Browsing: Chesapeake Bay

Cruising Life
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Virginia’s Eastern Shore: Some Hidden Cruising Gems on the Chesapeake

Here’s a great story from esvatourism.org about The Route Less Travelled: Boating Virginia’s Eastern Shore. If you haven’t been to Onancock (pictured above), Cape Charles, Saxis Island, Wachapreague and Chincoteague, you’ve been missing something: Boaters who typically head down along the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay or end their Intracoastal Waterway trip in North Carolina are missing out on charming harbor towns and two pristine coastlines on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Harbor towns like Cape Charles, Onancock, Saxis, Chincoteague and Wachapreague on the 70-mile Virginia Chesapeake Bay coastline, have growing numbers of restaurants, shops and hotels just steps from the town harbors.…

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St. Michaels, Maryland: A Historic Gem on the Eastern Shore, with a Great Maritime Museum and the Crab Claw

The first time I went to St. Michaels, Maryland, a gem of a small (pop: 1,029), historic (dating to 1677), waterfront community on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake, was about 35 years ago with my friend and colleague, the late Dan Fales. We were delivering a Bertram 46 from Norfolk, Virginia, to Norwalk, Connecticut, and stopped for the night. Actually, we stopped so we could have a crab dinner sitting on the porch of the Crab Claw, looking out over the Miles River and the flow of boats in and out of the harbor. Over the years I’ve gone…

Cruising Life
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State Urges Boaters To Use “Extreme Caution” in the Chesapeake To Avoid Debris

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is urging boaters to use “extreme caution’ in the Chesapeake after heavy rains and opened floodgates on a dam in the Susquehanna River produced fields of debris in the bay. The department says “marine debris” includes tree limbs and driftwood on the surface and just under the surface that can damage boats. In Annapolis, crews form the Harbormaster’s Office cleared debris that floated into Ego Alley, the city’s marine showcase and downtown center of boating activity. The debris and sediment there flowed from the Susquehanna, Patapsco and Severn Rivers. Last week, operators of the…

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Good News for Crabs, Fish and the Rest of Us: More Seagrass Growing in the Chesapeake

Seagrass is growing again on the floor of the Chesapeake, and that’s good news, since the grass shelters crabs and fish and other aquatic species (see the picture above of some healthy new grass with a crab pot near Crisfield, Maryland). Scientists say there had been no grass until recently on the floor of the Chesapeake off Solomon’s Island since 1972. Now they’re seeing new seagrass beds that are growing and healthy, the result of reduced pollution, particularly from farm runoff. The water is clearer and more sunlight can reach seagrass. A new study, recording years of monitoring, says that…

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Plan Your Cruise Now: Ten Best Small Towns on the Chesapeake

Some of the best cruising in the U.S. is on the Chesapeake, and some of the best waterfront towns, in my opinion, are along its shore. It seems too obvious to mention Annapolis, except that I’m happy every time I go there, by land or by sea. And then there’s the trifecta of Oxford, Cambridge and St. Michaels across the bay on the Eastern Shore; all three are also cruising meccas, and they’re all filled with history, charm, and (unfortunately) a lot of summer visitors. But what about the other small towns on the Chesapeake that also are cruising destinations,…