"*JimH*" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
oups.com...
Thank you everyone for the advice so far. Harry, I'll drop you a note
when we get further along with our plan. Herrington Harbour marina is
supposed to have a good WiFi service (BeaconWiFi.com). Grandma
Rosalie, as usual your advice and recommendations sound very thorough
and thoughtful. The secret to getting good WiFi service at anchor or
on a mooring is altitude. My adapter is 20 feet off the water and
piped into the main cabin vis a USB hub on the flybridge. Keeping the
hub and cable connections dry is a major engineering challenge since
none of the first three liked rainy days very well. The adapter itself
is double wrabbed in zip lock bags and seems to do OK.

I was mildly surprised to see Baltimore on the list. Is there really a
good cruising destination there, and if so, whereabouts? I've always
thought of Baltimore as a busy commercial harbor not particularly
friendly to pleasure boats but I'm open to being re-educated.


Although I was there many years ago I found the Baltimore Inner Harbor
area
to be quite spectacular.

http://www.baltimore.org/index.html

There looked to be a nice marina on the south(?) side of the inner harbor
when I was there, as well as the ability to tie up along the wall near mini
mall.

I agree with most of this: wifi is going to be your biggets challenge.
A few additions:
-for far-south bay sailing, the town of Cape Charles, VA, has a town
owned marina dock which is quite cheap (I think it's $.75/ft). Doubt
you'll find wiFi. It's quite protected, and a small quaint little town
with not much to do, but it's got some good restaurants and groceries.
no boat supplies. If you're coming up from the ICW, it's a good first
stop if you've had a long day catching hte canals (assuming you went
Dismal Swamp route). It's across the bay from Norfolk harbor.

-along the lines of Crisfield and Tangier Island, try Smith Island as
well. It's a very similar to Tangier, but somewhat less touristy

-Along Oxford, there's some nice anchorage up La Trappe creek. There's
a marina at hte head of the creek, but not many supplies.

-Some good holding off the Rhode River, off the West River. Not many
supplies. (My marina is off the Rhode). There's also a very small
anchorage (maybe two boats can fit) that's a veritable hurricane hole
up that way, but it gets down to about 6 feet so rarely are there
transient boats around.

-Selby Bay--it's a good walk to a little snack shop, but that's all
there is; but if you plan on being there, get in touch with me; my boat
is nearby.

Speaking of after dark, try Crisfield after dark. it's quite an
experience! My first visit to Crisfield was after dark. I'd
definitely recommend daytime first.

If you spend 3 weeks or so on the bay, buy or borrow the Gunkholer's
Guide:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...77520?v=glance


On a different note, the Knapps Narrows channel has a controlling depth
of about 4 feet as of two months ago when I was there, although the
bridge tender told me 12. I draw 5, and I made it through, although I
think I shaved a bit off my teeth in the process. Anyone has any
recent info on Knapps Narrows?

Best of luck,

mickey