8/19/18 – 8/20/18: We knew our next marina stop was going to be in St. Michaels, southeast of Pasadena and about 26 miles (for a crow), or 40 miles (for a boat). We saw a couple of good days of weather ahead, so we decided to anchor out for two nights before heading to St. Michael’s. We spent the first night in the Magothy River, and the second in the Wye River. They were both splendid!

The Magothy River was a quick 15 miles from the marina in Pasadena, so we were there in about 3 hours. Once in the river, there were several small coves and small creeks that we could anchor in. We had our sights set on a small cove about three miles in, but as we were going upriver we saw two other possibilities if that one didn’t work out. When we got there, we saw that it was very small and had homes all around, so we backtracked to one of the others we saw on the way in, which was in the mouth of the Broad Creek. It had some houses on either side, but was much larger, so it didn’t feel like we were intruding on people’s privacy. It was also wooded as you looked up the creek, so it also had somewhat of an “outdoors” feel, too. The anchorage was named “The Glass House” anchorage, after a huge, glass house that was situated on one shore. It had the look of a Frank Lloyd Wright home, and was quite impressive. All in all it was a nice anchorage.

For our second night, we chose to anchor in the Wye River. It was about 30 miles from the Magothy, and would put us about 6 miles from St. Michael’s. It was a winding river with a large island in the middle. There were tons of places to anchor for any type of wind. We set out from the Magothy, and as we entered the Chesapeake, the wind started blowing around 15 knots and the waves built to around 3 feet. Based on the wind direction, we knew it would be calmer on the other side of the bay, but it would be a bumpy couple hours before we got there. Just south of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, we saw 8-10 cargo ships anchored, apparently waiting to head into Baltimore. We had never seen so many in one small area! The wind and waves settled down, and we had a nice ride the rest of the way to the Wye. We found a nice, secluded bay facing the island, dropped the hook, and settled in for a nice, relaxing evening.

We were happy we chose this spot, and that we were only an hour from St. Michael’s. As we were going to bed, the weather forecast for the morning called for more storms with torrential downpours and local flooding, starting between 10:00 and noon. We couldn’t technically “check in” to the marina until around noon, as there was already a boat in our assigned slip, and they didn’t have to “check out” until noon. We figured we’d just watch the radar closely, and make our way to St. Michael’s as late as possible, and either wait just outside the marina or at their fuel dock until our slip was ready. But more about that in our next post!

Pics of the Magothy and Wye Rivers