During the spring CBC we got to talking about a fall cruise and a suggestion was made to combine a cruise with the Annapolis boat show.
I really liked idea of combining a cruise with the Annapolis boat show. Sailing around the the Annapolis area during the boat show is an annual favorite of mine. The true lifestyle cruising boats make this a staging area that week. They are doing their fall migration to the south and stop here to get good boat show prices on all of their necessities - (electric wine coolers? :) Almost 100 long term cruising "snow birds" anchor in Spa Creek and Weems creek but few of the them are anywhere else. I love cruising around the anchorages checking out the boats. 2003 Show Dates: Thursday, October 09, 2003 through Monday, October 13, 2003 We already have 3 boats interested so I thought I would float the idea to the entire list to see what the response is. If anyone is interested please let me know. The cruising grounds around Annapolis are plentiful and there are slips available a short distance from Annapolis. There is a free, good, public launching ramp in SPA Creek at Long 76'30 lat 38'58.2. It has free parking but may be in a low rent area. I have parked there overnight on several occaisions with no difficulty. For two shows I have anchored right near there where the water gets too shallow for the big "snow birds". This is a well protecteded area with little to no boat traffic since it is the end of the creek. There is also a very good launching ramp with excellent parking at Sandy Point State Park but if it's blowing out there is no place go. The launching area is well protected but when you leave the launching area you are directly below the Bay bridge in very exposed water. There are a couple of small marina's up the Severn river north of Annapolis which are too far from the action for the "snow birds" as well. Just to the East of the Severn is Mill Creek with a couple of nice secluded branchs and a little farther east is Whitehall creek with a couple of branchs. Both offer very nice anchorages with little to no traffic. Again they are toooo far from the action during the boat show to draw a crowd. If it is cold and blustery all of the above offer short distances and very good protection with enough interesting cruising for three days. One possible itinerary is below. Day 1, launch, raft up and ferry or water taxi to the show, back to the raft up and anchor for the night. Day 2 AM day sail with any boatless Montgomery sailors in the area, checking out all of the cruisers and explore the Whitehall creek for an evening anchorage. If no boatless Montgomery sailors are around we would skip the return drop off at Annapolis and head for the Magothy River and anchor in back of Gibson Island - a beautiful secluded view of the manicured golf course. Day 3 back to SPA Creek in that clear sparkling fall air with the leaves just turning, mmmmmmmm goood. Contingency plan if the weather is bad - Party at Al's house for 3 days! - Just kidding of course. Thanks Doug Kelch "Seas the Day" M15 #310 __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
