We left Baltimore (traveling with Sum Escape) on September 20. The plan was to go across the Chesapeake Bay to Chestertown, Maryland which is about 25 miles up the Chester River. First, however, we headed south of Baltimore and entered the Magothy River where we found a neat anchorage at which to spend the night. It was near a scenic horse farm. Because the weather was calm, we waited until Sum Escape anchored and then we rafted Tug LeeLoo to Sum Escape to spend the night. Easy peasy! In the evening, we joined Tom and Julie on Sum Escape and for drinks and dinner while we watched a beautiful sunset!
The next morning, we left our anchorage at 10 a.m. We crossed the Bay and continued our cruise up the Chester River towards Chestertown. Our plan was to anchor in the river off the town of Chestertown and use the dinghy to go to town to explore. This proved easy to do because there was plenty of room to anchor and there was a dinghy dock on shore that was easy to use. Some dinghy docks are fixed docks and it is hard to get in and out of the dinghy. Chestertown provided floating dinghy docks which made our trips back and forth to the boats easy as we explored the town. We planned to stay for 2 nights, but we liked Chestertown so much (and the weather was good) so we decided to anchor out one more night.
The Chester River along Chestertown is a hub of activity. Washington College is located in Chestertown and every afternoon there were teams of college students sculling (rowing) up and down the river. They practiced for a couple of hours a day; a coach followed along behind yelling at them with a bullhorn. There was a novice sculler that was just learning and Nancy heard her complaining about how tired her arms were getting - and did she really have to go "that" far?! It was good entertainment to watch! There we also lots of locals out and about in the river tending crab traps.
Of course, one of our favorite things about anchoring is seeing the magnificent sunsets! Chestertown certainly lived up to our expectations!
Chestertown was a very walkable little town with a lot of historical buildings. Washington College is located there and it dates back to 1782 when it first received its charter from the state of Maryland. It is a private college and has a beautiful 112 acre campus in Chestertown. There is a downtown area that has lots of restaurants and, of course, a couple of ice cream shops! Our last night in Chestertown, there was a River Festival that we went to. There was music and dancing - and a huge peacock that was lit up for the festivities! Now this is not something you see every day!
We left Chestertown on September 24 and headed towards Annapolis, with a stop in the Wye River to anchor for the night. Once again, we rafted to Sum Escape, shared a meal and drinks with them, and sat and watched the stars come out. It was an absolutely beautiful spot!
The next day, we went back to Annapolis for 2 nights. Tom and Julie from Sum Escape were scheduled to get some repairs done to their boat. We decided to go back to Annapolis with them for a couple of days and were able to get back into Annapolis City Marina where we stayed before. In fact, we returned to the same slip that we had for the 5 weeks that we were there previously! It felt great to be back for a couple of days! ACM has great facilities and we know our way around! Even the dock hands seemed glad to have us back.
Sum Escape's repairs extended through the week, so we left on our own on September 27th. We cruised to Solomons, Maryland where we intended to anchor for one night, and then continue on south the next day. However, as stated earlier, Mother Nature is in charge and the weather turned bad for cruising. After 3 nights at anchor, we are now at the Solomons Yacht Center for 1 night; hope to continue south tomorrow. The wind and waves are supposed to calm down, at least that is the story for right now!
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