After leaving Rock Hall we went to the Magothy River and anchored behind Gibson Island in Eagle Cove.  This was a lovely anchorage where we planned to spent a few days.

As we sailed down the Magothy we heard announcements over the VHF about an open water swim fundraiser that would be held the next day, but we thought it was going to be in a different area.  Imagine our surprise when we were were awakened bright and early the next morning by the voice of a very upbeat race announcer over a loudspeaker.

Poking my head out into the companionway, I saw that we had unintentionally anchored in the middle of “Swim Across America”, a fundraiser for cancer research whose participants swim either one or three miles in the Magothy River.  We ended up with front row seats!

After a few days bobbing in the peaceful anchorage, the winds were good for a sail and we were itching to move on.  A small craft advisory was winding down so we sailed down the river and poked our nose out into the Bay.  It didn’t take long for us to realize that we had jumped the gun.  It was an easy decision to make a 180 and sail back into the river, dropping anchor for a few hours to let the winds and waves settle down a bit more before trying again.

The original plan was to go to St. Michaels, but as we sailed past Annapolis it was clear that the wind angle meant we were going to need to motor for a few hours if we wanted to make it before sundown.  What followed was a half hour of indecision while we debated anchoring in this creek, then that creek.  Finally we decided that we’d had enough of isolated anchorages for a while, and we turned around and headed to Annapolis. Continue reading “Annapolis – settling in.” →