Fleets Bay
Click on chart to view at full resolution

Fleets Bay offers some of the most convenient anchorages for vessels transiting the Bay south of the Potomac.  Each of the three primary creeks - Dymer, Indian, and Antipoison - provide quality anchorages very near their mouths.  Each of these creeks also offer a number of well protected deep water anchorages further up stream.

One of the most unusual and popular anchorages in Fleets Bay is in the cove just east of tiny Grog Island on Dymer Creek.

Grog Island

Grog Island, at the mouth of Dymer Creek, offers one of the most unique anchorages on the Bay.  Grog is a tiny, low-lying sandy-beached island with a cluster of poplar trees.  The effect is that of a South Seas Island on the Chesapeake.  From the deck of your boat anchored in the 9 - 12' depths just east of the island you have a panoramic view of the Bay.

The drawback to all of these vistas is an anchorage that is not well protected from the south and southwest.  If the wind kicks up from those directions (the predominant winds of the summer) you can rock and roll all night.  Still its worth even that inconvenience at least once to get the view.
 

Click on picture to view at full resolutionThe view from Rones Bay looking across Grog Island.  The horizon is the Chesapeake Bay.  I know of few other anchorages were you get such a view of the bay from a relatively secure anchorage.

You may notice that the other boat is lying toward the south.  This is the unfavorable wind direction for this anchorage.  On this occasion I was rafted with Fred Selover on his Tartan 27, Empathy.  We rocked and rolled all night.  Wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Several years ago I read that Grog Island is no more.  Severe winter storms have turned it from an island to a shoal.  So this neat anchorage is no more.