Sunrise over ICOYC boats moored at CBMM
Spanning from late September into October and the front end of the Annapolis Power Boat Show, a group of 45 international cruisers joined up with a roughly equal number of Annapolis based cruisers and “experienced” the Bay. The ten-day cruise began and ended in Annapolis and included stops in Dun Cove, Cambridge, Oxford, St Michael's, Shady Side and Mill Creek. The cruise is a by-annual function of the International Council of Yacht Clubs and was hosted this year in the Chesapeake by the Annapolis Yacht Club.
The cruising fleet of 30 boats included a host group of local sail and powerboats as well as a handful of locally chartered cruising vessels. Our out-of-town cruisers came from yacht clubs in Louisiana, California, Washington, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, England and Australia.
For the most part our out of town guests do not have home cruising grounds anything like the Chesapeake. The modest tidal range, limited currents, soft bottom and nearly 12,000 miles of shoreline offered by the Bay were a revelation to many. For more on this watch the December issue of PropTalk