Aqua Vitae on the Chesapeake Bay

Our 1986 Albin 43 is a gorgeous boat and ready to cruise! We've gone so many places on the Chesapeake Bay but I'd be willing to bet that NO one has "seen it all" on this amazing body of water. In a few months or a year we'll be cruising full time, but I thought it would be fun to start this blog with the cruising grounds that I know. There is SO MUCH TO SHARE on the Chesapeake Bay!

There are many many quiet anchorages . . . numerous lovely harbors offering everything from fine dining and honky tonk to educational maritime experiences. I hope no one minds if I've "tweaked" some of these images a bit to make them "artistic." Some I'll leave alone so you can see the "real thing." Nonetheless, hopefully I can help show some of the Chesapeake's finest. . . but, like everyone else, I've not "seen it all!"

Here is a misty dawn on the Corsica River, just off the Chester River. The Chester River (and I'll be posting more pictures of the Chester, believe me, as it's gorgeous!) is one of the few real rivers of the Chesapeake Bay. Most of the "rivers" are tributaries, tidal fingers of the Bay, reaching up into the farms and small villages, or developments and cities. . . and back down with the receding tide.

The Chester has a strong enough flow of fresh water that you can actually swim (some years) well into the fall, when other "rivers" are so full of sea nettles (stinging jelly fish) that you could almost walk across to the other side. The anchorage you see in this picture is one of our very favorites. The water is 10 feet deep or so almost up to the shoreline. In the fall, the geese fly overhead in huge flocks, calling, threading the skies like waves of seaweed in the ocean.

I remember once waking up in the middle of the night wondering what inconsiderate neighbor was having such a raucous party so late into the night. . . it was the geese.