Cruising the Chesapeake September 2012 III Monday, September 10, 2012 Anchored in the Corsica River off the Chester River off the Chesapeake Bay Water temperature 78 F

We enjoyed our two day shore leave in Rock Hall. Rock Hall is a quiet little waterman's town with one flashing intersection light and no stop lights. The grocery store was an easy 15 minute walk from the boat and the laundry was at the marina. We ate dinner both nights at Waterman's Crab House (a 30 second walk from the boat) and might have to make a return trip by car some day just to eat there again. We ate breakfast at the local fisherman's hangout and were the only people there that the waitress didn't know by name. We bought corn, tomatoes, cantaloupe, peaches and apples from a produce stand in someone's front yard on a side street. Rock Hall was a successful provisioning stop.

And, we had AIR CONDITIONING!!!! When we are plugged in to shore power at a dock we have air conditioning on our boat and it was hot in Rock Hall. I think the last time we had the air conditioner running was two years ago in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. When we pulled into Rock Hall on Friday and got the boat tied up, we didn't waste any time getting shore power connected and the AC cranked up. The cold air blasting out the vent was lovely. I set the thermostat at 68 degrees and we cooled the boat right down.

On Saturday evening it cooled down about instantly. We knew a front was coming through with predictions for high winds. I added extra dock lines and put every bumper we own between the boat and the dock in the afternoon. When the front came through the wind instantly went from west at 20 knots to north at 45 knots and the rain poured down. The highest gust I saw on our instruments was 53 knots but there were stronger gusts. It blew 40 + knots for about 15 minutes and then slowly died down. An hour later it was down to 5 knots with a gentle rain. I bailed a couple of inches of rain out of the dinghy and that was the only sign that we had been through a storm.

Sunday morning we motor sailed out of Rock Hall and down to the bay to the Chester River. We went up the Chester and turned into the Corsica River where we are anchored. The front brought cool, dry weather with it and it is a lovely morning on this pretty little river.