patuxent river

before anything else -  as much as we've been enjoying cruising the upper Bay, tom and i both agreed that we really miss the open expanse of the southern Bay.  the upper Bay is narrower, more populated, and towns are closer to each other so you don't have to cruise long hours to get to the next place, which makes it great for weekend warriors with fast boats.  we are a slow boat at a 6-knot turtle speed so passage can be rather long and drawn out.   there is plenty to see and do in the upper Bay but then there are crowds and tourists and people who think they are driving cars, not boats, don't look back at what their wake is doing to everyone else, don't know how to anchor and have no sense of personal space.  we are always looking over our shoulders, watching our backs, etc.  it can be a bit stressful sometimes and neither of us enjoy the rocking and rolling with the wakes even though TADHANA, wide as she is, takes them rather well.  tom said:  "i need a 'little bay' day!"


battle creek.

which leads me to the patuxent.  solomons woke up kind of early on a sunday because it was screwpile regatta weekend.  the race committee boats don't seem to care that some people are still asleep!  and hello?  there is a 'no wake' sign in this creek!  never mind that it is apparently okay to get that close to anchored boats and try to give their owners a coronary.  i guess the bottom line is: too many people sardined in a little place.  i, personally, have always had a problem with that, having grown up the spoiled one child of two in a large, mostly silent house.  in any case, we pulled up the anchor, waved goodbye to mike and ann as we passed them and headed out into the patuxent river.  there weren't too many boats out so it was a pleasant cruise up to battle creek.  unfortunately, the popular anchorage there which has a nice white sandy beach was already populated.  granted, they are day people and will leave eventually but we opted for the next cove.  fortunately, we had the rest of the day to explore in the dinghy since neither of us had ever been that far up the patuxent river before.  it really is quite lovely with its high bluffs, and for the first time in a very long time, the night was pitch black!  i guess we'd been in the big bad city too long  :) 

not much of a wake

battle creek

cormorants

osprey nest

great blue

battle creek

exhausted consuelo

another osprey nest

corn fields

almost ready to eat

one of the patuxent's many beaches

 

let's check out this nest

the next morning, we pulled up the anchor and headed upriver to the route 231 bridge.  there is a department of natural resources office at hallowing point and our plan was to re-register TADHANA in maryland.  other than the hook not catching the first time, the whole process was pretty painless.  the tide was so high we probably could have taken the boat all the way up to the boat ramp!  in any case, we anchored, dropped the dinghy, motored over to the office, paid our $10 and got our stickers and that was that!  amazing.....  no lines, no hassle.

from there, we decided not to continue upriver even though there was plenty of depth. we pulled up the anchor, turned around and headed back towards the Bay.  on the way down, we passed an oyster farm that we had visited a couple years prior (by car) and decided to slow down and check it out and take some photos.  we must have been an unusual sight because two guys working at the farm got on a pontoon boat and came over to say hello.  in the end, we wound up with a box of about four dozen fresh oysters that they just GAVE us for free!  it certainly was a lucky stop - all washed and scrubbed and ready for market, too.  needless to say, we demolished the lot that night :)

with still no real clue where we were going to spend the night, we motored on and entered st. leonard creek which is just absolutely gorgeous.  again, high bluffs, stately homes.....  it really is a beautiful creek.  and then there is vera's white sands, which, unfortunately, seems to be a shadow of its former self now that vera is gone.  however, no anchorage appealed to us so we left.

oyster farm

all scrubbed and clean

st. leonard creek

vera's white sands

more vera's

vera's exotic-looking house

bon appétit!

mill creek.

we ended up in mill creek, just above the route 4 bridge.  what a fabulous anchorage!  well, except for the occasional jet noise as there is a navy facility nearby.  it turns out that we were anchored right next to the myrtle point county park so beach access was not a problem and there were walking trails in the woods, etc.  we did a lot of dinghying around - there were just so many prongs and nooks and crannies to explore.  on a ride up cuckhold creek, we stopped at the forrest landing ramp as consuelo wanted to stretch her legs.  two ladies were pulling their kayaks out.  one got off with no problem on the floating dock.  the other lady was not doing so well so she kayaked over to the ramp instead and her friend walked over to help her out of her kayak.  i could see the whole situation turning into a disaster so i yelled over, "hang on a minute and i'll come and help!"  they did not wait and the woman fell out of the kayak and into the creek.  oh well....   i did tell them to wait, didn't i?  tom and i helped them put their kayaks on top of their cars. i'm sorry, but kayaking has never really been my thing.  give me a dinghy with an outboard any time.  kayaking, canoeing, paddleboarding (which i REALLY do not get at all!) - it just seems like way too much work for a hot day, in my opinion.   in any case, getting on and off - it's really all about technique.  i guess that one lady needed more practice :)  oh, and her hat fell off when she went into the water.  she just put it back on her head and well, you can imagine....  all i can say is that she was not wet from the waist up until she put on that hat.  

one of the things that i failed to mention was the fact that when we were at havre de grace, we picked up some spiders from the dock.  i had been getting rid of them as i saw them but it seems that we were more infested than we originally thought!  well, at least the webs were snaring some of the other bugs but it was a constant cleaning up of dead bodies that we had to do - most annoying!  i'm thankful, though, that they are all on the OUTSIDE and not inside the boat.  if they were in here, i would totally lose it and go on some kind of cleaning rampage (as if that isn't what i do every single day anyway - between tom and consuelo, it is a never-ending chore).  in any case, we sat in mill creek an extra day, did some work, did some dinghy exploring and just had a relaxing time.  the patuxent river is well worth the exploration. there aren't as many boats creating wakes - i guess most people stop at solomons island and then move on from there and don't bother with the river.

sunset at mill creek

tadhana from myrtle point county park

consuelo enjoying a swim

little wicomico river.

the next day, we headed for solomons to fuel up and fill the water tanks and while there, consuelo got a much-needed bath.  she was starting to get a little ripe.  i couldn't, in all conscience, stop her from going swimming, she was so hot, and we didn't have enough water to rinse her off plus i had planned on the bath anyway.  from there, we went out into the chesapeake and headed south, crossing the potomac, which wasn't too bad although i think we got out of there just in time as the wind was slowly picking up.  we negotiated the narrow, shallow channel into the little wicomico river and wound up back at tommy and marie armstrong's place.  the last time we visited, we had anchored and then dinghied to the neighbor's dock.  this time, their new dock was in place - VERY nice!  we stayed a couple of nights and had a GREAT time.  conversation is always very fast-paced and witty with this intelligent, articulate couple whom we first met at an MTOA meeting and it was apparent from the start that we were "simpatico!"  about the only one who did not have a"swell" time was consuelo.  the armstrongs have a rambunctious 1-year-old brittany spaniel who just wanted to play.  consuelo, at nearly 14 years of age, has neither the time nor the patience for puppies and suzie was being dense and relentless.  tom helped tommy put caps on the pilings on the new dock and together, they solved the problems of the world. 

dixieland and tadhana together at the armstrong's new dock

sunset on the little wicomico

sunset on the little wicomico

little bay. 

we finally got to little bay for tom's "i need a little bay day" and as always, little bay did not fail to meet expectations.  surprisingly, for a friday night, we were only two boats anchored there.  unfortunately, that night, we got swarmed by midges again!  at least they don't bite but geez....  what's with the bugs???

ahhhhh....  little bay :)

sea beagle

kayak beach

sunset at little bay

deltaville.

we left little bay early to get to deltaville in time to catch the post office before closing time on a saturday.  we had been gone six weeks and needless to say, there was a TON of mail.  i had a TON of laundry to do and TADHANA seriously needed a bath after all that salt spray, the midge swarm and spider infestation, etc. etc.  what did i say in an earlier blog about marinas?  it is all about getting cleaned up!  this time, my ducks did not wait three to four days before making an appearance.  i was really glad to see my little brown hen.  the drake was molting - he looked terrible.  oh, and good to see all our other friends and neighbors, too.  but too many things to do and not enough time before we leave again for cape charles.  always on the move now.  the way it's going, before we know it, we are going to stop thinking of deltaville as "home." 

some things just don't change