The Chesapeake Bay

2008-05-12T11:28:00.383-04:00

Underway!

On the right, we're underway to Norfolk, VA, on our 2006 Dismal Swamp Canal trip, a ~500 mile circuit from near Annapolis, MD, down to Albemarle Sound, NC, and back. This trip is described in the August 2006 Soundings magazine.
At left, we're at the very start of our 2004 Delmarva voyage (around the Eastern Shore, also ~500 miles), just off Annapolis. It happened to be a big race day, and a photo helicopter buzzed by, thinking we were in the fleet. We were, but only because the go-fast boats were all passing us by! Bearboat's Delmarva trip is described in the September 2005 Soundings magazine. (photo: BoatPix)

Some Favorite Places on The Chesapeake

Chesapeake City and the C&D Canal, linking the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. One of the most heavily used canals in the U.S.

Baltimore Harbor and the Francis Scott Key Buoy. Baltimore has one of the busiest and most historic harbors on the Chesapeake. The Key Buoy marks the spot where Francis Scott Key wrote what became the national anthem, as he watched the Britsh Navy bombing Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. See article on 'boats and the flag' in the July 2009 Soundings (Photo: USCG).

The USS Constellation is the star of Baltimore's Inner Harbor: See the November 2010 Soundings feature on boating in Baltimore. The Constellation Cup regatta is held in the Patapsco River each fall to raise funds for the ship, as described in the February 2010 Soundings (hint: we won the 2009 Constellation Cup!). (Photo: HSB)

Chestertown, MD, home of the Sultana and the John Smith Shallop historic reproduction craft. See photos.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge,

crossing the bay at its narrowest point, above Annapolis to the Eastern Shore.

The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis (see the full travel article in the July 2008 Soundings magazine, posted to the left; a shorter version, with links, is posted at SailingBeat). (Photo: USNA)

Thomas Point Lighthouse, seven miles southeast of Annapolis, the last working screwpile lighthouse left on the Chesapeake Bay. Sold by the Coast Guard in 2004 to the city of Annapolis. Volunteers have refurbished the lighthouse and public tours are available. See article in SailingBeat.

Bloody Point Lighthouse, 12 miles southeast of Annapolis, marks the entrance to the Eastern Bay and the deepest point in the Chesapeake (174 feet). The name reflects how early watermen often found crew: by kidnapping deckhands and working them literally under the gun. As the boats became full, the free labor would be murdered and "fed to the crabs" in the deepest part of the bay.

Video: A November Gale on the Chesapeake Bay

Video: A Day in the Life of Muddy Creek

Tilghman Creek, near Claiborne, MD, on the Eastern Shore,

close to but a whole world away from St. Michaels, MD.

Solomons Island, MD, and the Calvert Marine Museum, which has the original Drum Point Lighthouse on display. This is a more interesting screwpile lighthouse and museum than the one at St. Michaels' Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, and well worth a visit.

The Hannibal, the U.S. Navy's only live-fire target ship in the Chesapeake Bay, scuttled on a sandbar near Smith Island, MD. It's routinely shot up by helicopters and jets out of the Patuxent River Naval Air Station. Details in the May 2008 Soundings. (photo: USNavy)

Tangier Island, one of only two islands in the Chesapeake Bay still occupied by communities of watermen. See article in SailingBeat or the travel feature in the September 2010 issue of Soundings magazine.

Wolf Trap Lighthouse, Western Shore, lower bay, marking a shoal where the HMS Wolfe ran aground in 1691. Wolf Trap Lighthouse was sold by the Coast Guard to a private owner in 2006 but is still a working light.

Norfolk and the Elizabeth River, at the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay. Home to the Norfolk Naval Base (largest in the world), it has lots of huge warships, well-armed Navy patrol boats, and very heavy commercial shipping traffic.

Red Nun 36 (right), off the Nauticus Marine Museum in the middle of the Elizabeth River, is better known as Mile Marker Zero: The beginning of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), which runs 1,200 miles south to Florida.

Location of Photos

Neighborhood Residents

Osprey

Blue Crab

Great Common American Egret (left), Brown Pelican (right)

Green Heron (left) and Great Blue Heron (right)

Masked Maruader