Mahi Mahi – Thu May 22 ; Hampton Virginia to Ellyson Cove Anchorage Maryland

Thursday May 22nd – the day began with a 6:30am walk from Salt Ponds Marina across the narrow Hampton peninsula over to the Chesapeake Bay.

Do you remember from the last post, what the Chesapeake Bay was doing yesterday ?

Well, getting up at 6:30am was worth it. The wind was, as forecasted out of the west, and the blockage from the land was incredible. Providing us the the low waves that we needed. Compare the 2 videos below. Video #1 was Wednesday night vs Video #2 was 6:30 am Thursday morning.

The water was calm. Fire up them Engines, let’s go !

We left the Salt Ponds Marina in Hampton Virginia, heading to an Anchorage about 40 miles away. We knew that we had planned well by riding the west shore of Chesapeake Bay with a westerly wind. But even if the waves look low on shore, they are always higher a couple miles off shore. The waves were 2-3 ft at the beginning of the cruise and a somewhat bumpy ride, but after about 2 hours of a 7 hour trip, the seas magically went from 2-3 ft waves to under 1 ft.

The ride was then effortless !!!.

During our ride, we had some interesting VHF Radio chatter. We heard a Coast Guard boat down in the Norfolk area calling a pleasure boater. The conversation went like this – Symphony of the Seas, Symphony of the Seas, this is Coast Guard Vessel #XXYZ. You are entering an area that the Navy will be doing exercises. We ask that you adjust your course to 050 degrees for 65 miles, for the safety of your Boat & Crew. Poor Symphony of the Seas, wrong place at the wrong time. 65 miles off your planned course may not be so nice.

The waters for the Mahi Mahi had calmed down so much that we ended up passing our original 40 mile destination of Jackson Creek Virginia, to a new anchorage a total of 65 miles away, to an anchorage called Ellyson Cove, just inside the Maryland border.

The anchorage was again beautiful, surrounded by nice houses. It felt like we were on an inland lake up in Michigan.

We had read on our Navionics App, that there were a lot of crab pots at this Anchorage, but holy smokes – there were hundreds. It actually was difficult to get to the anchorage driving thru all the crab pots every 50 ft. For those of you who do not know about crab pots. There is a floating device that the crab folks use to identify where their crab traps were left. Each crab pot owner has his own color. The float is attached to a line, that is also attached to the crab trap on the seabed floor. The worry for boaters is that you might get the line caught up in your propellers.

Here is a close up photo of the float & a photo showing several crab pot floats across the water.

Since the crab pots caused us so much grief, I felt it necessary to investigate.

Some small clams in the center sleeve & 1 small crab in the cage. Seems like a hard way to make a living. Note – we did not mess with the catch, that is probably illegal and definitely immoral, I was just curious😀 .

We had a very slight rain just after dinner, but then we’re treated to a very nice rainbow.

Thanks for reading 👋