Where to keep the boat? Mid-Atlantic

[daviddiscenza]

I would recommend our marina, Worton Creek Marina in Chestertown, MD. The Bay is a great place for sailing, though you do need to keep an eye out for the crab traps. Worton Creek is a hurricane hole so you’re safe from any storms that come up the coast. The marina is known for the quality of the mechanical work they do.

As far as amenities, there’s fuel dock with pump out, a limited ship’s store, a restaurant (though it wasn’t open last season due to the pandemic), a pool, and a picnic area with gas grills.

We come down from the Cherry Hill NJ area and it takes us around 90 minutes. We’ve been here two seasons having gotten fed up with the nonsense at Tolchester Beach Marina. It’s quiet, well maintained and access to the Bay is easy.

Take a ride down this winter and check it out. (No, I don’t work for the marina and have no financial interest in it. I just appreciate a well run operation that puts the customer first. )

[jen1722terry]

We're intimately familiar with your area, having lived in Moorestown, NJ for 40 years. If you don't need an actual marina, we are past members of the historic Riverton Yacht Club, NJ and loved it

Riverton Yacht Club

Great location in a postcard-pretty historic town. All moorings, no slips and they can handle up to 36 feet, maybe more. They have stewards all summer with launches. Maintenance and storage services are not far up the river in Riverside.
There's some pretty coves north of Burlington.

While it's been years since we were members, our memories are very happy. Great, relaxed club that's just a few minutes from the TP Bridge. Pretty good racing program for several classes.

Delaware River water quality has improved a ton from when I was a boy in the 50s-60s. We swam in it. Some nice restaurants close by along the river up to Burlington (if we can ever go to restaurants again).

When we had our boat there, we would ride the tide down to the C&D canal to access the northern Chesapeake. Nice trip. It's more of a haul to access the Jersey Shore via the Cape May canal but doable in a few days. Can't say I recommend the Jersey back bays for a keel boat south of Barnegat Light, but north of there the sailing is nice, if you can put up with the traffic to get there from Philly.

We now live in northern New Hamphshire and Nova Scotia and we keep our boat in Maine or Canada. We miss Philly, maybe the closest thing we have to a European city in the US. You used to be able to tie up at Penns Landing for a few days and walk into Society Hill, though that may have changed.

PM if we can assist further. I spent all my youthful summers on Long Beach and Island know that area well.

Good luck with the search.

[Scorpius]

It seems to me that the middle of the Atlantic would be a poor place to keep a boat!

[Jebtrois]

Keep it where you can use it the most. A couple hours away and it's too easy to start skipping weekends and then you are just making payments. You can always move it to a nicer place during the summer but in our experience when we tried to keep, maintain and use a boat 90 minutes away we found it to be more work than it was worth and we ultimately sold that boat.
JEB

[jen1722terry]

Good advice on keeping the boat close to home. That's why we suggested the Riverton Yacht Club, which is, maybe, 15 minutes from center city, Philadelphia.

[LF4]

Originally Posted by jen1722terry

We're intimately familiar with your area, having lived in Moorestown, NJ for 40 years. If you don't need an actual marina, we are past members of the historic Riverton Yacht Club, NJ and loved it

Riverton Yacht Club

Riverton Yacht Club is where I learned how to sail and read the winds on the water. Its a great place and I plan to send the girls there for summer dinghy sailing once they become better swimmers.

We will need a marina, though.

You can tie up at Penn's Landing again and visit the city. Many did so just this summer. You could head down here and visit once everything is over if you are looking for some nostalgia.

I response to everyone else. I just drove down to Havre De Grace today and walked around. It isn't ideal for what we are looking for. I think the longer drive is going to be a trade off that we need to make to get the most out of our weekends. We unfortunately cannot move further south as my work commute would be absolute hell every day if we did that. I am going to be checking out everything mentioned Rock Hall and south.

[flyingfin]

Barnegat Bay

[Bean Counter]

When in the USA we stayed mostly in the Chesapeake, terrific place for sail boats and exploring myriad of waterways, many places not crowded either. Good for fishing and crabbing too. Some marinas are very close to grocery stores and chandlers which is a plus (eg Anchorage Marina Baltimore), some have their own pool.



We visited Philadelphia once and stayed at a Marina near one of the railway bridges. We discovered later hundreds of tiny rust spots forming on the decks, we figured this was the fall out from the train wheels on the steel tracks. It took a very long time to remove the specs and stains with tweezers and oxalic acid.


We have no fond memories of Delaware Bay, very industrial near the river, has bad wind against current chop, in summer the lower NJ shore is famous for its swarms of green headed biting flies. Cape May was nice but that was about it.

[egrubman]

We lived in Philadelphia for several years and kept a boat in Rock Hall, MD. We wanted to primarily cruise the Chesapeake. It was pretty perfect. Marinas are good. The bay is wide enough there to really sail, the season is longer and there is a ton to do for the whole family, both of the eastern shore and on the Annapolis side. The water is clean and plenty of swimming.

We usually went down to the boat on a Friday night and spent the weekend on the boat, either daysailing out of the marina or sailing to Baltimore/Annapolis. We also spent weeks off exploring the Chesapeake.

[mjscottinnc]

I kept my boat off middle river, there are a number of marinas in that area. Easy access to I95 and the Baltimore inner and outer loop, on the occasions when weather prevents going out on the bay it’s a short drive to fells point and the inner harbor. I was there for 12 years and that location makes the upper Chesapeake down to Oxford practical cruising grounds. Your can cruise the Chesapeake for your entire lifetime and never visit the same place twice, unless you want to.

[Marrowstone]

We’re retired West coast (is WA state) with our boat now in the Chesapeake. We suggest buying a bigger boat now if you are thinking of a sabbatical in 5 yrs. Any boat will take time to get to know, and you’ll undoubtedly want to add some gear and other personal preferences. By the time you are ready for sabbatical, boat should be set up the way you can feel comfortable handling her.

[Siberian Sea]

Kept my 40ft monohull sailboat in Deltaville Virginia one summer in dry storage and it was a great place. Marina called Deltaville Yachting Center, charges 125.00 flat rate for all sailboats in dry storage yard and by the foot for boats in the water. Nice people, lots of marine shops in the area, free wifi, showers. Can work/stay on your boat.

[LF4]

Follow Up:

The family and I scoped out towns and marinas in the upper bay this weekend. We checked out Havre De Grace, Chestertown, Worton Marina, Rock Hall, and Annapolis (we had been there before).

At the end of the day it isn't really close for us. We want to be based out of Annapolis. The ability to be in a really nice town with good food if the weather takes a turn for the worse is a huge bonus for us. Not to mention the history and amenities offered. The problem is the cost of keeping a boat in a marina there. It seems like the rates are in the $800 a month plus range (40 foot boat) and that simply doesn't work for us. Does anyone know of/can recommend a marina in Annapolis?

We really do not want to go further south than that because of the commute to and from Annapolis already being about 2 hours each way. We are also considering Rock Hall as the backup location. Slips can be had for about half the price there, which is nice. Rock Hall also seemed to have a higher sailboat to motorboat ratio than the marinas at the other locations.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by LF4

At the end of the day it isn't really close for us. We want to be based out of Annapolis. The ability to be in a really nice town with good food if the weather takes a turn for the worse is a huge bonus for us. Not to mention the history and amenities offered. The problem is the cost of keeping a boat in a marina there. It seems like the rates are in the $800 a month plus range (40 foot boat) and that simply doesn't work for us. Does anyone know of/can recommend a marina in Annapolis?

We are also considering Rock Hall as the backup location. Slips can be had for about half the price there, which is nice. Rock Hall also seemed to have a higher sailboat to motorboat ratio than the marinas at the other locations.

You might check marinas on the South River, or even the Rhode River. Which can also make Annapolis a boating "destination" from time to time. Rates can be much friendlier than $800/month! so not like Spa Creek, Back Creek, etc. Easy enough drive to/from downtown Annapolis when necessary.

-Chris

[jen1722terry]

So much to choose from on the Chesapeake with its 11,000+ miles of shoreline.

Staying in Annapolis is worth the extra money. Though we've never spent a full season there, we've rented slips for up to a month and always enjoyed the area. Great town and there always seems to be something going on. Even the Naval Academy has some pretty good arts events in non-covid times. The boat shows are a ton of fun and you won't have to book an expensive hotel. So, what you spend on the slip would be offset by driving costs, parking and hotels.

One thing about Annapolis and the Chesapeake is that it can get really hot late June through early September. Good screens and small fans in the boat are a must. Helps with the flies that will find you when the wind dies. A good light air chute is money well spent if you don't already have on.

For us, when we lived down near Philly, the bonus of the Chesapeake was a much longer sailing season than we now have in Maine. Balmy days well into December are not rare. One year we actually left the boat at Kent Island for the winter and enjoyed some great winter day sails out with the Skipjacks and oystermen.

If you're new to summer sailing on the Bay, you'll learn to keep an eye to the northwest on hot afternoons and keep your weather radio on. Those line squalls can blow up on very short notice to 80-90 knots. Job security for sailmakers!

Years ago, not long after Jenn and I married, we were in Oxford eating on the deck of a riverside restaurant on a hot day. Jenn was new to the Bay and I was telling her about some of my adventures with line squalls over the years when, in clear air, the deck furniture and umbrellas began blowing into the water. Welcome to the Chesapeake.

Good luck as you commence what may be a lifetime of pleasant sailing in one of the world's finest cruising grounds. Go Phillies!