Once we were off the dock in Delaware City, we entered the C&D Canal and motored through it, anchoring on the other side in the Bohemia River. The next morning, we headed 18 miles south to the Sassafras River. We pulled out the sails to dust them off and sailed for about 2 hours before we pulled them in because of oncoming rain. We anchored at a spot called, “$1.98 Beach.” From there, we sailed on a very rainy and cloudy day to Worton Creek, where we spent a couple nights at anchor. While there, we got to catch up with our friends Jay and Tanya, who anchored near us on their way north from Annapolis.
From Worton Creek, we cruised across the bay to Middle River, where we visited our friend Tony and Nancy for a few days. With Tropical Storm Ophelia heading north and bringing lots of wind and rain, it was time to leave Middle River and find a safe anchorage to ride out the weather system. Our friend Jay recommended a spot on the Corsica River that had great protection. We sailed most the way from Middle River to Corsica River, which is about 37 miles. The anchorage was perfect, we had excellent protection from the wind. We hunkered down for the next day as the storm brought us a lot of rain. Finally, with that weather past us, we were able to move on to Rock Hall, MD.
On our first visit to Chesapeake Bay, last year, we weren’t able to work Rock Hall into our itinerary. Randy wanted to check it out since it’s one of the places he and his family visited by boat when he was a kid. We anchored right outside the mooring field in Swan Creek and our first evening there, we were visited by Randy’s sister, nephew and nephew’s girlfriend. The next morning, we dinghied to shore to Haven Harbour Marina. We asked if we could leave our dinghy while we visited the town and grocery. Since it was off-season, they let us tie up for free. The town was deserted. The weather was still pretty crummy, gloomy and cool but you could definitely tell that this was a summer destination and by the end of September, it was all zipped up for winter. Still, it was a cute little town and the folks working there were very friendly. We walked to the opposite side of the penninsula, to the south harbor, where there were more marinas so Randy could get a look at the area he visited growing up. After that, we headed back to town to visit the fabric shop there. I’m always looking for local fabric and yarn stores when traveling and Village Quilting didn’t disappoint. After that, we stopped to get a coffee at Java Rock Cafe and then visited the grocery and local market for some produce.
We spent 3 days in Rock Hall, exploring, going for runs and provisioning before moving on. We enjoyed this small Chesapeake town and its friendly people. We’ll definitely visit again next time we’re on the Bay.
Delaware City to Bohemia River = 23.5 nm Bohemia River to Sassafras River = 18 nm Sassafras River to Worton Creek = 20.5 nm Worton Creek to Middle River = 15 nm Middle River to Corsica River = 37 nm Corsica River to Rock Hall, MD = 20 nm TOTAL miles to date: = 3,708 nm
