Eastport | Island Office

Wednesday (9/15) – Southern Annapolis Yacht Center (SAYC) – Eastport, MD

After yesterday’s long day, sleeping in was what we had in mind. However, Denise woke up at the usual time and so she decided to go to the early mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in downtown Annapolis. Since our boat is actually in the town of Eastport, this meant a one-mile walk first to, then across the Spa Creek Bridge, then a quick left turn up a side street to the church. It is a beautiful church with a K-12 school also on the grounds, located right in the heart of the city.

After mass and on her walk back to the boat, she encountered several groups of students on their way to school. A few were willing to stop and chat with her about the school, and they were all very engaging and personable. Once back on the Eastport side of the bridge, she discovered the older kids would park their cars along the residential section of Eastport and then walk over the bridge to class. This is smart, and if you ever drive to here by car, this is the thing to do as there is almost no place to park in downtown Annapolis.

Once back on the boat, we settled into a day of work, boat chores, cataloging pictures and blog writing. Throughout the day we got to witness all sorts of usual and unusual watercraft that made their way up into Spa Creek.

In the afternoon, we sat down and planned out the next few days of travel, taking us down the Chesapeake to Cape Charles on the eastern shore, then back to Wormley Creek on the York River for a quick visit with Denise’s brother, John and his wife Cathy. One of the things we were having to consider in this scheduling is the planned closure of the Norfolk-Southern railroad bridge (#7) south of Norfolk on the ICW. It was scheduled to be locked down for 25 hours early next week, when we would otherwise cruise through there and need it opened. Without losing days for this, we were trying to get through it on Saturday or Sunday if at all possible. That of course had to be coordinated with a stop where we can attend mass on Saturday evening or Sunday morning. This is why it took us nearly 2 hours to come up with our eventual plan.

When we were with them in Maine, our friends Mark & Jenay (“Ravello”) had recommended we visit “Lewnes”, an old established steakhouse in the Annapolis area. We were able to get last minute reservations for the evening, but only an early seating (5:45 pm) was available. That was ok with us as we generally don’t like to eat too late anyway. Since it is located in Eastport we did not have far to walk for the dinner, and enjoyed seeing all the locals out walking during this time of day. It really is a lovely community with some small and some gorgeously large homes. We had a fabulous meal (probably the best steak ever) and we were glad we chose to eat here. We had hoped to make it back to the Davis Pub this trip, but we will have to put that on the agenda for our next visit.

After dinner we walked along the northern shore of Eastport, overlooking the harbor towards the Naval Academy. Then we meandered back to SAYC and walked all around the docks, and the new townhomes being constructed adjacent to the marina. We have been very happy with our choice of this marina, both from a location and amenities standpoint. It is so convenient to everything, but quiet and away from the crazy touristy areas in Annapolis. We would highly recommend it to other cruisers, however in so doing we risk the fact that it will become so popular that we might never be able to get a slip in the future.

Before retiring for the evening, we checked the latest marine forecasts for the Chesapeake Bay. It still looked good for us to head south tomorrow, but we may have to limit our stay in Cape Charles to one night; Saturday and Sunday were not going to be good days to be in the lower Chesapeake, let alone crossing it.