Chesapeake Bay to New York City -- June 21, 2005 This portion of the trip was a transition in many ways. We went from motoring in the narrow confines of the Intracoastal to sailing on Chesapeake and Delaware Bays as well as the Atlantic Ocean. The weather went from frequent cold fronts with rain to hot and humid days with highs in the 90's. We left Norfolk on May 18 and took a couple of days getting to the York River then went into a marina for a couple of days. Here we rented a car and visited the Yorktown battlefield, Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg. The first two Colonial National Historic Parks are preserved sites and there is little that remains after several hundred years. Colonial Williamsburg has been preserved and is a living town of the revolutionary war period. There are people working at crafts like shoe making, barrel making, brick making and such just as it was done back then. The Colonial Parkway linking the three sites is a beautiful route and makes for an easy drive. After reliving our long ago history lessons, we sailed on north up the western shore of the Chesapeake in the rain and spent a couple of rainy nights at anchor. Another Island Packet owner/acquaintance lives on Fleets Bay and we anchored in the creek off their dock and went out to dinner in Kilmarnock. Hudson and Lynne were just back from a winter in the Islands on their boat and it was fun to hear of their adventures. We left on a cold, gray day and had a great sail across the Bay to Virginia's eastern shore and the small town of Onancock. This was our best sailing day in several weeks and was a taste of things to come. We went north to Maryland on the eastern shore where we had a good anchorage before sailing back across to Solomon's Island where we anchored for a night. We crossed the Bay again and spent a week working our way northward enjoying the landscape and seeing great sunsets and sunrises from our anchorages. As a refresher for this part of our trip, we had both reread Michener’s "Chesapeake" and enjoyed seeing the topography and the marine life he described. Although we had to dodge our fair share of nets and crab pots, it's still neat to see the watermen out tending their pots, gathering oysters and such. The small old towns were enjoyable and we stopped for lunch in both Oxford and St. Michaels. We even had crab cakes at the inn which Michener used as a base when he researched his novel. We got to Rock Hall in time for an Island Packet Rendezvous and had a great time meeting with other IP boat owners. We have now been in one of the famous circle-up rafts and enjoyed the water balloon fight and other activities of the event. It was right here on June 5 that the weather changed from spring to summer! Now rain was an afternoon thunderstorm, instead of an all-day event, and the days were hot. The water warmed quickly to above 80 degrees and we were swimming to keep cool. When it was time to re-provision and take another shore trip, we decided to dock in the rural area of eastern Maryland, and chose Chestertown which is a motor trip up the beautiful Chester River. We enjoyed a shopping trip down to Easton and a dinner in Georgetown. We took a day to drive across the Bay Bridge to Annapolis for supplies and a tour of the city (one of the best tours we have had) and a visit to the USNA. When our shore leave was over, it was time to motor back down the Chester to a quiet anchorage in Reed Creek.
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