8/24/18: Our next planned stop was Oxford, but we had several days of nice weather ahead. We knew there wasn’t much in Oxford so we only reserved one night at the marina. We also wanted to spend a night at anchor before going there. We found a nice little bay along the Trippe Creek, about 3 miles from town to anchor in. We could be to Oxford within a half hour, check in to the marina, and have the rest of the day to explore before moving on.
To get to the creek and bay, we had to go past Oxford. We couldn’t believe the homes and mansions in and around Oxford. All along the Tred Avon River and into the Trippe Creek were homes that were easily 5,000 – 10,000 square feet, with some probably even bigger. In the little bay we anchored in, there were at least 10 of these sized homes. It was pretty amazing to see so many gathered in this tiny little place. The bay itself was excellent for anchoring. We dropped the anchor, backed down on it, and it set hard and fast on the first try. As we looked around, we realized that this bay would make an excellent “hurricane hole”. It had wind protection from any direction and the holding (anchoring) was excellent. Something to remember for the future!
There wasn’t much else to say about this anchorage, but we have several thoughts about anchoring and marinas in the Chesapeake, in general. The first is about depth. We still cannot believe how shallow most of the places are around the bay. Because of our draft, we have been excluded from many, if not most, of the little rivers, creeks, tributaries, bays, and marinas. For example, when we first arrived here after the C&D canal, we had to avoid the entire western bay area from Havre De Grace to Baltimore. And while we have found some nice anchorages along the way, there were many, many more we couldn’t get to because of our depth. The same holds true for the marinas – for every one we could get to, there were 10 more we couldn’t. The second thing is about how built up the whole bay is. We have yet to find one piece of shoreline that doesn’t have something built on it – whether it’s a home, or a town, or even a farm. There is no such thing as “remote” on the Chesapeake – at least not what we’ve seen. And lastly – what is with all the fixed docks and short finger piers? We have yet to find a marina that has floating docks instead of fixed docks attached to pilings. While we’ve gotten used to using longer lines to tie up with, it’s still strange to see no marinas with floating docks. And those short finger piers? We will do anything to avoid those. Our boat doesn’t back well, so backing into the slip is out of the question, and if we go forward-in, we have to get off at the bow of the boat – a 4 foot drop down to the dock. Get some real docks and slips, people!
Ok, enough of our ranting. Next stop, Oxford!
Pics of Trippe Creek
