got the notion at 21 to drive my van across country all the way to Cape Breton. What a wonderful and mind and eye opening experience that was. So a few years later in life when we started to have professional opportunities that took us all over the country, we were excited about it, and subsequently enriched by it.

Moonstruck said:

I'm sure I would feel similar about the PNW, but this is what we have........No, we don't have the mountains and beauty of Alaska. We do have Maine, New England, the Chesapeake, the Carolina/Georgia low country, Florida, and the Keys.

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Don, thanks for the reply that Michener wasn't far off in his depiction of the feel and mood of the bay. It sounds like a very interesting place to explore.

I agree with your implication that one should get the most out of the situation and location one is in. Sometimes we're lucky in that we get to determine those things, sometimes we have to play the hand we're dealt.

I was lucky in that I was able to determine where I ended up.

I made the decision to move from Hawaii to the PNW/BC standing on the aft deck of the BC ferry Queen of Prince Rupert at the end of a camping/fishing trip in the Yukon when I was driving my Land Rover back to Oakland, CA to put it on the ship back to Hawaii.

When the fog burned off to reveal the upper channel of the Passage, it totally blew me away. Mountains coming right out of the water, glaciers, waterfalls, and all the life one gets in this part of the world both on shore and in this protected saltwater environment. When I saw it, I knew I had to move here.

I'm sure Eric Henning can relate to how I felt, and still feel, when I get up into that country. I've done it a lot by air (first photo) but never by water other than that first ferry ride. (Of the thousands of photos I've taken here, the last photo I think best captures what I love about boating here.)

We've taken the GB as far up as Desolation Sound, which is the start of what I consider to be the great coastal country, and we've taken our small boat up to Queen Charlotte Strait, Knight Inlet, and Blackfish Sound, which is farther up into the great coastal country. But we've never gone into "Eric Country" by boat.

I seem to need to have high and wild country around me with big rivers, big forests, and big animals. Not that I've ever been interested in actually hiking the mountains here--- that's why God invented horses, and later, helicopters.

I've used both, and am now investigating the acquisition of a drift boat so I can start exploring (and fishing) the rivers with the rivers doing all the work. I'm fundamentally lazy and am a big believer in internal combustion, hay, or gravity doing as much of the job as possible.

Last year my videographer and I spent part of a day driving around the shoreline of Long Island exploring some of the harbors, looking at the cool old houses, and so forth. Very interesting stuff to look at, and we had a great time talking to some of the local commercial fishermen. But the totally featureless terrain had no appeal to either one of us.

I've been to the South Carolina, both the Low Country and farther inland, a number of times for work, and I've been visiting friends in southern Virginia (Virginia Tech) and North Carolina (Winston-Salem) for decades. The Blue Ridge and Appalacian hills are beautiful to visit, no question, and the history in that region is fascinating. But it all lacks the wildness and scale that I like so much.

Maine's coast is certainly not like the PNW, at least in terms of altitude. But the coastline itself has a wild ruggedness that I find really appealing. I love northwestern Scotland for the same reason.

Anyway, perhaps someday I'll re-read "Chesapeake" and re-kindle my interest in the bay.

It seems to me that all of our respective cruising areas; PNW, New England, Great Lakes, Gulf coast, ICW are beautiful in their own way. Each has its special places, as well as some that are, perhaps, not so special. Challenges abound in each locale, as do the many serene and amazing sights specific to that area. I'd be happy to be on a boat almost anywhere, in almost any of our cruising locales; and be really thankful that I can.

My wife and I grew up in Maryland but didn't start boating until fifteen years ago. We had a smaller boat and would boat on the Chesapeake Bay but seldom went far.

We retired to Charleston, SC and eventually purchased HIGH COTTON.

This past May we cruised up the ICW to the Chesapeake and did a complete circle starting on the east side all the way to Havre de Grace and down the west side and up the Potomac to DC. We saw many places we had never seen and some familiar places as well. The entire trip lasted seventy six days. I am working on a "blog" of sorts and I'll post a link when it's done.

The Chesapeake Bay is a wonderful place to cruise and should be on everyone's list if they can do it.

The main down side is, it gets cold in the winter and most boats have to be hauled and winterized for six months.

Being called the Great Northwest is well deserved. While cruising Puget Sound is a little too populated to be called an adventure, I do enjoy the view of two volcanoes both of which I have been on the summit of( Mt. Rainier and Mt baker) But farther north to the San Juans and into B.C. it gets really special. I have had the pleasure of cruising Desolation Sound several times, and there is nothing like taking a freshwater shower under a small water fall that comes down off of a vertical rock wall that you can come up next to while standing on the deck. I also spent ten days in Knight inlet in in a 16ft. Lund. We put in at Port Hardy on the north end of Vancouver Is. crossed the Queen Charlotte strait and up the inlet. As Marin says, mountains strait up out of the water and all manner of wildlife. The region is so large it is easy to feel like you have the place to yourself. We haven't been up there for a few years but we are going back.

rwidman said:

My wife and I grew up in Maryland but didn't start boating until fifteen years ago. We had a smaller boat and would boat on the Chesapeake Bay but seldom went far.

We retired to Charleston, SC and eventually purchased HIGH COTTON.

This past May we cruised up the ICW to the Chesapeake and did a complete circle starting on the east side all the way to Havre de Grace and down the west side and up the Potomac to DC. We saw many places we had never seen and some familiar places as well. The entire trip lasted seventy six days. I am working on a "blog" of sorts and I'll post a link when it's done.

The Chesapeake Bay is a wonderful place to cruise and should be on everyone's list if they can do it.

The main down side is, it gets cold in the winter and most boats have to be hauled and winterized for six months.

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Ron, I knew you had lived in Maryand, and knew of you cruise this year. I didn't know that you were basically cruising the Bay for the first time. I can't wait to read your blog. You did a great job on your cruise "up" the St. Johns River.

I have to giggle at the either/or mentality.

I love snorkeling...tough to do when I was loving living on Kodiak in AK....

I love salmon fishing....tough in NJ...thankfully there's an OK salmon fishery in the Great Lakes only about a 6-8 hr drive away...but a weeks cruise by boat at least.

I love flat's fishing for bonefish...never saw on one in Puget Sound.

I absolutely love the skylines of the PNW but then the sight of active lightening in a gigantic thunderhead out over the Gulf Stream with the setting sun behind it and a couple Coconut palms and a white sandy beach framing it all is dag gone near as spectacular...it just isn't there in the morning mist when you wake up.

Well heck..I guess that's why I like cruising...so I CAN see different sights and yes/no...I wouldn't spend a lifetime cruising the Chesapeake...but it certainly will be a lingering spot as long as I'm cruising the East Coast.

To say your satisfied with the view you have from your boat to the horizon...then like arguing about what is a trawler...I'd debate whether you are truly a cruiser.

psneeld said:

I have to giggle at the either/or mentality.

I love snorkeling...tough to do when I was loving living on Kodiak in AK....

I love salmon fishing....tough in NJ...thankfully there's an OK salmon fishery in the Great Lakes only about a 6-8 hr drive away...but a weeks cruise by boat at least.

I love flat's fishing for bonefish...never saw on one in Puget Sound.

I absolutely love the skylines of the PNW but then the sight of active lightening in a gigantic thunderhead out over the Gulf Stream with the setting sun behind it and a couple Coconut palms and a white sandy beach framing it all is dag gone near as spectacular...it just isn't there in the morning mist when you wake up.

Well heck..I guess that's why I like cruising...so I CAN see different sights and yes/no...I wouldn't spend a lifetime cruising the Chesapeake...but it certainly will be a lingering spot as long as I'm cruising the East Coast.

To say your satisfied with the view you have from your boat to the horizon...then like arguing about what is a trawler...I'd debate whether you are truly a cruiser.

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We love them all too. Expanding our horizons. Seeing those areas by water that we've never seen even by land. So far we've enjoyed the east coast up to Boston, the gulf to Corpus Christi, the Bahamas, and now Alaska, the PNW and down the coast to California. It's all got it's special beauty. Puget Sound vs. the Chesapeake isn't a choice we've had to make as we've been fortunate enough to enjoy both. Now as to place to live, we love Fort Lauderdale. We love boating weather year round. We would probably both develop seasonal affective disorder if we moved somewhere that we were limited to six months of boating weather.

And we're not making light of the condition as it does impact people. Portland, OR is a beautiful town with so much going. But it also only averages three days of sunshine in January. People who have lived there most of their lives absolutely love the area, rain, clouds and all. People who move there as adults often have major problems their first winter. But it can work the other way. We had a friend who moved to Charlotte, NC from Wisconsin. Her first summer she spent miserable. Home and the mall were the only two places she felt comfortable.

psneeld said:

To say your satisfied with the view you have from your boat to the horizon...then like arguing about what is a trawler...I'd debate whether you are truly a cruiser.

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I don't agree with that at all. I know a lot of people who have spent their entire boating "career" cruising only in the waters from Puget Sound, WA and Glacier Bay, AK and everything in between. To say they are not cruisers is the height of ignorance in my opinion.

Some of them, and I include myself in this although I have barely scratched the surface as far as boating in this area, have been all over the world, sometimes on vacations and sometimes for work. And every single one of them-- some of them refugees from the east coast of this country--- has told me that, while they have been to some very cool places and seen some fascinating things, including boating experiences in some of these spots, their favorite place on the planet remains the Pacific Northwest, BC, and SE Alaska.

I think to say that if one has no desire to boat in the region where they live is not truly a cruiser is silly. This applies as much to people who have no desire to cruise anywhere other than the Chesapeake as it does to people who have no desire to cruise anywhere other than the BC Raincoast.

Some people like to move around and see lots of things. Others like to stick to one area and get to know like the back of their hand. There is no right or wrong, just different.

I know you have a lot of experience along the eastern seaboard and perhaps out into the Caribbean and maybe the Gulf. That's great, and I'm glad you enjoy that area. But I know a couple of people who have spent their many decades of boating running only the stretch of coast between the San Juan Islands and the north end of Vancouver Island. And, to steal a phrase from another post of mine, I'm willing to bet that these folks have forgotten more about "cruising" than you--- or I--- will ever know.

There are very knowledgeable and good cruisers on the Tennessee River. They cover hundreds of miles. Nearly 700 miles before any side trip up the Cumberland or via the Ohio or even down the TN Tom. And some spend a tremendous amount of time boating. To me, if it's on the water and we're doing it actively, then I'm great.

rwidman said:

My wife and I grew up in Maryland but didn't start boating until fifteen years ago. We had a smaller boat and would boat on the Chesapeake Bay but seldom went far.

We retired to Charleston, SC and eventually purchased HIGH COTTON.

This past May we cruised up the ICW to the Chesapeake and did a complete circle starting on the east side all the way to Havre de Grace and down the west side and up the Potomac to DC. We saw many places we had never seen and some familiar places as well. The entire trip lasted seventy six days. I am working on a "blog" of sorts and I'll post a link when it's done.

The Chesapeake Bay is a wonderful place to cruise and should be on everyone's list if they can do it.

The main down side is, it gets cold in the winter and most boats have to be hauled and winterized for six months.

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Looking forward to the read. I too would like to cruise the Chesapeake, but until then I'll do it vicariously.

I like fishing as my last post suggested...and it looks like I caught one already today....

Moonstruck said:

Ron, I knew you had lived in Maryand, and knew of you cruise this year. I didn't know that you were basically cruising the Bay for the first time. I can't wait to read your blog. You did a great job on your cruise "up" the St. Johns River.

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It's posted as of today. It's been basically ready for a couple months, just waiting for that final "tweaking".

I'm trying to decide where to go next year.

rwidman said:

It's posted as of today. It's been basically ready for a couple months, just waiting for that final "tweaking".

I'm trying to decide where to go next year.

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Gotta link?

Moonstruck said:

Gotta link?

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http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s27/icw-chesapeake-bay-17396.html

or here's the direct link:

http://www.widman.biz/indigo/HIGH_COTTON_IV.pdf

The Chesapeake is the 2nd largest estuary on the planet, and the waterfowl that migrates here in the winter months are breathtaking.

As a new cruiser, so far I've cruised to St. Michaels MD from Galesville and visited many of the rivers mid-bay. By land I've been to Chestertown during the Tall Ship downrigging (amazing and a MUST SEE if you like tall ships), Tihlman's Island, Oxford, and of course Baltimore & Annapolis, just to name a few. I've heard that Bohemia is gorgeous and that the Choptank is full of history and Skipjacks! I've also heard that the upper bay's rivers have majestic cliffs and bald eagles.

Every season I hope to cruise different parts of the bay, and it inspires me to think about all of the places I will see...

That said, here are two books on the bay I highly recommend:

CHESAPEAKE SPRING
BIRDS OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY
(both books written and illustrated by nature writer John Taylor)

rwidman said:

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s27/icw-chesapeake-bay-17396.html

or here's the direct link:

http://www.widman.biz/indigo/HIGH_COTTON_IV.pdf

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Thanks, Ron. Finished reading it all. Great write up!