Fairlee Creek, MD

Days on cruise:  68

Distance traveled today: 40.1 miles

Travel time today:  3 hrs, 57 mins

Total odometer:  1,402  statute miles

At 7:15 a.m. we pulled out of the marina under rainy skies, just after the “kids” stumbled out of bed and jumped right into working on their laptops with coffee mugs in hand.  The water on the Bay was calm, so travel was easy.

We passed under an 18-foot bridge (we are 18.5 feet tall), so had to have it opened for us and found it to be by far the narrowest bridge we’ve gone through; no way could two boats pass here!

M&M came up to the flybridge for a 10-minute coffee break in the morning, and Matt, who has shown great curiosity about the boat and boating matters, took the helm briefly while we were traveling a weird, shallow couple of dog-legs just after passing through the Kent Narrows. He did great! This photo is for you, Jeri.

Halfway through the days’ journey when we realized it would not be a horribly hot day like yesterday, we changed our destination and decided to bypass Rock Hall and continue to an anchorage further north at Fairlee Creek, a short side-trip off the bay.  The entry into Fairlee Creek looked completely improbable:  so shallow and with the day markers taking us within only a few feet of shore while zig-zagging through the marked channel that couldn’t have been more than 30 0r 40 feet wide, then finally passing through a shoal that looked as if it couldn’t possibly be deep enough for our boat.  We had 3.5 feet of water under the boat at the shallowest point, happy that it was not low tide!

Here’s what we saw on our chartplotter at the time.

After the morning conference calls were over, we all ate lunch together on the sundeck, conferred regarding the travel plan for the remaining 3 days we have together, then M&M went back to work while Bob and Cathryn dropped the dinghy in the water and went off to explore Fairlee Creek.

There are some interesting homes along the shore . . .

and overall it reminded us of a larger Beaver Lake (where we lived for 15 years and raised our kids), though the houses are spread further apart here, and fewer trees are evergreens.

And some of the shoreline is marsh, beautiful but buggy.

One stretch of shoreline beach is so narrow you can see Chesapeake Bay on the other side.

Finally at 6:00 p.m. EST, M&M finished working for the day after one last conference call, so Bob and Cathryn sent them off in the dinghy for their own exploration while we began putting dinner together. Another nice day on the Great Loop!