Lovely St. Michaels, MD

We have had this spectacular view of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum from our boat for the past week. The museum, which features a variety of Chesapeake marine heritage exhibits including boatbuilding, lighthouse tending, fishing, crabbing and oystering, is located in lovely St. Michaels Maryland on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake. St. Michaels, a beautiful little town with many cute shops and restaurants, is also known as “the town that fooled the British.” During the revolutionary war, town residents hung lanterns from the treetops and tops of masts and then blacked out town lights, tricking the British into overshooting the town during a nighttime bombardment. Aiming at the treetops, the British missed the town completely, except for one wayward cannonball which is still lodged in a historic building here.

When we arrived mid week, the harbor and town were almost empty and we were able to anchor with only a few other boats in a well-protected inner harbor close to the museum. Then the Memorial Day weekend arrived and the harbor overflowed with arriving boats and people. As the anchorage filled with boats quickly and overflowed into several less-protected anchorages nearby on the Miles River, we became more acquainted with the politics of anchoring.

Since anchoring is free and dock space in the St. Michaels marinas is about $130/night for a boat our size (more for larger boats), many boaters prefer to anchor in the harbor and go ashore via dingy. Accordingly, space in our well-protected anchorage was highly desirable and attracted a seemingly endless stream boats looking for room to anchor. Some with anchoring experience realized there was no more room to anchor safely but others were anxious to get to town and didn’t consider the consequences. From a the friendly people on a nearby sailboat, we learned about doing the “Chicken Dance” on the bow of our boat (standing up with a stern expression and hands on hips with elbows out and waving) to ward off boats that try to anchor too close. When the Chicken Dance failed to work, the next step was to loudly say things like “You’re NOT thinking of anchoring there are you?” and then to getting the bumpers out to ward off the inevitable collisions with other boats swinging at anchor.

We only experienced one collision, which was more comical than damaging. The boat in question had an odd anchoring technique (careening around the anchorage rapidly in reverse), bypassed us, and then immediately ran hard aground, reversed again and hit another boat and then ours. Observing their lack of experience, we had dangled large bumpers and managed to avert serious damage when they hit us. They, in the meantime, had hung out a teabag-sized bumper which was useless. Red faced, they moved on to a marina where the dockhands were able to help them properly secure their boat.

Sailing in the Chesapeake Bay has been truly wonderful, with great winds, scenic shores and wonderful places to visit. It is also incredibly popular, and it is fun to watch the wide array of boats and ships that ply the waters here. We look forward to more sailing and exploring in the Chesapeake over the next few weeks before continuing our adventure north toward New England.