Lazy Hazy Day of Summer

Goose Creek
N 38 45.032 W 076 15.711

We are on Goose Creek, off Broad Creek, which is off the Choptank River, which is off Chesapeake Bay. It's a lovely spot and we have the whole thing to ourselves.

We started the day in Solomons. The day started with zero wind and with an oppressive haze that had descended over everything. We could not see more than three miles.

Nevertheless, the departure route carried us right past the spectacular Calvert cliffs and they looked lovely. Cliffs of any kind are very rare here. In the first place there are very few and very modest hills of any kind. People from hilly or mountainous areas would call it dead flat. It is slightly less flat than Florida. Next, the cliffs themselves, descend vertically right into the water. That differs drastically from all other shore lines on the Chesapeake. There are three courses of
the cliffs, each course about two miles long, and each course nearly straight ass an arrow. They absolutely must have been created by earthquakes with fault lines running along the shore.

The cliff faces are red on top and white on the bottom. The red is dirt and the white portions appear to be rock. It is said that the cliff faces are abundant sources of f\ossil artifacts and a favorite for archaeologists. Tourists are warned not to touch the cliffs or to dig out any of the fossils visible.

Just North of the cliffs are two very interesting man made sites. The first is a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal. It has an offshore terminal where the ships tie up and pipes to carry the liquid to shore. On shore, at the tops of the hills are five enormous white storage tanks. Such terminals are very controversial. On one hand, they have a great deal of economic influence, and they allow us to import one of the cleanest, most benign, and most sought after fossil fuels. On the other hand,
a major accident at that site could feed an immense explosion, big enough to blow up half the county.

North of the LING terminal is the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant. Ironically, more people are more nervous about the risks of the nuclear plant, although in my opinion, the LNG terminal is much riskier. Calvert Cliffs has one of the most scenic sites of any nuclear plant I know. I visited the plant once on business during my nuclear career. I remember the beauty of the site and I remember the soft crab lunch the engineers provided for me at a nearby restaurant, probably at Solomons Landing.

There were lots of boats on the water today. It is Memorial Day weekend. That brings out everybody including those who only go boating three or four times per year. They don't know the rules of right of way and they don't know about controlling their wakes. What the heck, those people too deserve their day out and this was it. We just kept a sharp eye out and avoided them.

As the day went on the heat and humidity became oppressive. I began to fixate on the idea of finding a remote anchorage where I could go swimming. We took the first creek off the Choptank and headed for the first branch off that creek and the first protected cove off that creek to go to. But as we were entering that creek, I saw three sailboats ahead of us turn for the same cove. I looked behind and saw three more sailboats following me toward the same place. Ah yes. Memorial Day weekend. We
would have to choose a less obvious anchorage. There are lots to choose from. But all it required was to change course for the second branch creek rather than the first, and we have a lovely spot all to ourselves. No other boats are visible.

In this little cove there is an Osprey nest on a post with a mommy Osprey sitting there full time, no doubt sitting on eggs. The father hunts for fish and brings them back to the nest. There was also a pair of trumpeter swans here when we arrived. Just after we dropped our hook, a second pair of swans flew in and landed outside the cove. Immediately I saw the male from the first pair raise his wings and ruffle his feathers in an obvious aggressive display. He and his mate started swimming slowly
toward the intruding pair of swans. After a while, the female too showed the aggressive display. Suddenly, the male took off flying accompanied by the whap whap noise that swans make when taking off. If you've every heard a whole flock of swans taking off at the sme time you know what I mean. That sound can be heard a mile away. Anyhow, this swan flew only one meter above the water and honking madly right toward the intruding pair. The intruders were intimidated, they immediately took off
themselves and flew away. The female swan immediately put her wings back down, but the aggressor male swam back into the cove with his aggressive display still showing. Typical.

Now, near sunset, and the cove is very quiet. I hear only the robins and a mourning dove calling. The forecasted severe thunderstorms will apparently not appear today, so the evening should remain peaceful. As I wrote this paragraph, a blue heron just appeared by my right shoulder. He is doing his thing, stalking the ankle deep water along the shore for something to eat. They are fun to watch because when they do catch a fish you can see the fish wiggle all the way down the Heron's throat.
Herons only seem to appear at the peaceful moments.