Adventures (and Misadventures) of Elliott and Mary

Issue 9 - The Journey to Washington, DC

We had made slip reservations ‘way back in February for a two week stay at the Capital Yacht Club in downtown Washington, DC for June 24-July 7. We expected to have another great time touring the city, seeing old friends, and watching the 4th of July fireworks from a primo spot (the sundeck on the back of our boat!!)  The Club had been happy to take a reservation for June but it would be 'first-come-first-served' for July and they wouldn't take them until March 1 when their office opened at 8 am. On the morning of March 1 our good friend David Hayes was waiting for the door of the Club to open with a request letter from us. We were first in line, needless to say. It paid off too. Our slip was the first off the T-pier with an unobstructed view of all the comings and goings at our end of the Potomac. We could see, in one sweep of our eyes, Reagan Airport, 14th Street Bridge, the Metro trains, cars and of course, a variety of boats.  Talk about being in the “heart” of things…it was great. Now, back to the days we spent going north on the Potomac….

With ten days to  make about a six day trip, we enjoyed a leisurely cruise with most of our stops in pretty rural areas.  Our first stop was an anchorage (also known as “gunkhole” – don’t know the derivation but I’ll bet it has something to do with getting a good firm hold in a mud bottom by one’s anchor???) in Put-In Creek which is off Mob Jack Bay. My notes say “pretty place, good mud”, which is just about what we look for when anchoring out. Most anchorages that we like have a couple of common attributes…depth of about 10-15’ (so there are no worries about going aground if our anchor happens to move), lots of room between boats (we usually have the anchorages to ourselves which is just lovely), and distance from major thorofares, since the peace of anchoring can really be ruined by police sirens, car horns and the like. Put-In Creek fit the bill.

Next we head for a marina in Deltaville and it was definitely a small town adventure.  The marina was at the very end of the one-(and I do mean one)- road-town.  Nice people, lots of land, not many houses per sq. mile…and a very long trip to the grocery store (about 3 miles on the bikes).  Enjoyed the day we spent there and we are certainly learning to appreciate the amenities that larger towns/cities offer. Were happy to be tied up that evening since a rainstorm came through and we were happily/cozily tied to something stationary.

We anchored out the next night at Mill Creek. Another pretty place/good mud…should I begin using the  acronym PPGM just to save space???

Now we were approaching the Potomac…and were excited to begin this trip upriver. The first place we stopped was Point LookOut Marina, which had looked like an interesting place to explore…but turned out to be a pretty dilapidated marina perched on a tip of land in rural, rural Maryland.  Very pretty country when you are driving through it in a car – acres and acres of farm land and beautiful old trees but not much for exploration on bicycles unless you really need the exercise. It was hot and humid, thunderstorms pending, so we decided to forgo the bike trip.

The next day we continued moving north up the Potomac river and at least I, if not The Captain, was most surprised by the size of the river itself. Having lived at the DC end of the Potomac, I had expected an expanse of water that I could see across easily. Not so.  The river is wide and deep and quite massive…most impressive and full of changing landscapes.  At times the Virginia side is lush and beautiful – rolling hills, greenery right down to the shore, scattered farms and clumps of expensive houses. At other times, the Maryland side offers the lush views and the Virginia side appears sandy and the greenery seems scraggly. Pretty interesting to say the least.  There are cliffs of some magnitude (with houses sporting wonderful views I'm sure), there are tiny creeks everywhere, lots of small jon-boats with hopeful fishermen, and plenty of larger boats taking in the scenery too.

Our next stop on the Potomac was St.Marys City. We anchored out in Horseshoe Bay and liked it so much we stayed for two days.  St. Marys City is the oldest city in Maryland, it’s very small in terms of population but definitely long on scenic beauty. The second day we were there we got excited when we saw a committee boat setting out race buoys…”Oh boy” we said, “there’s going to be a sailboat race and we’ll be right here to watch.” But we couldn’t find any sailboats grouping together getting ready to race.  What we did see were three large groups of folks standing around on the beach…what in the world is going on??? Then they all JUMPED in the water! Turns out that there was a swimming race and we were parked in the middle of it.  Some of the folks did the whole 5 km course, others did shorter courses (3 and 1 km).  We watched with real interest as probably 50-75 swimmers raced past us – male and female, young and old.  It was a beautiful day for the race and the only complaint that we heard from the swimmers was “ouch, ouch…the jellyfish got me!!”

Finally tearing ourselves away from the placid beauty of St. Marys City, we continued northward, spending the next night at anchor in  Breton Bay, another PPGM, complete with age-old farms and barns to look at.

By now we needed some shore power and so we spent the next night at Colonial Beach Marina.  We had read really interesting reviews about this old Victorian town and were anxious to get the bikes out and tour it.  Man oh man, what a sad disappointment.  This is the town “that used to be”…and that’s being optimistic.  There is just nothing sadder, in my mind, than a town with no energy…that just continues to decay slowly. And that was what Colonial Beach looked like.

But to make up for that unexciting experience, we now got to experience what it was like to negotiate the various military shooting range zones as we traveled northward on the Potomac.  The Navy conducts cannon firing tests from their Dahlgren, Va. testing facility. They shoot out into the Potomac!  Luckily the USCG and the Navy are very quick to intercept any straying tourists if there’s active shooting going on…plus there are all kinds of written directives about how to avoid being entangled in the military practice ranges…but all the same, knowing that you are skirting areas on the Potomac where live ammunition is being shot around is kind of intimidating. We paid close attention to when we could travel and where…and when we got anchored by 1-2p each afternoon and heard the boom, boom, boom ….we were glad we were out of harms way!

So getting from Colonial Beach to our next destination, an anchorage in Port Tobacco River, was exciting all by itself.  Everyone we questioned said "Oh, they won't start shooting till after 9 am. We had it a point to leave at 6:15. But we made it in one piece…and thoroughly enjoyed yet another PPGM gunkhole.  Port Tobacco River was up the river about 20 miles and a lovely respite. It also was the last stop before the BIG CITY.

Our last day of cruising was spent gawking at various historic sites as we covered the last 50 miles of the Potomac.  Water views of old forts can really put you in the frame of mind of the early settlers…what it must have been like to live, fight and settle this area when this water route was one of the most heavily depended upon for survival.   We also cruised past Mt. Vernon, homesite of George Washington. Very impressive from the water and probably easier to get to that way than by car, given the traffic in DC now.
 

Mount Vernon	Fort Washington

Our slip is at the far left, directly under the Washington Monument
 
 

Next issue will cover our stay in DC….lots to do and see,
 
 
 

The Captain and Mary