Sailing Flamenco: On into the Chesapeake

October 6, 2007 Saturday
Since you last heard from us, we motored up the Delaware River, through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, and into the Bohemia River at the top of the Chesapeake. We did all that in one long day. I knew good things were in store because Andrea spent the day in the cockpit, alternately on watch and going through her Spanish cookbooks. The C & D Canal was only 12 miles long - a brain child of, among others, Benjamin Franklin. In the 1700's, the world wanted an easy way to get commerce from Baltimore to Philadelphia. The C&D Canal was the result. Once through that, the anchorage in the Bohemia River was the first one deep enough for our boat. Even then, we had to feel our way in with the depth sounder reading 7.4 feet. We draw 6.1 feet and the tide was still falling. Low tide was at 9PM, but after Andrea's Spanish dinner and some Tio Pepe sherry, I fell asleep and missed whatever worry might have been there. It was so calm that, if we touched bottom, we probably wouldn't have even noticed.
The Chesapeake is really the remains of the old Susquehanna River and its many tributaries make a fabulous cruising ground for exploration. Our first night in the Bohemia was magic. There were flights of wild geese visible in the setting sunlight and for hours we could hear them gabbling and fussing along the shorelines. The trees are just barely starting to show their fall colors, especially the maples. The water was perfectly still and the temperatures perfect for outdoor dining. While we are wearing long pants and sleeping under covers, it is still nearly perfect weather - mid 70's during the day and mid 60's at night.
After a day of exploring the shallow side creeks in the dinghy, we moved on to Georgetown, MD. But the side creeks were worthy of mention. In our dinghy, we can go into water a foot deep, so that opens a lot of water that the big boat can't get to. We took a picnic up winding Scotchman's Creek and, after getting to a remote area, let the dinghy drift into shore. We draped ourselves across the bottom and set up a lunch on the seat. Ah, could it get better than that? Time will tell.
The next day, we moved down to Georgetown, just 10 miles or so. Georgetown was founded during colonial times and was named after King George. Across the river is Fredricktown named after his son.
Today is a foggy morning in Georgetown. We needed some civilization to fill the water and fuel tanks. And we needed to get to a grocery store. So we took a mooring at the local marina and got to use their loaner bikes for our shopping. Now we are all stocked up and ready for the rest of the Chesapeake. In an hour, we are going to sail back down the Sassafras River and anchor somewhere - ready for a sail tomorrow down to Rock Hall, MD.
PS - We sailed down to Worton Creek and anchored just off a nice beach. We are going ashore to admire the sunset from the land. Maybe pix - who knows? Stay tuned - film at 11.
Don't forget to write.

Here is Scotchman's Creek where we went for a picnic in the dinghy. Other than a few duck blinds, there were no traces of humanity. Very mellow.

And here is one of us in full picnic mode. This stuff is hard to take. It doesn't look too fancy, but it was.

Here is the home of the family of Augustine Hermann, a native of Bohemia, who was commissioned by Lord Baltimore to map the region and later participated in the planning for the C&D Canal. Just shows, you gotta know politicians to be able to afford a fancy house.