  2022: Top 5 Anchorages on Maryland’s Eastern Shore
(From North to South) Chestertown 39 12.251’N 76 03.666’W Chestertown's anchorage is on the southern side of the bridge with decent holding for large and smaller boats. Some patches of seaweed are on the bottom. This would be an ideal anchorage for fair weather forecasts but not ideal for high wind or cold fronts due to the fetch of the river. One of our favorite towns on the Eastern Shore, Chestertown is a beautiful historic town on the Chester River. A great walking town with restaurants, fresh bread shops, a theater, ice cream shop, markets, a playground and more. Chestertown is a college town so it becomes more alive at night when college is in and shops close earlier in the summer when college students are home. Be sure to visit the Sultana Education Foundation center on your way through town. If weather deteriorates, you can take a slip at Chestertown Marina. The boat ride up the Chester River to Chestertown is worth the trip itself- beautiful scenery, homes and wildlife. Shipyard Creek 39 09.593’N 76 11.123’W Located on the West Fork of Langford Creek (off of the Chester River), Shipyard Creek is quiet and secluded. This anchorage offers good holding with protection from nearly all wind directions, with slight exposure to a southerly wind. Dinghy ashore at the Shipyard Boat Ramp but be aware that it can be shallow at low tide. Beautiful exploring via dinghy/kayak and smaller boat around Shipyard Creek and surrounding coves. If you like bird watching, this is your anchorage! Langford Creek is one of our favorite areas of the Chester River and all of the creeks off Langford never disappoint in natural beauty and wildlife. Stop by Cacaway Island on your way to or from the anchorage to explore a beautiful sandbar and beach. Pickering Creek 38 52.063’N 76 06.964’W Located off of the Wye River East, Pickering Creek is what one might call a “hurricane hole”. This is an isolated and protected anchorage from all wind directions. It's nestled among the forested banks of the Pickering Creek Audubon Center which offers outstanding views and hiking trails. Birds, fish and wildlife abound. Use caution at the entrance to Pickering Creek as it can be shallow when navigating in but opens up and gets deeper once inside. This anchorage will get muggy on a hot summer night but would be perfect for an autumn anchorage with a nice cool breeze. Navigating the Wye River to get to Pickering Creek is a treat in itself. Fogg Cove 38 47.384’N 76 13.217’W Located in the heart of St. Michaels, Fogg Cove is the place to anchor or moor if you want to be in the action. Fogg Cove is inside of St. Michaels Harbour, located just off of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and the Inn at Perry Cabin. You can dinghy into the historic town of St. Michaels or take the St. Michaels Harbour Shuttle. St. Michaels has it all- great restaurants that you can boat to, playgrounds for kids, beautiful streets to walk, markets and more. And don’t forget that you can use the ShoreRivers free pump-out boat on the Miles & Wye Rivers this service is offered mid-May through November 6th. Waterhole Cove 38 45.804’N 76 18.985’W Located just off of Sherwood, Waterhole Cove is a quiet anchorage off of Harris Creek. This scenic anchorage is past Dun’s Cove on the left. It is exposed to the SE but provides adequate protection from other directions. Use the Sherwood public dock to walk around the streets of Sherwood. Lowes Wharf Marina Inn is a fun restaurant and bar, often with live music, that can be walked to in under 1 mile. Tilghman is about a 3 mile dinghy ride from Waterhole Cove and is another great place to stop by boat. It offers restaurants, fuel docks and a market. Waterhole Cove is a place to reset, enjoy nature and soak in the essence of life on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Click HERE for the 2021 Top Anchorages. Click HERE for the 2020 Top Anchorages. Click HERE for the 2019 Top Anchorages. We encourage all boaters to continuously check the weather, local tides and charts of the area. Be sure to familiarize yourself in advance of arrival. (We pulled the Lat & Long coordinates in this list from Navionics. Be sure to navigate with caution and check your local charts and GPS.) Set your anchor with the appropriate scope ratio and turn on your anchor light at night if you are overnighting. You are responsible for your vessel and the safety of you and your crew. We also encourage everyone to practice environmental stewardship when they are cruising and anchoring. Leave no trash behind, pick up trash that you see and do not anchor is seabeds that have native sea grasses that are a habitat for our fisheries. Do not pump out your holding tank in the Bay and respect all wildlife. Most importantly, be safe and have a great time! Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any further questions. We can be reached on VHF 16: Tow Jamm Marine or (410) 734-3000.*  Next time you’re at the Kent Narrows, Matapeake or Shipping Creek Boat Ramp, grab your cell phone and scan the QR codes for local tides, weather, charts, boating safety resources & MD fishing regulations. Centreville Boat Ramp & Corsica River YC coming in the next few weeks. Safer and smarter boating starts here. Try the QR codes and let us know what you think. A huge shoutout to Inspired by Hannah who is the mastermind behind this project and the Queen Anne's County Parks and Recreation who met with us many times to get this dialed in and approved. Our goal is to get all boaters thinking about and checking tides, weather and safety BEFORE they depart the dock so that they can plan and have the best day possible on the water.
 
BoatUS offers a FREE 90 Day Unlimited Saltwater Trial Membership for all NEW or USED boat sales for boat dealers/brokers to offer their clients. This is a no strings attached complimentary membership that you can offer your clients when they purchase a boat. I've attached a 1 page fillable PDF form above. You have the option of just doing the free 90 day membership or also bundling an annual membership to give them a 15 month TowBoatUS membership. We discounted the memberships by $50 so it's a REALLY good deal. TowBoatUS Memberships are valid on any boat you own, borrow or charter, ANYWHERE you boat. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. (410) 745-3000
After spending 3 days at the International Boating and Water Safety Summit, I want to share with you some of the biggest take aways. In the first slide, these are two (brave) Mothers (from Ohio & Oklahoma) who both lost sons (7 & 9) to Carbon Monoxide poisoning. They are experienced boating families. They were on the lake and the CO from the exhaust (inboard open ski boats/bow rider) circulated back into the cockpit where they were sitting (not enclosed at all) and the boys fell overboard and were not revived. Initially labeled as a drowning, the coroner reports exposed high levels of CO in their blood. This happened in a very short period of time. This is MORE COMMON THAN YOU THINK and it is NOT OKAY. The second slide shows a woman (far left) who was slowly poisoned by CO in her new home. She went from being a marathon runner to using a cane and being on oxygen. The CO leak in her house caused brain damage and cardiac problems among many other things. The symptoms are masked by many other illnesses and the only way to know is if you get your blood tested from an artery within 4 hours of exposure. When you breathe in carbon monoxide, the CO also binds to hemoglobin. It binds so strongly that is keeps oxygen from binding as well. Carbon monoxide (CO) prevents the blood system from effectively carrying oxygen around the body, specifically to vital organs such as the heart and brain. As you may already know, Carbon Monoxide is odorless, tasteless, invisible gas. It is formed by the incomplete combustion of fuels. We bought one of these portable CO detectors: SensorCon Inspector by Molex: www.SensorCon.com. Looking forward to keeping it on and monitoring our house and boats. Here is a website with more info on CO: https://www.ncoaa.us Link to best smoke & CO detectors of 2022 from Consumer Reports: https://bit.ly/3wfPw6w Everyone thinks it’s generators but CO can be in SO many different places. Please take a few minutes to read the websites. Update your CO detectors in your home and on your boat. Sharing of post encouraged so that we can raise awareness and save lives.  Feeling honored and grateful. Shoutout to everyone who makes an impact to create a cleaner and safer on-water environment for boaters and future generations. Looking forward to an exciting and strong 2022 BOATU.S. FOUNDATION DISTINGUISHED TOWER AWARD Sarah Lawrence, TowBoatU.S. Kent /Knapps Narrows,Maryland: The BoatUS Foundation Distinguished Tower Award for Leadership in the Boating Community aims to recognize a tower for exceptional work in the areas of boating safety and environmental stewardship and assistance in furthering the Foundation’s mission. This year’s recipient embraces the Foundation’s mission wholeheartedly and in so many ways. She is a social media star promoting not only safe and clean boating but also the Foundation almost daily. Locally, she works with a check the tide campaign, works on oyster restoration projects and hosts life jacket giveaways. This past summer she also donated her time and the use of a towboat for filming for the Foundation’s online course. She became an On-Water Training instructor and instructor trainer and was an instructor for the Foundation’s On-Water Training program. This year, she’ll be launching an on-water training center that will partner with the Foundation. We’re constantly amazed by Sarah’s passion and enthusiasm for educating boaters on safe and clean boating and couldn’t be more grateful for a partner like her. >>Be sure to follow and support the @boatusfoundation who’s efforts keep our waters cleaner and our boaters safer through education and training. <<   The "LATERAL" system is the familiar RED RIGHT RETURNING system, meaning that on all navigable waters returning from sea, the red even-numbered marks are on the starboard (right) side of the channel and the green odd-numbered marks are on the port (left) side of the channel. Numbers on the marks ascend when traveling from sea to harbor--if you don't have a compass and become disoriented on the water, you will always know you are heading upstream if the buoy numbers get larger as you travel.
For study guide to ATONs (aids to navigation) check out this article from the @boatusfoundation >>https://www.boatus.org/study-guide/navigation/aids/<<  We won’t say 1989 feels like yesterday because we all have a few more grey hairs and more kids in the family, but it sure has been a great 33 years of doing what we love. Thank you to all of our friends, family, boaters, local businesses, marinas, members and more for your support. We couldn’t do this without you and we can’t wait for you to see what we have in store!
 Wear-It with Capt. Ryan
Float Coat (stay warm and safe!) & Engine Cut Off Switch (ECOS) are two boating essentials. You can see Capt. Ryan has the ECOS cord attached to him. If you are driving a vessel less than 26’ and on a plane or above displacement speed, the law requires you be attached to the ECOS. There is also wireless proximity ECOS devices that can be purchased instead of attaching to the cord. For more info, please visit: https://www.boatus.org/newsroom/new-boat-engine-cutoff-switch-law/ Giving to the non-profit BoatUS Foundation on Giving Tuesday (or ANY DAY!) makes boating safer for all and that is why we are supporting the Foundation. Follow this link to donate: >>www.boatus.org/donate/<< Follow this link to find out exactly HOW they are keeping boaters safe: >> https://bit.ly/3HOuVJR <<  |
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