September 22, 2019 Sunday

We left the anchorage early to catch the ebb current down the bay which running at half a knot gave us a little additional speed. The weather continued to be fine with few clouds and soft southern breezes to keep us comfortable as the temperature rose into the nineties. The boat traffic increased all the way south to Rock Hall and by the time entered the slim channel leading to Swan Creek we were into a serious mix of lumbering sailboats and over powered motor boats that were indifferent to the damage their wakes were causing the slower boats. The marine radio was full of boaters yelling at each other for rude and dangerous behavior making us less than thrilled to be back on the Chesapeake Bay. Luckily the season was winding down and soon there would be a lot fewer boats on the water.

As one comes from the north to Rock Hall we have seen boats cutting through Swan Point Bar, a three mile sand bar that one must go around according to the charts. Mike called a boat he saw taking the short cut, Titanic, and asked for the depths. This is what they call local knowledge and Titanic was glad to share what he knew reporting 6 to 8 feet of water and the path to follow over the bar. Since the friends that would be joining us were still several hours away we decided to not chance the shortcut and to take the extra time to go around.

We did a general radio call out to the sailing club we belong to on the bay, Hunter Sailing Association Station 1 (HSA1) and soon had responses from two boats out enjoying the day. So, when we anchored in Swan Creek we had the friends we had planned on joining us with their new boat, Eleana, and another boat from our club who had heard us on the radio, Wind Rose, join us. They rafted up to us which given Monarch was the smallest of the group was a little unconventional but given the good weather forecasts we decided to risk it. When boats raft up together only the center one will typically put an anchor down so that when the wind or currents shift you don’t end up with a tangle of anchor lines.

Happy hour was a great success as we caught up with our friends and shared stories.