Bald Eagle

     The Mattawoman Creek, just off of the Potomac River, has been a great location for viewing the Bald Eagle.

(Click on any image to see the enlargement)

JELLO

     I am sure by now that everyone has come to the same conclusion; especially those who have a working knowledge of geography, that we are headed for our nation's capital.  Our slow boat has been weaving in and out of ever side creek on the Maryland shore of the Potomac River from the Chesapeake Bay to our current location on Mattawoman Creek.  We have slip reservations at the Gangplank Marina in Washington, DC for August 1st.  Departing from our normal anchor out lifestyle, we may be tied to a dock for up to 7 days.  Once we are in the marina, our first priority is engine room maintenance.  Then we are off to the grocery store once again to reprovision the boat.  The rest of our time on land will be spent playing the role of tourist.  Sure hope Mother Nature cooperates and turns down the burners from high heat!  For our adventures on land, we plan to use Rick's (M/V Broulee) approach to plans and anything organized - "JELLO"! 

Sizzlin' Hot Summer

        Late afternoon thunderstorm at Breton Bay.

 

     Unofficially, the start of summer is Memorial Day, and ever since that time we have been tortured with high temps and humidity.  Big Run has been very fortunate ( or not! ) to have the severe storms skirt around her location every time a cool front passes through.  It's been one sizzlin' hot summer!

S/V Dove

    This is S/V Dove berthed at historic St. Mary's City, MD.  This is a replica of the ship that sailed up the St Mary's river in 1634 with the S/V Ark to establish the first settlement in Maryland.  She is 65 feet long with a 17' beam, weighs 25 ton and had a cargo capacity of 40 tons.  She was crewed by 7, although today they use a crew of 9.

Although it's built like a tank, this is the dinghy for the S/V Dove

State House

     Today was an educational day for us as we did a walking tour of the historical settlement of St. Mary's City.  Founded in 1634, St Mary's City served as the first capitol of Maryland.  Below are photos of the State House.

  

  State House as seen from the back.

The Honorable and Distinguished Chair Lady presiding over the house floor.

Meeting room on second floor.

 

Cool And Comfortable

  Point No Point Lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay

   It wasn't barnacles growing on the anchor rode, but there was some kind of grass or something growing on the chain.  It had been 11 days since we dropped anchor, and today was the day to move on.  Our plan was to go to the Patuxent  (Pat) River and anchor overnight at Mill Creek  We did have a contingency plan if we made good time getting to the Pat River, we would push on to the Potomac River.  We arrived at the Pat River and decided to make the run to the Potomac and anchor in Smith Creek.  We had anchored in Smith Creek back in October 2010 while we waited out a blow.  The last time we were here, we had anchored on the west side.  However, there was a great private and secluded hole on the east side of the creek.  The east anchorage had enough room for one boat.  We had very slowly sounded our way in watching the depth sounder register 7 feet.  Big Run needs 4.5 feet.  Sharon gets very attentive when the sounder registers 6 feet.  We had 7 feet all the way in, and that was 2 hours after low tide.   As I said, this anchorage had enough room for 1 boat.  The north and south shore were about 250 feet away.  The cove continued to the east for about 500 feet, and to the west was the entrance.  The center was 7 feet, which quickly got skinny to the north and south, and at about  250 feet to the east the 7 foot depth was lost to 2 feet of depth.  So, here we are nicely tucked in our private cove.   We have gone from a 1 mile by 2 mile wide anchorage on the Little Choptank River to a 10 acre hurricane hole. Yes, hurricane hole, there was absolutely no air (breeze) to be had to cool off the boat.  This is a beautiful private cove that would be a great hidey hole from a hurricane, but not on a hot summer night.  So tomorrow it's back to the wide open, not so private, wind blown anchorages that we find cool and comfortable.  

  View of sunset from our not so cool and comfortable anchorage!

    

Wind Blown Anchorages

     Happy 4th of July to all of our families and friends.  We have been "stuck" here on the Little Choptank River for 10 days.  When Sharon and I find an anchorage we like, we tend to overstay our welcome.  Well, nobody is kicking us out, but when we pull the anchor I am sure the barnacles will have taken up residence on our anchor and chain.  Speaking of anchors, it happened again just the other night.  Another boat dragged its anchor.  Sharon and I had been monitoring the weather with internet radar and while being on watch in the pilothouse.  On one of my trips up to the pilothouse to check on the approaching storm, I noticed the only other boat in our anchorage was moving.  I made a comment to Sharon, and she agreed that she thought the other boat was moving.  We watched the boat for a while and decided that it was dragging its hook, and the souls onboard were down below sound asleep.  After watching the boat for what seemed a long time, I decided to sound the danger signal with our ship's horn, 5 blasts of the horn.  We waited a minute but did not see any movement on deck.  Again I sounded the horn 5 times with each blast longer in duration than my first alarm. We doubt they heard the alarm because they were to our stern and our horns project the sound to our bow.  Once again we failed to see any movement on deck.  Next, I tried our roof mounted spotlight thinking they would be alarmed by the light shining on and in the boat.  By the time I got the light trained on the boat we noticed movement on the pulpit and I immediately turned off the spotlight.  Finally, the couple were on deck trying to regain control of their boat before they ran aground.  They saved the boat, pulled up anchor and motored to another anchorage in the dark.  I estimated that they dragged the hook for over 2,000 feet before we saw them on deck.  We like wide open anchorages, and this one is bigger than Comegys Bight on the Chester River.  I guess I now know why anyone seldom anchors with us in these spacious, wind blown anchorages.