Harness Creek

About a month ago George and I sat down with our calendars to plan the sailing trips that we would take after my radiation ended. There were a few reasons for doing this; we wanted to make sure we blocked out the time to make some trips that each lasted a week or so, and I thought it might help me feel less depressed about losing so much of our sailing season to cancer treatment.

We took our first trip the day after treatment ended and had a wonderful time. We prepared to take the next one that was scheduled on the calendar but, once again, we weren't at all sure where we were headed. The winds were forecast to be light the entire week but we decided to not let that stop us. We spent our first night at Dun Cove. Since it was hot and humid we were sweaty after we anchored. We didn't attempt to swim, though, because there were a lot of sea nettles in the water. Atlantic sea nettles are a type of small jellyfish that live in the brackish water of the Chesapeake Bay. The sting is unpleasant (so I hear), but not deadly. Nevertheless, the threat of a sting is enough to keep us from going in the water.

Sea Nettles in Dun Cove

 

We took off early the next morning and decided to head north in the bay toward Annapolis. The wind was more favorable for sailing south, but since we had just been to the Little Choptank River and didn't have time to sail farther south than that, we went north. We tacked our way up and across the bay. All day we were plagued with biting, black flies, even when we were in the middle of the bay. It was difficult to focus on driving the boat when our legs and ankles were getting bitten. We took turns swatting at them and killed dozens of them by the end of the day. We swatted so many of them that we broke the fly swatter in a few places and had to repair it with duct tape. We used the autopilot quite a bit as we were sailing but, every 90 minutes or so, the navigation system would sound a loud alarm and the autopilot would quit. There would be no wind data available and the navigation screen had an error message that read, "No autopilot computer." We were able to get it going again by turning the power off to the navigation system and then turning it back on again. It happened three times during the course of the day. Hmmmm. We are definitely going to have to look into what that problem is all about.

Since it was Friday on a holiday weekend we believed our chances of getting a mooring ball in Annapolis Harbor were slim. We decided to try Harness creek on the South River. It is on the south side of Annapolis and abuts the Quiet Waters county park. There was plenty of room to anchor when we arrived late afternoon. We were delighted to find that there were no sea nettles in the water so we could swim to cool off!

 

The next day the anchorage began to fill up with motor boats. Many of them rafted together to party. The loudest party was anchored within a boat length of Breeze On. At one point I heard those partiers hooting and hollering. I looked up to see a very well-endowed young woman dancing with her bikini top off!

There didn't seem to be any sense of anchoring decorum. The boats just kept coming, dropping light-weight anchors attached to short ropes. If they dragged, they would just casually pick of the anchor and drop it in their new location. We didn't worry too much because the people were staying with their boats so at least they would know if they were about to hit another boat. Also, we assumed (rightly) that they would all clear out at the end of the day.

Breeze On is the only sailboat in the anchorage.

 

 

In spite of the chaos, we really enjoyed being anchored in Harness Creek. The lack of sea nettles and the ability to swim a few times a day was a huge plus. Also, we used the dinghy to go to Quiet Waters Park every day. It is a lovely park with miles of paved walking trails.

George walking in Quiet Waters Park

 

Quiet Waters Park

 

 

There is a West Marine, restaurants and other shops just outside the park. On our second day we walked over to the West Marine, to a hardware store to buy a new electronic fly swatter, and then had an early dinner at a nice restaurant we had been to before when visiting Annapolis. The new fly swatter turned out to be good insurance. We didn't have any bugs at all after we bought it - so it is still unproven technology (we also bought a traditional swatter just in case!).

 

When we first set out on this trip I had hoped that we could make it as far as the Chester River or the Sassafras River. However, the wind predictions for the days we would be returning were predicted to be very light. We knew we didn't want to be motoring the whole way home so we scrapped that idea. In the end, we decided to stay in Harness Creek for four days. In spite of the party atmosphere during the day, we really liked it there. We moved farther up the creek to a more family-oriented anchorage for the last two days, so that helped. We loved being able to swim in the water and walk in the park. We also enjoyed watching the people go by in the kayaks and stand up paddle boards that were available for rent in the park. We would definitely go back, but hope that the next time we go it will be during the week and not on a holiday weekend.

 

As it turned out, we had pretty good wind for our return trip across the bay. It was from the south so we had to tack the entire way, but we made good time. In fact, we chose to make the entire 55-mile trip home in one day rather than anchor out one more night. It was another hot day and we knew we wouldn't be able to swim at the end of the day due to the nettles on the Eastern Shore. The next item on our shopping list will be a nettle net. It will enable us to swim while keeping the nettles away from us.

 

 

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