38:23.734N 076:29.169W

 

As we get further into the autumn the Chesapeake Bay just gets better and better.  Many of the local boats have called time on their season and the snowbirds are heading south towards Florida and the Bahamas so we now have many of the creeks and anchorages entirely to ourselves.  The fall colours are starting to really show through and the mosquitoes and sand flies that plague the bay during the summer months have all but disappeared.  The result is some peaceful and spectacular cruising in unspoilt backwaters, yet we are never far from civilisation or a decent wifi signal! 

 

Bamboozle and another stunning fall sunset (in Corsica Creek on the Chester River)                                                Flying the mizzen ballooner for the first time

 

                   

 

Our idyllic existence was shattered last week with an all too brief visit by Stuart Inglis from South Africa. Stupot, who sadly had to leave his wife behind at work, had been to visit us aboard before on Savoir Vivre in Tonga so this was quite a change.  Not only are we no longer in the wilds of the South Pacific but Bamboozle is quite a bit bigger.....big enough in fact for us to be able to escape from his legendary snoring, as long as we kept both the waterproof bulkhead doors shut.  We had a fantastic week although one day in particular was maybe a little more exciting than planned.  Firstly, we went quite hard aground trying to get out of Rock Hall harbour which proved not quite deep enough for us, both on the way in and out.  As we were near the top of the tide we did not have a great deal of time to waste and we used nearly all of our 100hp diesel power to get off asap.  I'm not sure I could have stood the embarrassment of sitting right in the middle of the channel of a busy working fishing port for almost 12 hours waiting for the next high tide to lift us off. 

Secondly, we decided to try our mizzen ballooner for the first time. This proved easy to hoist and wonderful to fly but we did have a little more trouble getting it down in a hurry when the wind started to get up.  Stupot politely ignored us both as the "Skipper" and the "Admiral" had a heated discussion about the best way to get it down again.  Finally, to round off the excitement we got caught in one of the Chesapeake's infamous squalls that produced a genuine 50 knots of wind for a short while.  It has to be said it was impressively windy but Bamboozle took it happily in her stride.  I stayed sitting at the helm and remained comfortable and dry during the whole event while the only item to suffer was our poor dingy (known as "Spot Again") which we had been towing.  It spent the squall flying like a kite, 10 to 15 feet above the water before emerging inverted but unscathed.  Fortunately we still made it into the Sassafras river and were comfortably tucked up in an anchorage in time for sundowners and exaggerated tales of adventure!

 

 

                   

 

 

                                

 

After dropping Stupot off in Baltimore we headed back down to Annapolis for the US Sailboat Show, a huge annual event and then on further south and so I am writing this in a little creek called St Leonard's off the Patuxent River.  Here I am particularly aware of the large red ensign flying off the back of Bamboozle as neither the Royal Navy nor the British Army have a very good record around here.  Back in the "War of 1812" (although this actually happened in June of 1814) this peaceful little creek was the scene of a naval engagement in which the American forces managed to launch a successful surprise attack on number of British ships, temporarily driving them back down river.  The Royal Navy however soon returned in force (Hurrah!) and, as seemed to be their habit at that time, razed the then thriving port of St Leonardstown to the ground, before heading on up the Potomac do the same to the newly built city of Washington.  Despite all this history the locals seem remarkably friendly!