The Chesapeake: Bays, Creeks, Maryland and a Lot of Water

We left our holiday at Bluewater Marina in Hampton, VA, on Monday morning. It’s a hard left to the Norfolk inlet and up to the Chesapeake. It’s busy, lots of shipping traffic and home to the largest naval base in the world. What a way to start a week. Thankful for the holiday we had!

The Chesapeake Bay is enormously wide down to the inlet and it was seven hours of cruising before we reached our first anchorage just south of Deltaville, VA in a beautiful sandy bay called, Little Fleet Bay. It was extremely windy and we were well protected on all sides.

From our anchorage we headed north east across the Chesapeake to a historic fishing community- the storied community of Tangier Island, VA. I can honestly say, this was one of the most difficult days of my recent life. It started with the beautiful sunrise pictures above, but quickly became the most aggressive beam seas that lasted for nearly three hours. Our engine heated up and the temperature alarm went of half way out. We had to slow down and got the proverbial shit rocked out of us. One of us cried 😂

Arriving at the busy fishing harbor at Tangier was like entering a time warp reality. In addition to sea level rise and sinking land mass, Tangiers has seen a dramatic drop in population and it appears very tired from time and the absence of a robust population. David was exhausted and slept through the afternoon and I walked as much of the island as I could cover. Everyone I encountered was friendly and welcoming. Later, at the one restaurant in town, David ordered the famous Tangier Style Soft Shell Crab Sandwich. He’d never had one but we’d seen them however, this crab came out between two slabs of white bread. White as in Wonder Bread. We had to laugh. It’s a dry island so no beer to wash down the meal or the day. Here are some images from Tangier Island.

Since leaving Hampton we had no WiFi and very intermittent cell service. We were able to make a call to our certified Cummins Diesel shop at Campbell’s Marina in Oxford, Maryland (farther north up the Chesapeake) and schedule leaving Irene off for service on Sunday, when we get off the boat to visit David’s sister and her husband in St. Michaels, Maryland. It’s so interesting how life works out…like a champion. The mechanic, who is also a boat builder, is someone David and I met years ago at a boat show in Annapolis! We felt reassured and left Tangiers early and had a day of flat calm seas as we headed up the east shore to Slaughter Creek at Taylor Island and the Little Choptank River. We hadn’t intended to travel that far, but adjusted to take advantage of the calm waters. It was a full eight hours by the time we reached our destination; a tired marina that time forgot.

Oxford, MD, is located along the Big Choptank River so we headed out of Taylor Island to make a giant turn toward there. It was a only a four hour cruise to Deepcreek in Oxford and we were delighted to see crabbers, fishing boats and other cruisers. Oxford is lovely from the water and today we will take our dinghy into town for lunch and to visit the local book shop. Swoon. We’re anchoring for the weekend and exploring coves and beaches with the dinghy until we drop Irene off on Sunday.

How far have we traveled in this 6000 mile journey?

My quick and always rounding up math tells us we have traveled 187 hours at an average of 6.5 knots for a total of 1216 nautical miles which is 1400 miles! Hopefully, the Canadian border will open again and we can take the long route around this “Great Loop”. 🙏🏽

Over and out.