Sailing Mystic Hearts

As long as we’ve lived on the Chesapeake Bay, I can’t believe we had never sailed to Mobjack Bay! We’ve talked about it for years, so when we decided we were going to spend the rest of the summer on the Bay, it just made sense. When you enter Mobjack Bay, you can anchor in either the Severn or Ware Rivers (on the western side), the North or East Rivers (which are aptly named), or various smaller creeks.

For this stop, the Ware River was perfect for us. After arriving late Saturday afternoon, we enjoyed Trader Joe’s burritos for dinner in the cockpit and later sat out on deck watching the stars. It’s amazing what you can see without light pollution! Sunday afternoon we kayaked over to Windmill Point, which has a little sandy spit and beach that backs up to marsh. It was partly cloudy, but Paul launched the drone and got footage of the surrounding area that we hope to incorporate into a video for our YouTube channel. While he flew the drone, I scoured the beach for ‘treasures.’ I didn’t find any arrow heads or shark teeth, but I did find bits of old pottery. I left the pieces behind in an old tree stump on the beach – if you happen to find them, let us know!

Before dinner we took the dinghy for a spin to check out the houses that dotted the Ware River, many of which are visibly 150-200+ years old. In fact, the Ware River borders Gloucester County, which was founded in 1651 and is one of the historically older counties in the United States. Prior to English colonization, Native Americans have called this region home for thousands of years. We love learning about the local history when we visit a new place and were stunned to learn that off the Severn River (one river south in Mobjack Bay) within walking distance is an old plantation home (now a bed & breakfast named ‘Inn at Warner Hall’) that was owned by George Washington’s grandparents. We hope to catch a glimpse of this historic home the next time we visit Mobjack Bay.

While we only stayed two nights in Mobjack Bay, we wanted to continue our adventure north with the hope that we’d be back again soon.