Rhode River
For those of you that have never experienced docking a boat, imagine moving your house down the highway at 30 miles an hour, while going the opposite direction of oncoming traffic, and trying to avoid traffic barrels randomly placed at will. It is the most terrifying experience you will ever have. I’m convinced couples who can dock a boat without raised voices or four-letter words are miracle workers and every one of them deserves a shiny gold medal. Needless to say, after a bit of a tense docking experience at the pump out station, we were on our way to the Rhode River.
The wind was coming out of the south, which is the prevailing wind on The Bay this time of year. We put up our sails and had a pleasant sail into the mouth of the West River, until the wind picked up and the crab pots were too prevalent to sail through, so we turned on the engine. On the weekends the West River and the Rhode River are filled with motorboats and jet skis. We drove through on a Saturday and the original anchorage we had planned on was covered in boats. So, we diverted and dropped the hook around the corner, which wasn’t as protected, but the wind was light so we weren’t worried about dragging the anchor.
Samba motoring into the Rhode River
The next day we checked off a few more boat projects. Brian finished attaching the jerry cans and mounted the storm anchor. While Kirsten found even more places to hide the final items that hadn’t been stowed yet. We moved the boat to the original anchorage and got the dinghy out to go exploring.
Kirsten driving Rumpus (our dinghy) to check out the local creeks
The Rhode River is home to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Conservation (SERC). The facility is a 2,650-acre environmental research and educational facility operated by the Smithsonian Institution. It is located on the Rhode and West Rivers near Edgewater in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, near the western shore of Chesapeake Bay. The center's focus of study is the ecosystems of coastal zones, particularly in the Chesapeake Bay estuary and nearby wetlands. The facility serves as a center of research and education on human impacts in land-sea interactions of the coastal zone. [1]
After we explored the creeks by dinghy the previous night, we decided to explore by land the next day. SERC has a public dinghy dock that you can use, so we parked there and went exploring. Unfortunately, due to COVID, the environmental center was not open for tours, but we grabbed a free trail map and went on our way. There are a lot of informative signs along the way that teach you about the history of the area and fun facts about the local flora and fauna. The center has been an innovator of biotelemetry to track behavior, habitat use, and movement of blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus), a marine predator and a valuable crustacean fishery in North America.
We picked one of the hottest days of the year, and the bugs were really excited about that. We were attacked by biting flies nearly the entire hike, so we diverted early and went back to the water where it was both cooler and biting bug free. All in all, we had a fun time and would definitely consider coming on a cooler day when the center was open to the public.
Sunset overlooking the big island on the Rhode River
