Leadenham Creek 06-06-14

Leadenham Creek

 Earlier in the week we started talking about what we wanted to do over the next few weeks.  I checked out the weather and found that this weekend, June 6 - 8, was predicted to be pretty nice and that the following weekend was looking like a good chance of rain.  We opted for anchoring out this weekend and spending next weekend getting caught up on some projects.

Since we both work four tens, Monday through Thursday, we don't get much done at home during the week.  Friday always falls to weekly chores.  We had hoped to get underway by noon but had a list of things to take care of first.  As it worked out we didn't clear the dock until 1500.

I had checked with two weather resources and both agreed the wind would be NW at 5 knots and then swing around to the SE on Sunday.  With that in mind I planned for us to head to the Wye River.  Once we got out into Herring Bay we found the wind to be ENE and 5 to 10 knots.  Plan B was instituted and we headed for the Choptank River.  It was a pleasant sail at 4 to 5 knots on a close reach and as we approached the Eastern Shore the wind slowly crept around to the north allowing us to enter the mouth of the river on a single tack.  As we came around past Tilghman Island the wind was directly ahead and at this point it was already getting on to 1800.  We still had at least two hours to go, if we were making good time, so we decided to furl the sails and finish the run under power.

The plan was to try a new anchorage on Broad Creek.  We've been there a number of times before and found most good spots to be fairly crowded.  With this in mind I thought we might try Edge Creek near Elberts Cove, which doesn't seem to be as popular.  As we approached red #4 to make our turn to starboard I glanced off to the left and saw all the anchorages down that way were completely empty.

Grace Creek had always looked attractive to me and I figured this would be a good time to explore it.  It's fairly narrow but has several wide spots that might make a nice anchorage.  The one I chose was on our port side just before the first green marker.  On the chart it says 8' and I approached it slowly and swung in a broad circle to scope out the depth.  We were well within the 8' charted depth when we came to an abrupt halt.  Hard aground.  This was a bad spot to be stuck in.  We had gone about 2/3 around the cove and were headed out towards the channel.  If we tried to back down we could end up in 2' of water and risk damaging our rudder.  No point in trying to turn to starboard because it was shallow there too.  I turned hard to port and gunned the engine to full ahead.  We didn't move forward at all but eventually we slowly spun to port, turning on a dime.  I straightened the wheel and we slowly made headway, plowing through the mud and eventually got back into deep water.  Hmm, I think that chart needs updating.

After this experience I decided maybe Grace Creek wasn't the beautiful anchorage I had originally thought.  We headed back out to the channel in Leadenham Creek and turned towards Baby Owl Cove.  We had anchored there before about two years ago.  It's a good anchorage but the cove is small and you're surrounded by houses.  It feels like camping in someone's back yard.  The southern side of the creek had no homes though so we proceeded a little further and found a nice spot in 9' of water straight across from Coopers Point.  The anchor dug in on the first try and we ended up staying there through Sunday.

This is a quiet spot and well protected.  On Saturday we took the dinghy out for some fishing and thought we might tie up to a nearby duck blind.  As we approached we discovered there was an Osprey nest built on top of the duck blind and momma and papa Osprey were not happy about us being so close, about 10' away while we tied up.  They screamed at us and flew about but once we drifted off they settled down.  We tried fishing for about half an hour before discovering that the water was only 2' deep.  We retrieved our line and headed out to deeper water.  I think the birds were glad to see us go.  It turns out these are not real social birds like Parakeets or something and they seem to prefer to be left alone.  Go figure.

We tried fishing several more times during the day but saw no action.  Just before dusk we went out again and found ourselves surrounded by skates.  They weren't biting but it was pretty cool to see them breaking the surface all around us.  I think they must have been busy with one another, not really concentrating on food at the time.  We tried again Sunday morning but had no luck then either.  We did witness a huge skate furiously break the surface about 50 yards away though.  It made a splash like when a 100 pound golden retriever jumps in the water.  Definitely a big boy.

Over the weekend we had some nice meals.  Friday night we had some nice Tilapia fillets (read this!) cooked in butter with rice.  Saturday was blueberry pancakes for breakfast and for dinner we had an excellent T-bone steak cooked on the grill with mushroom gravy, asparagus on the side and a nice Molly Dooker Shiraz (click here) from Australia.  Breakfast on Sunday was French Toast made with Cheri's secret recipe which includes vanilla and almond extract.  Uhm, OK, maybe not so secret.

We departed for home around 1130 Sunday morning.  It was a beautiful day with a nice breeze out of the SSW.  We raised the main as we left but didn't shut off the engine until we were out of Broad Creek.  Once out into the Choptank River the wind was brisk, about 10 to 15 knots.  We tacked across towards the south shore and then tacked again to take us out the mouth of the river.  Off the southern end of Tilghman Island there's a deep channel that provides a shortcut above what used to be Sharps Island.  We turned into this, readjusted our sails for a broad reach and had an excellent run home at 6 to 7.5 knots.  Coming into Herring Bay we cut in close to Holland Point and tightened up the sails to run past red#2, still running at 7.5 knots.  We turned up into the wind, furled our sails and motored into home the rest of the way.  Pulled into our slip at 1730.

Awesome weekend!