May 20, 2019 – Up and underway early, to take advantage of good tidal currents up the remainder of the Chesapeake Bay. The landscape is really different as we pass Aberdeen Proving Ground, and the fork that leads to where the Susquehana River empties into the Bay. And when I say empties, I am not talking just water. While not quite this bad, here’s a news clip from last spring that gives an idea.
The Conowingo Dam they mention has had floodgates open in advance of Memorial Day, and we passed one 20′ log about 12 inches around, and many other smaller branches, sticks, and pieces of lumber. Not lined up straight like crab-pots, they take constant vigilance as there isn’t really a pattern.
We made great time, getting almost 2 knots of help, and pulled into Chesapeake City almost 30 minutes ahead of plan, and were able to snag a spot on the free Town Dock wall. We could see a little creamery stand from the boat, but it turned out to be closed on Mondays, so no ice cream for dessert.
We had heard on Sunday that our friends Dave and Caroline were back visiting in Baltimore (from Clayton, NY), and they were going to drive up to Chesapeake City to meet us, and see the boat (again). Dave was our broker and helped us find and make the deal to buy it two years ago; we had fun sitting on the sundeck catching up.
A couple other Looper boats had followed us in around mid-day, but wound up anchoring. About 6:00, in came two more, and one of them was eyeing the too-small space behind us; we hopped off, and moved our boat up a few feet closer to the sailboat ahead of us – they saw what was happening, and moved their boat back a few feet as well. We were able to make the additional room, with about 2 feet between each of the boats, so everyone was secure for the night. The marina adjacent to the town dock is quite the party spot on weekends, but even on Mondays, they are all lit up, having Trivia night, and a couple go-fast boats came and went for dinner.
