Pirate’s Cove to Quiet Waters Park

Trippe Creek (Pirate’s Cove) was an enjoyable anchorage off the Choptank River’s Tred Avon River. The anchorage was protected enough to keep any significant fetch down and large enough to anchor several boats. Even so, the first night we shared the anchorage with one boat and the remaining two nights we were all alone. Our last day included more explorigating in our dingy. Yesterday morning the Tred Avon was so calm that our dingy raced along over 18 knots. The five miles to our destination at Easton Point Marina was over in around fifteen minutes. It seemed like it took longer to figure out a safe place to tie up the dink. There was not much to see at Easton Point, but we did buy and devour a couple of ice creams out of the tiny market’s freezer before jetting back to Hold Fast.
Our destination for today was unplanned, at least until last night. I thought we were done with the western shore, but our Jacksonville adopted daughter, Marie, and her three kids have occasion to be in the tippy top corner of West Virginia, and she wants to make the three hour drive from there to see us on Saturday. Call her crazy and us too, but we are going to try to make this work out. Myron found this anchorage off of Quiet Waters Park, which affords Marie a parking spot very near where we are anchored. We obtained permission from the boat rental joint to use their dock to pick up Marie and gang. These are our best laid plans, maybe it will all work out. Unlike Trippe Creek, this is a very small anchorage and yet there are about four boats in here tonight. We have found this is more often the case in the much more populated western shore.
The journey here was full of about every point of sail, on the Tred Avon, on the Choptank, dodging crab pots crossing the shoals between Tilghman Island and the former Sharp’s Island, and we were beginning to tack up the Chesapeake until, as you can see by our track, the wind died forcing us to motor-sail the rest. It was a refreshingly cool day at 85, mostly due to cloud cover and occasional showers. Much of this was marred however by another equipment failure. Upon arriving, we had to drop anchor in a hurry, Myron had to identify and trouble-shoot the issue, and then fix it. I help where I can. We dropped anchor just after 4 pm and were done with the concern about 8 pm. It is another disappointment for the shake-down’s equipment failure list. On the bright side, we did not see any sea nettles (jellyfish) which gave us the freedom to jump in and wash the engine room heat out of our memory.
Tonight I will leave you with a story disclosed in one of our guides about Sharp’s Island, named after its owner Peter Sharp. It was south of Tilghman Island, and in 1675 it was about 900 acres. By 1847 the Chesapeake’s weather had reduced the island to 473 acres, and then the erosion accelerated. The present lighthouse was built in 1882 on a 5-acre circular plot of land that disappeared along with the rest of the island. The lighthouse was tilted by ice in 1973 and again in 1976.

From Sharps Island

Our guide says “Periodically, the Coast Guard proposes to remove the lighthouse. So far it has survived both the weather and the Coast Guard.”
Love to all,
Dena
{GMST}38|56.045|N|076|30.569|W|Anchored|Quiet Waters Park{GEND}
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