Rhode River
07 October 2011
We had come to really love Annapolis, but we had to evacuate our place on the town wall to make room for the HUGE Annapolis boat show. We therefore set out early Sunday morning proceeding down the river into Chesapeake Bay all the way to the famous Thomas Shoal Light House. It was cold, and we both wore 4 layers under our foul weather jackets. Apart from a near collision with a fast 42 foot Catamaran which approached us from the stern our voyage was uneventful, we proceeded only 12 miles down the bay before entering the South River by mistake. We were looking for the West River to get to the Rhode River and an anchorage. After taking 8 hours to cover the 12 miles, we finally found our spot and dropped our huge 37 pound Bruce anchor for the first time in Chesapeake Bay. The temperature went down to 44 degrees that night, but we gained some warmth from our new alcohol stove. Fear of carbon monoxide poisoning caused us to turn it off when we went to bed however our sleeping bags and 2 layers of blankets prevented hypothermia and on the whole we had a good nights sleep. We had only moved a short distance south, but at least it was in the right direction. When we woke and exited the cabin - we could see our breath, our anchor had held, and we tightly gripped our hot cups of coffee. We pulled the anchor up out of the mud and were once again off down the Chesapeake to the Solomon Island.