About Chesapeake Bay boating
 

Is my boat big enough for the Chesapeake Bay?
Where do you find information on wind speeds?
Looking at the Annapolis, MD area. Places to stay? Places to launch at? Good waterfront places to eat at?
Can you run open exhaust? I only ask because on the Illinois Chain we have to run silent.

Capt Nick,

Your boat is certainly big enough for the Bay here. There are many lower to mid 20 footers here. Don't get me wrong, there are the days that you just don't want to venture far, but for the most part there are lots of great areas to boat here in the Chesapeake.

Annapolis is a great area, can't say anything about ramps as we are in the water. Mears has a nice place right in Annapolis to stay at, then there are several places in Baltimore Harbor as well. You can pretty much be to a lot of places in 45 mins or less from Annapolis in you Baja.

From north to south you have the following:

Chesapeake Inn (C&D canal) nice lunch place, great ride up the canal
Nauti-Goose up the Northeast River
Jellyfish Joels at Mears in Fairlee Creek
Tolchester Marina Tiki Bar
Watermans', Harbor Shack in Rock Hall
Sunset Cove, Crazy Tuna, Riverwatch in Middle River
Hard Yacht in Bear Creek
Reckless Ricks in Curtis Creek
Red Eyes, The Jetty in Kent Narrows

This is just a few of the spots.....others may chime in with more.

Open exhaust is OK, My 34PC has thru hulls.

Hope this helps a little.

Yes I agree your boat is big enough to go around the bay, you just have to use our own discretion and pay attention to the weather. You would not enjoy being in baltimore and having to head back to Annapolis with a eastern or westerly wind and a following tide...you could make it but it wouldn't be fun!

By far the best ramp in the Annapolis area is Sandy Point state park and you can leave your vehicle overnight if you register it.

Along with the places mentioned above here are a few more...
Downtown Annapolis Harbor has dock age and the popular waterfront restaurant by boat is Pussers. But you can dock and walk to at least 20 other nice places from there.

If you go south one river from the Severn to the South river you can find Mikes(south) Crab House, YellowFin and Coconut Joes by water.

The next river/rivers down are The West and Rhode rivers. where you can find a couple places, my favorite is Thursdays.

Almost directly across the Bay from the Severn are a couple options...Hemingways and Kentmorr. These are situated on the west side of Kent Island.

Just north of the Bay Bridge on the West side of the bay is the Magathy River and you will find Deep Creek Restaurant. I believe there might be one more restaurant or two back in the river also.

I could go on, but unless your staying two weeks you have plenty listed already.

I will say that a cruise thru Kent Narrows and down to eastern bay is nice also...you can make a loop around Kent Island. Once in eastern bay you will find Lowes Warf inn. A nice place to hang out.

Also agree open exhaust is fine.

Hope this helps.

John

Thank you all for helping me out there. Hopefully sometime soon. I know it would be a drive from where I live, but I think it would be worth it.

If you'd like, join either the Chesapeake Bay Powerboat Association Facebook page or our website www.cbpba.com (free of charge) and you can see what we are up to throughout the season. We would be happy to welcome you to an event and maybe show you two or three places the same day. If nothing else we can help with logistics, a place to keep the rig, etc. We have a great group of boaters that are always willing to help out and meet new friends. We are blessed to have such a great place to boat and happily share it.

Threads and Jadento have good places to check out. As far as the winds I watch the evening news prior to the day I want to go out. They list the Bay conditions seperate from the rest of the weather. As for the main bay area around the bridges and south, When they are calling for 15-20 I stay north of Fairlee creek/Pooles island in my 29. I don't much care for getting banged around and two o'clock on any given day the south bay can get rough.

Ted, thank you for mentioning about the Chesapeake Bay Powerboat Association. All the get togethers. It would be fun to meet some more of the boaters from the area. Thank you for mentioning about logistics and place to keep rig. What I would like to do is try to meet up with some of the other members of OSO for lunch. Check each others boats out, talk, eat, and take pictures as well.

fordf350, thank you for letting me know about the wind conditions. It would be fun to go from Annapolis to Norfolk by boat.

Captain,

When you decide to come our way and want to make the run from Annapolis to Norfolk I am in......:ernaehrung004:

Badmonkey, thank you there. I'll have to wait on that one.

Again I just wanted to thank every one for their friendliness and hospitality.

Nick

I grew up on the bay. We had a 23 wellcraft nova. Plenty of boat for most days. Among the places listed add hart miller island. Also Baltimores inner harbor is great. Stoney creek has nabbs creek cafe. Also places in rock creek and bodkin. A lot of waterfront eats and drinks in that area.


Also wind finder is a great app for wind. I use it for work and its very accurate.

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_pag...&ts=1406937600

This light is about a mile from where we live. If it's blowing more than 15kts from the south it gets pretty nautical out there. Otherwise, your boat would be fine. From that page you can also check bouys all up and down the Bay, very handy.

Wow! So many options. I'll have to start planning on the places to eat at and where all I want to go on the water. Ted, thank you for the link on all there is to know about the Chesapeake Bay.

Shoot me a message when you get out this way and I'd be glad to show you around a few places. We are out on our boat almost every weekend, in the warmer months of course (is it boating season yet? ). Welcome to Maryland and I'm sure you'll find the Bay a very nice place for boating.

Brad

Cool thank you there Brad.

Nick

Sandy Point State Park has awesome ramps....it's the last exit prior to the Bay Bridge....safe and very clean and protected...literally right around the corner from the Severn River and the Navy Academy.....I boat in northern bay, but when I run Mid Bay I launch there. Google it ..... If ya wanna run up north....feel free to message me....ahead of time, we usually know by Thursday night where everyone is heading for the weekend....low key group....with a variety of boats..... I run a 22 Classic Donzi and a 28 Pantera....
Good Luck....safe travels.

Doc of the Bay :sport009:

Dr. Dan, thank you for mentioning about the launch ramps. Nothing would be worse then to have a launch ramp be small for my boat. I wanted to mention there too the Donzi 22 Classic is a really cool looking boat. Same with your friends 28 Pantera. Again I would like to but have limited time off of work One of these times I will. Looking at Google maps you so many options on where to go which is really nice.

Ready for summer... This thread has me thinking about what and where I'm headed for the season opener :D

Anywhere...just wanna burn some fuel and let "Chillin The Most" stretch her legs....:sport009:

I'm thinking about getting a few friends together, all meeting at Mikes South and head to Kenmorr to hang out a while when its time for season opener.... hahaha.. Can you tell summer has been on my mind a lot? lol

Calling all Chesapeake Bay Area Formula Owners. We are looking for any and all Formula owners in the area. Our Formula owners of NJ group hosts several events, trips, and impromptu gatherings over the summer. This all started 6 years ago with just a handful of owners just coming together to enjoy each others company out on the water. We have tripled our numbers from when we started and continue to grow year after year. Although majority of our events are held on Jersey waters, we are always interested in exploring new waters. Some even making the winter trip down to the Gulf Coast of Florida. If interested please check us out at Formula Owners of NJ on Facebook. You do not need a Facebook account to view the page, so please check us out to stay up to date on any and all happenings for the 2015 season.

Check out some footage of our past events
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXQwpXZgVlU

Anyone know dates for the thunder on the bay poker run or any other runs this year in Md?

Haven't looked into Thunder on The Bay run dates, but we are doing the Powerboating for a Cure run in Va Beach July 10-12, Will probably do a guys weekend run down in Williamsburg Va area (run the James or Yorktown rivers) maybe run to Va Beach. For certain will go up to NJ and visit with Splitdecision and IDCE for FOONJ events. Keep in touch if you have interest in joining us for any. You should do PBFAC run in July. It is excellent !!!

Chris

Tims usually has one or two a year. We did one last year in Oct that was a good time.

I wanted to mention that Formula boats are really pretty impressive looking and quality. If I should ever upgrade I would have the 353 with at least the 525's in it.

you and me both!

I spent the last two summers running all over the bay in this 24ft Baja...
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...31C587C593.jpg

and there where days it wasn't very much fun but the boat handled it so safe to say you should be good lol. I've upgraded to a little bigger boat for this summer though. It's almost time!! Can't wait to be out there!

You are gonna miss the ole girl, Kev..... There is still a place in my heart for the Tantrum, but so glad I upgraded to the Cig :D

I saw somewhere that Rock the Bay was 22-23 Aug

Yea I already do miss her but locally she isn't far away. You may see she her more often now actually since her new home is on the Severn.

Just glad you found a good upgrade.. Its almost time bro.. Thursday is supposed to be 70 and sunny so its another tease coming this way.

Thunder in the city poker run July 17-19

Send us the info about registration when you can. We are doing "powerboating for a cure" run in Va Beach the weekend before so we should be good for it.

Thanks,

Chris

Chris,
they are hosting 2! Thunder in the city July 17-19 and Thunder on the chesapeake June 19-20 they posted on Facebook said a website and details to follow I'll keep checking

What is a good launch place in the North section of the bay?

Anchor Marine in North East MD.

Thank you! How far of a run down to Jellyfish J's? Any better ramps farther South?

Wilson point has a very nice free ramp but weekends it a long 6 knot ride but jellyfish Js is straight across the bay from there and Rocky point is decent its $5 a day or 75 for a season pass plus side is no 6 knot zone and slightly closer but steaper ramp (I pull my 26 scarab with 2wd ram no problem though)

Wilson Point ramp is nice as 1wide7 says, 6 MPH zone is only 5 minutes to marker from ramp. However, the ramp does close at dusk, gates closed across entrance/exit. JJ's is only 15 mins from 6 MPH marker.

How long of a ride am I looking at if I launch @ North East?