Upper Chesapeake

Here’s looking back at the Maryland Rte 213 Bridge at Chesapeake City, as we exit the C & D Canal and enter the Chesapeake at sunrise.

On call on the north side of the waterway is Delaware Responder, one of a fleet of 15 nationwide.  Here and here I’ve previously posted.

We pass the unmistakeable Dann Marine docks and

head into the Chesapeake, water level of the largest watershed in the East, which stretches northward nearly to the Mohawk and the Erie Canal.   The area is the southern end of a flyway that extends to the Saint Lawrence.

You’d think that almost obscured light would be called Eagle Point Light, but the turkey gets the name.

The Bay sees a lot of traffic, although Amara Zee, a traveling theatre show,  has to be one of the more unique vessels navigating it.  I have more photos of Amara Zee, which I saw up close more than 10years ago, but I’ll put them up only if I hear from readers about experience with the group, which traveled from the Hudson to the Saint Lawrence, could not enter their homeport in Canada without being arrested, and are now headed south for winter shows.   Note Turkey Point Light in the distance directly off the stern.

The Chesapeake is to crabs as Maine water is to lobster.

Aerostats, though, surprised me.  This one is over 200′ loa, in spite of its appearance.  The tether is monitored by

patrols from APG, Aberdeen Proving Ground, a facility that replaced the outgrown Sandy Hook Proving Ground.

 

As this post began with a bridge, so it ends . . . the Key Bridge marks the entrance to Baltimore.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Road Fotos 17

Any guesses about the location on the far shore with the spiky masts?

The water is Hampton Roads, where ironclads first clashed.  Monitor was built in Brooklyn, and I’ve never known where the Merrimack, sailing as CSS  Virginia originated.

Here’s a closer-up view of the fleet in Norfolk, with Miss Katheryne (?) closer inshore.

Since I’m putting this post up quickly, I haven’t discovered much about the huge coal docks in Dunbar neighborhood (?) of Newport News.

From near to far:  USNS T-AKR 310 Watson, T-AKR-304 Pililaau,  T-AK 3006 Eugene Obregon, and T-AKR 311 Sisler.  Sisler, as recorded here on this blog,  arrived in the sixth boro a bit over a year ago for maintenance at GMD Bayonne.

Coming into the quite breezy Roads is MSC Florentino.

Here’s another shot of Florentina as she passes an unidentified dragger.

Another unidentified bulker in the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.  Star Breeze?

Actually, I’m back in the sixth boro, as of an hour ago. . . but it’ll be a spell before my head is unpacked.

Quick question:  I like the term “Hampton Roads” to described that water bordered by cities that include Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News, etc.  It reminds me of the term I take credit for, “the sixth boro.”  How did “Hampton Roads” originate?  Why isn’t it “Norfolk Roads” or “X roads” with another locality lending its name?  Why did “Staten Island Roads” or some such never take root here?  Just wondering.