Sassafras River to Essex, MD

Sassafras River
Thursday, September 19 - While Kevin was on his 9:00 consulting call I prepared the boat for departure and moved all the cushions, seats, pillows, etc back up into the cockpit now that the rain had passed. We left the dock at 11:00 a.m. and went down the last of the C&D Canal, into Chesapeake Bay to the Sassafras River. We went about an hour up the river to a marina where we got a pumpout. From there we went back down the river for 15 minutes and anchored at 3:46 near the mouth of Freeman Creek. The Sassafras River lies between Delaware and Maryland, on the map it looks like we are in Delaware but the zip code comes up as Maryland. The location was nice, the water was smooth and there were no other boats around us anchored.

Essex, MD
Friday, September 20 - Kevin pulled up the anchor and I steered us back onto our course a little before 11:00 a.m. A couple had set up a triangle area in the creek with bouys and were crabbing, paying no attention to us what so ever, whom we had to navigate around. It was a beautiful sunny day, in the mid to high 70’s with 6 knots of wind and smooth water. By 12:15 we turned into Chesapeake Bay and pulled out the sails, however that did not last long. Soon after the wind left us and we had nothing but hot sun. Tiny flying insects that looked like minuscule ants were flying into the boat and very annoying. They didn’t bite but tickled and at times covered us. We put on lemon and Eucalyptus oil to try to deter them. In a short amount of time there was no wind, even motoring we were only creating 2 knots. We went onto the Middle River and docked in Essex in John and Marlene’s (Setendidity) community marina. That night we went to their house for dinner and she made a delicious meal of chicken with a sun dried tomato cream sauce.

Saturday, September 21 - It was a slow day, I didn’t do much other then take pepper for a walk, clean the outside cushions and finish my book. I had planned to go for a run but that never happened. Late that night a big thunderstorm came through with lightning, lighting up the boat at times.

Sunday, September 22 - Maureen loaned us her car to go to Home Depot and Walmart for groceries in the morning. We left at 2:00 p.m for Baltimore. It was a partially cloudy day, half the sky was clear and half was grey. The wind was blowing around 8 knots and we were able to pull the sails out for a little while once we were in the Bay but it didn’t last long and by 4:00 we had pulled both back in. We went past the Francis Scott Key bridge at 4:20 and saw the large gap where the ship crashed into it. We anchored south of the bridge at 5:00 p.m. next to the Maryland Yacht Club.もっと詳しく