Day 41...Cobbs Creek to Mill Creek

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2012

     We left the Cobbs Creek anchorage at about 8:30 a.m. since the predicted thunderstorms did not materialize.  You’ve gotta love those weather forecasters.  We were only going about 16 miles today.  We are getting into the part of the Chesapeake that has good anchorages either fairly close together or really far apart.  We will try to do a longer day tomorrow.

     On the chartplotter we noticed several areas close to shore called Fish Trap Areas. When we finally got out onto the bay, we realized why the chart was marked that way.  Several big (100-150 feet), blue ships seemed to just be sitting there.  

When we got closer, we saw a much smaller boat hauling in a net.  

     While I was looking in our Guide to Cruising Chesapeake Bay, I found out about those ships.  According to the book, they are called “mother ships” that carry two “purse boats.”  They were “purse-seining” to catch menhaden (small oily fish).  The ships are usually in contact with spotter planes used to locate the schools.  On hazy or rainy days like today (It had started raining about 12:45.), spotting is done from the crow’s nest.  The purse boats are sent out to encircle the school and “bring ‘er in.”  The waves weren’t too bad, but several of the ships going out to fish left huge wakes that were bigger than the waves.

     There were also many crab pots to dodge so all in all it was an interesting day.  The anchorage we were headed to is Mill Creek up the Great Wicomico (wye-KAHM-eh-ko) River. 

     We decided to stop in the 2^nd cove on the starboard side after going all the way to the end to scout out the three-mile length of the creek. Once we got in we really liked this anchorage.  

   

     We traveled 33.2 miles in 5 hours.  We only went 16 miles north because the other 17 miles was getting in and out of anchorages.  The next anchorage would have been at least 40 miles farther.  We didn’t feel like we could make it until after dark.  We don’t want to go into an unknown anchorage after dark even with a chartplotter.