May 29-30; Days 186-187 Last of the Chesapeake

After our fast and furious long 130 mile run down the Potomac and out to Solomans Island, we just kept up that pace (even though the water was a bit choppy) the following day with 97 miles to Sassafras Harbor Marina.  It’s weird what sitting still in D.C. did for a week. Seems to have produced a combination of feelings: antsy to get going, feeling like we’re “losing the race,” curious to see what’s next, longing for some quiet environs, and tired of “iffy” weather….to name a few!

But, the downside is, of course, that we are passing things that we wanted to see (not to mention things we don’t know that we want to see!).   So I guess that again confirms that there is Part Deux somewhere in the cards.  Along the way though, we did see a few things and again were surprised by the overall non-development of the shoreline.

We made a point of poking into the little marina where we bought the boat and this whole thing started!  SO SHE has made HER Loop!  Note that the front windows are shiny new and practically perfect to take pictures through! Yay!

 

As we’ve mentioned, the Chesapeake is the largest estuary in the world.  When poking along the shore it is easy to forget that.  Out here it was nice to have calm waters. Only 16 feet deep!

 

Some hearty souls rafting up on a cold dreary (ok ok, it is looks a bit sunnier in this picture than it was!) Memorial Day on the Sassafras River –a scenic river that feeds into Chesapeake Bay.

Not sure if these are fish farms or crabbing operations (or??) .  But we passed quite of few of these rustic operations as we went up the Sassafras.

 

Spent the night at Sassafras Harbor Marina outside of Georgetown, MD –up the river about 13 extra miles for a mini-sidetrip since we are zooming past everything else in the northern section of the Chesapeake.

Yay!  Marina has fresh lush herbs to pick!  Second marina we’ve run into with that amenity. Very nice extra!       

Oysters: nature’s land fill –bet that future grass has strong bones with all that calcium at its roots.

 

At the marina next door to ours, they clearly love birds!  Look at that cool tree attached to the pier for the nest stand!

 

And in the birdlovers’ back yard, they provide open dumpsters for these guys with 3 foot wingspans! 

 

 

After a rainy-misty, cold morning start, last peak of the Chesapeake as we enter the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal—originally built (not by slaves) in the 1820’s.

 

The C & D Canal is 14 miles long connecting Chesapeake Bay to Delaware Bay and effectively cutting the shipping route between Philadelphia and Baltimore by 300 miles.  It is still used for 40% of Balitmore’s shipping cargo.

By pure dumb-luck, we timed our entry into the WSW end of the canal with the tide flowing East- North-Easterly so we zoomed! 33.7 mph and only at 3/4ths throttle at 4200 RPMs.

N making a quick muscle walk to the Delaware City post office—shipping home our “graduation/ big D.C. City clothes” and a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff too. Yay! New space on the boat!

 

Cute little town to stroll down the main drag (clinton street) even on a rainy, misty afternoon. Love the sense of humor.

One of the last old-fashioned blacksmiths!  Very cool!

Grillin’ at  the Delaware City Marina for the night.  Lots of other Loopers and general boaters here positioning for the “crossing” of the Delaware Bay down to Cape May tomorrow. No doubt we’ll wake up and move out hours after they do!