Chesapeake Bay Destinations (Occohannock Creek ESVA)

[thomm225]

Had a nice anchorage for a couple days on Occohannock Creek, VA.

It was tough coming in at 10:30 pm, but a really nice spot after the Sun came up. Luckily my laptop was working correctly and the OpenCPN Chart was perfect.

It's so dark in there that you can see tons of stars on a clear, new moon or moonless night.

But it is shallow with some spots in the channel only 5'-6' deep.

Once in and swinging with the tide and wind at anchor though my depth minimum was 7'-8' which was quite good.

[MicHughV]

I spent a season cruising the Chesapeake Bay. There are so many place to anchor it defies description.

One work of caution. At one spot, I followed another boat into an anchorage that was quite shallow. The entry was shallow, but the anchorage spot was 10-12'.

Next morning, I tried to leave, but couldn't. The entry channel was short 18", even at high tide. I sounded out the entire channel looking for a spot deep enough, but there was none.

By the third day I was in a panic, thinking I would be stuck there forever.

On a nearby dock, I had wrapped some tape around a piling indicating the water level I needed to get out. That night, for some reason, I woke up around 2 am, shone my light at the piling, and the tape was underwater.
Without further ado, I raised anchor and was out of there.

I found out later, that strong NW winds tend to blow the water out of the bay, while strong SE winds blow water into the bay, and this is what happened to me.

While the charts may indicate charted depths, the wind direction should be taken into account.

Besides that little experience, had a wonderful time there.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

I spent a season cruising the Chesapeake Bay. There are so many place to anchor it defies description.

One work of caution. At one spot, I followed another boat into an anchorage that was quite shallow. The entry was shallow, but the anchorage spot was 10-12'.

Next morning, I tried to leave, but couldn't. The entry channel was short 18", even at high tide. I sounded out the entire channel looking for a spot deep enough, but there was none.

By the third day I was in a panic, thinking I would be stuck there forever.

On a nearby dock, I had wrapped some tape around a piling indicating the water level I needed to get out. That night, for some reason, I woke up around 2 am, shone my light at the piling, and the tape was underwater.
Without further ado, I raised anchor and was out of there.

I found out later, that strong NW winds tend to blow the water out of the bay, while strong SE winds blow water into the bay, and this is what happened to me.

While the charts may indicate charted depths, the wind direction should be taken into account.

Besides that little experience, had a wonderful time there.

Yep, there are lots of shallow creeks along the bay especially on the Eastern Side, but at age 15, I was in many of them on my own small 14'-16' small fishing boats or with friends on theirs.

As the crow flies, I was anchored about 9 and 1/2 miles from where I grew up so not too many surprises coming in but the darkness definitely made it interesting

The sail there and back to where I am now though was over 100 miles.

I had wind on the nose for most of the day coming back yesterday, but the tide was with me most of the way and I had almost 2 and 1/2 gallons of gas onboard so it worked out.

[MicHughV]

My favorite memory of the Chesapeake is the blue crab.

I had stopped at St. Michael's for lunch, where eating blue crabs is "the thing".

Until that time, I had never considered the blue crab as a food source...on the contrary, found it to be revolting.

St. Michael's changed all that. I was sitting next to a gentleman that had the patience to show me how to open and eat a crab.

Lordy, lordy, lordy...what a surprise. To this day, I don't think I've had finer seafood than a steamed Chesapeake blue crab.

Went to another place...forget the name...Crisfield, I think, where they served crab cakes....as above....delicious beyond description.

[AA3JY]

Tried and true… ‘Cruising the Chesapeake: A Gunkholer’s Guide’ by William H. Shellenberger

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

My favorite memory of the Chesapeake is the blue crab.

I had stopped at St. Michael's for lunch, where eating blue crabs is "the thing".

Until that time, I had never considered the blue crab as a food source...on the contrary, found it to be revolting.

St. Michael's changed all that. I was sitting next to a gentleman that had the patience to show me how to open and eat a crab.

Lordy, lordy, lordy...what a surprise. To this day, I don't think I've had finer seafood than a steamed Chesapeake blue crab.

Went to another place...forget the name...Crisfield, I think, where they served crab cakes....as above....delicious beyond description.

We used to go to Crisfield for the Crab Derby! My brother's wife is from there.

Too bad you missed out on the soft crabs which are also Blue Crabs. There's no technique just eat them as you would a bologna sandwich.

Hard crabs are too much work for many of us locals.

I'd say about half my classmates in HS were sons or daughters of watermen back then that lived by catching crabs, oysters, fish, etc but mainly crabs on Bayside.

There were working crab houses on most Bayside creeks back then with 100's of blue crabs in floating wooden pens waiting for them to shed their shell to be sold as soft crabs

More oysters on seaside.......

Their accents were not too far off from the folks on Tangier Island.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upKqzxuJ5L4

[MicHughV]

I did try the soft shell crab....served as a sandwich....I didn't think I was going to like it, but it was quite good....

I never thought I'd like conch either, first time I saw one out of it's shell, but it's become a favorite of mine.

Same goes for fish...back in the day, I didn't know much about fish...how to catch them...how to clean them, etc, but a Bahamian took me under his wing and taught me everything there is to know about how to catch them...and how to clean them...

Besides sailing, I like to fish offshore, where I can catch a variety of fish. As with the Bahamian, have fished with some very knowledgeable guys, who have taught me the tricks of the trade. I have a collection of 20 rods in my fishing arsenal. 'nuff said.

I'm from the Florida area, so we also have a lot of shrimp here, I must know dozens of ways to prepare those. Blue crab is also harvested here by some people, but they are small in size. Also have oysters, but they come from the west part of the State.

Since then, seafood, in one form or another is on the menu every week...luv it !!

But crab still ranks # 1...

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

I did try the soft shell crab....served as a sandwich....I didn't think I was going to like it, but it was quite good....

I never thought I'd like conch either, first time I saw one out of it's shell, but it's become a favorite of mine.

Same goes for fish...back in the day, I didn't know much about fish...how to catch them...how to clean them, etc, but a Bahamian took me under his wing and taught me everything there is to know about how to catch them...and how to clean them...

Besides sailing, I like to fish offshore, where I can catch a variety of fish. As with the Bahamian, have fished with some very knowledgeable guys, who have taught me the tricks of the trade. I have a collection of 20 rods in my fishing arsenal. 'nuff said.

I'm from the Florida area, so we also have a lot of shrimp here, I must know dozens of ways to prepare those. Blue crab is also harvested here by some people, but they are small in size. Also have oysters, but they come from the west part of the State.

Since then, seafood, in one form or another is on the menu every week...luv it !!

But crab still ranks # 1...

Yep crabs are very good but some would say Eastern Shore (of Virginia) Seaside Oysters may be even better........

they used to do the oysterin with sailboats similar to this one.

I saw one of these a few months back over there at a dock

[MicHughV]

My wife likes to eat oysters raw, but I don't much care for them unless steamed, a little chopped onion, a splash of caviar, a dab of horseradish sauce on a cracker....yum..

I've had oyster in sushi rolls....also very good.

I'm no expert on oysters though, we get a variety here, but I can't tell one from another.

Back in the day, I did a lot of spearfishing, probably the best tasting fish is the hog snapper, but they are hard to come by...

Damn, you're making me hungry now...

[Gadagirl]

"The Chesapeake Bay’s watermen have endured one crisis after another over the decades: persistent pollution, falling seafood populations, oyster-decimating diseases, shuttered processing plants, scarce pickers and rising prices for everything from gasoline to equipment. Now add a new crisis to the list: a shortage of crab sperm."

"In mid-May, the two state agencies that run the survey — the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science — made an announcement with more dire news. Only 227 million crabs had been counted, the lowest number on record since the survey began in 1990."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/new-challenge-for-chesapeake-bay-watermen-a-shortage-of-crab-sperm/ar-AAZ4qDh

Very sad news for the Chesapeake and lovers of it's bounty. THE LOWEST NUMBER RECORDED IN 32 YEARS! Let that sink in.

So I suggest that if you visit or live in the area consider a contribution to organizations trying to reverse the decimation of our waters. Or volunteer to help plant grasses and seed oyster beds.or offer support to your local watermen to help them withstand their economic downturn.

[Rumrace]

I’ve passed Chesapeake offshore or the entrance. And I’ve been to Virginia beach on business. Looks spectacular like an inland sea. It looks much like our Georgian bay in Lake Huron. Hopefully fewer rocks.
How many day sail Is it from the Hudson to Annapolis ?
4 of us pulled into a pitch black inlet with no depth on the chart. Was a little bay inlet surrounded by cottages. No tides Great Lakes. We cheated with a mast head light but never saw much in the way of light from shore. We received some dirty looks. Oh well. We tossed an anchor each Dug into the weeds and rafted

[Ninedotsix]

Thanks for the post.
I tried once years ago, but went aground on sand shoal right beside the first mark, my draft 5.6.
We kedged out, and spent the night in open water, with the strong current and wind opposing, twisting over the anchor rode, until tide changed.
It was an adventure for three bums on a Halloween cruise.
The pictures are most welcome, thanks for those views!
Fair Winds ~ 9.6

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Ninedotsix

Thanks for the post.
I tried once years ago, but went aground on sand shoal right beside the first mark, my draft 5.6.
We kedged out, and spent the night in open water, with the strong current and wind opposing, twisting over the anchor rode, until tide changed.
It was an adventure for three bums on a Halloween cruise.
The pictures are most welcome, thanks for those views!
Fair Winds ~ 9.6

You can probably get into Occohannock Creek near high tide. It's good to have a chart plotter though. It was so nice for me to have OpenCPN on my Laptop

With a chart plotter, the lowest water I saw was 6' coming back out in the channel. Without a chart plotter though you could end up in 4'-5' or so on the shallow side of the channel.

Then once in you are fine.

I actually bought my boat at a marina just North of there on Deep Creek. At low tide there are spots near 2' deep and I draw 4'

Deep Creek is ESE of Watt's Island, but you have to go North then East then South to get in there

https://www.google.com/maps/place/De...!4d-75.7507708

[MicHughV]

There are parts of the Chessie where you won't see land on any side. While not ocean sailing, a stiff breeze can kick up some waves.

When I was there, there seemed to be an unusually high density of jellyfish floating around...???

All in all, it's a great cruising area. Impossible to get bored there. I rather enjoyed my time there. Got to meet some really interesting people

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

There are parts of the Chessie where you won't see land on any side. While not ocean sailing, a stiff breeze can kick up some waves.

When I was there, there seemed to be an unusually high density of jellyfish floating around...???

All in all, it's a great cruising area. Impossible to get bored there. I rather enjoyed my time there. Got to meet some really interesting people

The jelly fish that sting we used to call "Sea Nettles."

https://www.thoughtco.com/sea-nettle-facts-4782495

They mainly sting where the hair is on your body because you can pick them up with your hands without getting stung as long as the wind doesn't blow the lower "tentacles?" onto your arms or legs. Parts of them used to get on our fishing lines then that would get blown onto you and you'd get stung that way.

I learned to ski on a Sunday School / church outing at what used to be Mason's Beach when the water was almost white with Sea Nettles. I was 10-11 years old then.

As I was leaving to go try to ski, a lady was sitting on the beach all red having fallen in to a large group of sea nettles. She was in quite a bit of pain and putting sand on her worst spots.

I did one circle on the skis then as the boat neared the beach let go of the rope line and got back ashore as there were so many Sea Nettles in the water I wasn't taking anymore chances.

As far as how big the Bay is, where I lived it's almost 30 miles wide and then it's length is near 150 miles or more