Date: Monday 30^th June 2014

Position: 38:46.299N 76:33.813W

I finally made my farewells on Friday 27^th June.  I would like to take the opportunity to thank Gary and Greta for their splendid hospitality and for all of the help they gave to me whilst I stayed at their dock.  There is about a 10 mile stretch of the Elisabeth River to pass down before reaching the bottom of Chesapeake Bay, and it seems as though the entire stretch is occupied by military docks servicing US Navy ships.  The display of naval might is really quite impressive.  Apart from all of the destroyers, frigates, minesweepers and general support vessels I think I counted 5 aircraft carriers in various stages of refit.

Over the next three days I made my way up to Herrington Harbour North, just a few miles south of Annapolis.  On the way I anchored overnight in East River on Mobjack Bay, Deltaville and Solomon’s Island.

At various places in the bay there are old navigational marker towers that still function as lighthouses:

There were still a large number of ospreys nesting along the way.  In fact it seemed as though every inshore navigational marker supported a breeding pair of birds.  There were so many of them that their presence became quite unremarkable.

Herrington Harbour North is a very well kept marina set in an excellent riverside environment.  The entire area has been landscaped in keeping with a natural riverine environment.  However it is a long way from the nearest town of any size, but as I was planning to leave the boat there whilst I returned to the UK, this was not going to be a major problem.