day 385
On Wednesday morning, 09/30/21, at 9:30 am, with the aid of our new friends in Havre de Grace, we threw off the lines from our tie at Log Pond Marina, on the far northern point of the Chesapeake Bay, and headed southward. Our destination on this day was Rock Hall Landing Marina, in the tiny harbor town of Rock Hall, MD. As forecast, our skies were clear and sunny, with accompanying cruising conditions of slightly ripply waters under a light breeze. We were both dressed in warmer attire this morning, as the temperatures were noticeably chillier here on this last day of September, as we cruised past Aberdeen Proving Ground and Turkey Point Lighthouse, MD.
We passed by the mouth of the Sassafras River (this time to our port), which we’d traveled up several months ago to meet our friends, the Wehrles, at Sassafras Marina in Georgetown, MD. I’ve said it before, I know, but it bears repeating – the waters of the Chesapeake Bay are very BROWN, which is kind of a disappointment, when you’re used to the deep blues of the ocean (and especially the bright teal blue-greens of the waters surrounding the Florida Keys!)
We passed Meeks Point, MD, to our port, and Abbey Point, MD, to our starboard. This part of the Chesapeake appears sparsely populated, when viewed from the water. We were joined by lots of pleasure boats on the Bay, as it was both a perfect cruising AND sailing day, weather-wise.
Eventually, we approached Baltimore (on our starboard) which is located west of the Bay, up the Patapsco River, and just visible to us in the distance to our west. For awhile, we seemed to be on a collision course with Poole’s Island, in the center of the upper Chesapeake Bay.
Up ahead we saw the Chesapeake Bay Bridge again, this time to our southwest. We will arrive Rock Hall Landing Marina this afternoon, before we cross back underneath that bridge.
We arrived at Rock Hall Landing Marina at 2:00 pm, and were directed to a wall tie-up on our starboard side. We were impressed with the nice condition of this marina and the beauty of the surrounding area. I was reminded again that Maryland is by far one of my favorite coastal areas on this adventure! Once Legacy was securely tied, plugged into power, and her crew showered, we walked next door to Waterman’s Crab House for early dinner, dining out on their deck next to the water, where we had a front-row seat for the sunset. Just off this deck was a rather rickety-looking dock finger that extended out into the marina about 30 feet to a small T-dock, where an imposing, 60-foot Sundancer power boat was tied, waiting for her crew to board. Along with the other dinner guests out on the deck, Steve and I sipped our cocktails and watched a large, boisterous group of clearly inebriated older men precariously traverse the narrow and very unstable dock finger from the deck out to the boat. Each of the gentlemen had a drink in hand, and displayed valiant efforts to keep from spilling those drinks, or – worse yet – toppling off of that swaying (unrailed) dock finger right into the marina water. Though it truly looked doubtful, all eight of those men managed to successfully wobble out the entire length of the dock finger and climb up onto that boat without mishap, which I found to be nothing short of miraculous. I could barely stop myself from standing and applauding, as the fully-boarded Sundancer roared to life, dropped its lines, and sped off from it’s tiny pier (no wake zone? WHAT no wake zone?). We thanked our lucky stars that we were not out on the water with that boat right then, considering its captain seemed to be just as tipsy as his passengers were! 😐
As nice as it is, Rock Hall Landing Marina does not supply a courtesy car, and is located in an area remote enough to lack Uber and Lyft, and taxi service! Around 9 pm that evening, my sinusitis began to flare up onboard Legacy, then worsen into a bad coughing fit, and finally spiral down into a full-blown bronchial spasm (which included labored breathing and heightened anxiety on my part). By 10 pm (after the marina had long been closed and most inhabitants of the surrounding boats had already gone to bed), we began to entertain the thought of calling an ambulance to the nearest emergency room. Once again, the ugly reality of not having our own, personal land transportation reared it’s head. How long would it take an ambulance to even reach us? And if we DID call an ambulance, how would we get back to our boat once I was finished with treatment? We debated back and forth for about thirty minutes, until, after some mild sedation, my chest slowly began to relax, my rapid gasps for breath calmed, and I finally felt I’d be okay to sleep on the boat that night, rather than set-out for the ER. Whew!
Position: N 39° 08.034, W 76° 14.677
Distance traveled: 45 SM
Total distance traveled: 4844 SM
Total marina nights: 361
Total nights at anchor: 23
Locks today: 0
Locks Total: 28