It took us about 7 hours for the trip and had the anchor down in St John's creek next to some nice looking homes. We went up the creek further than most boats do so we would have a quiet anchorage. The weather has been nice, temperature in the 70's and sunshine.
Every evening right before dark hundreds of geese would fly over heading from west to east. I am assuming they went ashore to feed and then were heading back out to the bay for the night. We could hear them coming from about 1/2 mile away. Just honking like mad. I wonder what they are saying. Probably giving the leader of the V directions. The leader is probably a male and we know he won't ask directions.
We stayed in the anchorage for six nights. Occasionally taking our dinghy and going around to Back Creek where the marinas are. We would land at Zahniser's marina and walk to the grocery store.
Our fine weather was about to come to an end with the arrival of tropical storm Nicole which was coming straight up the east coast from Florida. We decided to move over to a mooring ball at Zahniser's so we would be closer to going ashore and maybe a little piece of mind being on a secure mooring. However, we have never dragged anchor, yet! I really trust our big Super Max anchor.
Tropical storm Nicole hit on Thursday and the wind and rain lasted for about 40 hours. We had wind gusts to 50 mph with sustained wind around 30. The rain just kept coming down in buckets. We heard reports that some areas nearby had up to 20 inches of rain. Since Nicole has passed we really have only had one nice day or weather.
We took advantage of the nice weather day and borrowed the bikes from the marina and rode to a CVS pharmacy about a mile and 1/2 away. We also stopped at the grocery store and picked up some fresh meat. The Woodburn's grocery is pretty close, you can walk to it or dinghy to the Holiday Inn marina which is right next to it, and they have great produce and meats. We stocked up on some extra and put it in the freezer.
Here in Back Creek there is a lot of boating things going on. There are about five large marinas so it has been a parade of boats coming and going. The mooring is right by the Calvert Marine Museum and they have a tour boat that leaves early and comes back in the afternoon. The people have to sit outside and most were pretty well bundled up. There was a replica Viking boat that came out from the museum. It was small and had eight oars and a single sail. No one was calling the rowing count and it looked like a bunch of drunks trying to row together.
I never did see them put the sail up.
There is a boat race on the Patuxent river just outside the creeks where we are this weekend. The noise from the boats is unbelievable. There are even some jet boats here. They are using the marina right across from us and do the engine revving thing to get warmed up before going out.
Just sitting around watching the boat traffic has been nice and relaxing though. Also there is a clock somewhere that chimes the Winchester chime that we can hear. It reminds me of our den at home. Or at least the home we used to have.
The other night we met a couple, Dave and Peggy, that are living on there Venizia 42 Catamaran sailboat. They invited us over for drinks after dinner. Dave is a retired Coast Guard captain and spent a lot of time on the water. He says it has all been larger ships though and has a lot to learn about his Cat and doing the ICW. They are heading to the Bahama's this winter too so we may run into them down there.
We are planning to leave here soon and head further north to Oxford and Cambridge Maryland. The winds have been strong and out of the north with waves running 2-5 feet in the Chesapeake. We don't really want to head right into that. We have met some people that are already heading south for the winter. We will stick around the Chesapeake for a few more weeks before heading south.
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