With Vagus back together, we could start seeing Baltimore. The Bay was full of flotsam from the storm and would take several days to clear. We also got a rainstorm on Sunday night that dumped another 4 inches of rain on rain soaked countryside. By comparison, Isabel dumped only 1.5 inches. The water in the harbour turned muddy brown and there was more flooding. The damage to the Chesapeake was just starting to be determined and there were still many areas without power.

Over the next few days, we wandered all through downtown Baltimore. There was a lot to see just following the Harbour front, all within easy walking distance. We went on the USS Constellation, a beautifully restored sailing vessel built around 1870. There were demonstrations of cutlass fencing, musket loading and cannon drills. All the rigging was present and it was truly impressive. I cannot imagine learning all the names for all the lines. We sometimes still resort to "grab the white line with the red fleck in it" - a truly modern nautical description - instead of saying the "port spinnaker halyard" (see I do know some terms). We also went to the aquarium that also was impressive. They have a dolphin show stressing dolphin behaviour in the wild, huge tanks with fish and coral from different regions between the Chesapeake and the Caribbean and a tropical forest exhibit that you walk through. One area you walk down an incline with various fish, including sharks, swimming in a big oval around you. We even saw them feed the sharks and rays. The themes stress conservation and the environment and were well presented - an enjoyable day (and my birthday). We also wandered around the Fells Point region. This region was the main ship building area in the 1800's. It has cobble stone streets and row, brick houses that are being restored. The main street has restaurants with markets in the center. It is a beautiful area that unfortunately was partially submerged by Isabel. Most of the area was open although people were still cleaning up basements that were filled with water.

We decided to head out on Friday to Whitehall Bay near Annapolis, about 25 miles away. It was about 10 miles to get out of Baltimore Harbour and we still had to dodge flotsam all the way. Several times Karen had to go to the bow to guide us through the sticks, branches, trees and boards.

Cruising the Chesapeake is a whole new experience for us. For one, it is fairly shallow. While the channels are deep and can accommodate ocean-going freighters, just off the channels the water is usually less than 15 feet deep, with a lot of the Bay at 10 feet. The water is also fairly cloudy (read murky) so you cannot see the bottom and have to rely on your depth sounder to ensure the water is not too thin. As well, there are crab pots anywhere outside the shipping channels that the water goes below 20 feet. Crabbers lay out crab pots - a wire cage to catch the crabs- with a float at the top. These pots are laid out in long lines and will cover whole areas. Each pot costs about $50 so you do not want to run over a line, foul your prop, and lose the Crabber's pot - not a happy day for all concerned. The trick is to avoid the ships in the shipping channel and all the floats outside the shipping channel. Fortunately, after a short while, you do start to be able to pick out the floats from the waves, see the pattern of crab pots and play dodge the floats as you pick your way through them. The other option is to stay just outside the shipping channel, which is sometimes the easier way. We would not want to travel at night through this area.

We got to Whitehall Bay, followed the marks around a large shoal area, and proceeded to Whitehall Creek, which branches off Whitehall Bay, up to Ridout Creek, which branches off Whitehall Creek. This is what makes the Chesapeake such a great cruising area as the shore line is full of rivers, creeks and fiddley-bits that you can explore or "gunkhole" in cruising vernacular. The bottom is mostly mud that makes for great holding for anchoring and is forgiving when (not if) you run aground. You could spend years exploring the bay.