Cruising South on the Chesapeake

[Mike Denest]

We're moving Whisper from Rock Hall to Solomons, MD the end of the month for the summer and need to do an overnight transient stay somewhere below Annapolis.  We have already contacted Herrington Harbour for a slip but ended up #2 on the waiting list.  Anyone have suggestions for marinas below Annapolis or Deale?  A marina on either the Eastern or Western shore would be ok.     

[sdaly66]

Mike,

Look on the West River maybe, or the Rhode River.

If you want a marina, there's Pirate's Cove and one other in Galesville (West River).

If you're looking to spend the night on the hook, there's a fantastic gunkhole on the Rhode River - West Side across from Cadle Creek.

Also maybe try Rhode River marina - I think they do transients.

When you have dates, let me know, maybe we could drop in and see you.

[Steve McGill]

Mike,

I assume you contacted both Harrington Harbor North and South?

About 6-7 nm further south staying on the western shore is Flag Harbor

http://www.flagharbor.com/

Than would leave less then 30nm to your destination.

Steve

[Ron Hill]

Mike : Try Knapp's Narrows marina.  They have floating docks and are on the Bay side of the bridge.  Both sides of Knapp's narrows have recently (last month) been dredged.  That's about 1/2 way.   
A thought. 

[Mike Denest]

Thanks for all your suggestions guys.  We did an overnight raft up Saturday evening with powerboat friends who were also cruising south to Solomons in Herring Bay, not too far from Tracy's Landing.  Sunday morning woke us up rocking and rolling with the powerboat so we set our anchor and drifted off but not before I clobbered three stanchions on the starboard side.  Too compound things, the batteries don't seem to be holding a charge and I only had 10 volts to work with.  A call to Towboat/US was in order and got us into the dock for an hour of charge time.  Sure happy I bought unlimited coverage!  We passed a bunch of C34's on the way and waved to as many as we could.  Made it to Solomons Sunday afternoon so stanchion removal and battery checking is in order. 

[Ron Hill]

Mike : Sorry to hear of your misfortune, but rafting up with a power boat is always risky. They have a high center of gravity (compared to a C34) and with their wide beam + hard chine bottom you'll both Rock and Roll if you are waked - as you found out.   

[Mike Denest]

Mike : Sorry to hear of your misfortune, but rafting up with a power boat is always risky. They have a high center of gravity (compared to a C34) and with their wide beam + hard chine bottom you'll both Rock and Roll if you are waked - as you found out.   

You're right, we found out about that the hard way!  It was not fun trying to get up on deck while the boat was heeling to and fro but we got untied and I dropped anchor.  I thought about removing the stanchions and straightening them but I also thought that I may not get the angles right so it's off to Catalina Direct for replacements.  No I'll have to polish up the old ones to make them match. 

I checked the batteries and found that they were at least up to 12.5 volts.  I figure that the battery use overnight pulled them down.  Looks like I need to set up a topping system for overnight gunkhole stays.

Also found out that BOAT is an acronym for Break Out Another Thousand.