Two nights ago while anchored outside of St. Michaels harbor in the Miles River, the winds picked up to 25-30 kts. They were from the north and the river runs north-south. There is a nautical term called “fetch”. This refers to the distance the wind has to work on the water to create waves. The longer the fetch the higher the waves. Well there was more than 5 miles of fetch and the waves were 2-3 feet. This is not much while traveling but horrible when you’re anchored. The dinghy was bobbing up and down and making noise as it splashed down. We didn’t get much sleep that night. At least we were by ourselves and had no fear that another boat was going to break loose and hit us.
The next day was relatively calm. Other boats “joined” us. Some cruisers are like lemmings. Here we were all by ourselves on this large river with room for hundreds of boats. Someone comes up to us and anchors about 30 ft. away. Than another, and another. All of us packed into a little area leaving 90% of the anchorage empty. I suspect when the first boat saw us there he figured we must know where to anchor, than the second boat saw 2 boats so he was sure where he should anchor, and on and on.
We left the now crowded anchorage this AM and sailed (not motored) to the West Bank of the Chesapeake, up the West River and anchored off a town called Galesville. I don’t know anything about it, but we have free wifi, so I’m not complaining.
Tomorrow we go into a marina for 2 days so Janice doesn’t go crazy.