Power boats are missing

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lanbuilder

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14645
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I was out on the bay this weekend and ran from Kent Narrows down to St Michaels and back with a bunch of my wife's friends on board. There were plenty of sailboats out and the ratio of sailboats to power entering St Michaels was about three to one.
There were almost no power boats out on the water saw less than a dozen on the trip down and back when there used to be many on any weekend day on that route. I was cruising at 8 knots and was passed by three boats coming back from St Michaels and was not passed by anyone going down.
Even Red Eyes only had six boats moored to their dock at 5:00 pm on a Saturday afternoon.
The price of gas must be having an impact.
 
I think they were all on the Potomac River and Occoquan River yesterday. It was a good sized crowd.
 
I know, it's been great! Almost worth paying more for fuel
 
"There were plenty of..."

Plenty of what??? Ragboats?
 
it was too rough, we left the bay for you blow boaters who drink box wine and want free dockage
 
The girl at Anchor Bay gas docks told me it's the slowest she's ever seen it. I think i have seen fewer boats this year myself...
 
We have made trips to: Cambridge Hyatt, Ches Beach Rod n Reel, Rock Hall, Baltimore, Annapolis, and Fairlee Creek. I perceive a lot less boats. Good and bad... good for selfish reasons (less crowds, easier to find slips). bad because we are all suffering in this bad economy
 
I work at a marina in downtown Balto. and our reservations are way down this year. Even the amount of boats that just putt around the harbor seems to be real thin too.
 
We're spending just as much time onboard, but keeping the trips shorter. Our business goes to the local marinas, rather than the remote ones.
 
Indeed, usually i make a half dozen trips to Frog Morter Creek by now and i have only gone once so far. It's an hours run from home that now costs me 250 in gas round trip. My work has been slow since last year. I have a freind who's Searay hasn't left the dock since last August. He says it's on empty and he just doesn't have gas cash....
 
Why the aphorisms re: sailboats? I've never understood that.
 
We came into St. Michaels on Thursday and left Saturday morning. There were many 55-80 footers docked there, but there were also empty slips while we were there. It was quite hot this weekend, but to see only 4 sailboats in the front anchorage and only two power boats in the museum anchorage I thought was a rare sight. We traveled from Deale to White Point on the Potomac, to Solomons seeing only three or four other boats. When we left for Tilghman on Wednesday, traffic picked up some, but not a whole lot. There were more sailboats than power boats as we came out of St. Michaels all the way back to Deale. Traffic is definately way down.
 
I agree, much less traffic this year than usual. And I agree again, it's both good and bad. We'll do a 3-4 hour trip to Solomons this weekend from just south of Baltimore. Friday I expect to see hardly any traffic, but I'll pay attention on Sunday when we come back to see what's out. From what I can tell of my boating friends that burn much more than I do, the trips are really short. But most people I know are still using their boats.
 
Hmmm, I am sure it is less, definitely the boats tight up at Red Eye's are fewer. However, Fairlee, et al is still nicely packed. Also have to say that the last three weekends coming home it was very snotty out and we throttled back to maybe 18-20kts. Certainly not small craft conditions. I just do not see how the fuel prices continue to stay at this level??? Read that we drove over 3 billion miles less between Nov and Mar compared to the same period in the previous year. On my daily commute I can see 3-4 Prius at a time at all times going from Annapolis to DC. In addition to all the Fit, Yaris, Smart, Corollas and other small stuff. Air travel is way down, boat usage, long summer trips in the car, etc. sooner or later we should be drowning in fossil fuel ....
 
I can say the gas prices on the water aren't as bad as i thought i would be seeing now. They seem to be running about 30 cents more than on land and that's not bad. I truely expected 5 dollar gas but the two spots i stop are 4.29 and 4.39.
I do automotive electronis for new car dealers(DVD, Nav, Remote starts, etc.) and in 2 years time i have gone from large SUV's being popular to Smarts and Corollas. It's rare now i do anything larger than a mini van. I put a half tank in last weekend and plan on sitting on the sandbar in my creek this weekend to save a bit...
 
Well, I just checked the weekend roster and it seems like we have around 50-60 boats coming in! Hopefully the weather will hold out and we won't get any cancellation...our dockhands really need the exercise.
 
Dominic - There's hope. I just heard on our next batch of fuel (tomorrow, perhaps) at our docks, we'll be dropping our price by $.40! Come on over to MYC and fill up!

Wow, Wes, that's a good number. We'll be back to see you in the Fall (unless I get a real craving for Roy's, in which case we'll be there sooner). BTW, we've got our WiFi up and running at our club. It turned out very well.
 
quote:
Originally posted by mixman

Wow, Wes, that's a good number. We'll be back to see you in the Fall (unless I get a real craving for Roy's, in which case we'll be there sooner). BTW, we've got our WiFi up and running at our club. It turned out very well.

Click to expand...


Kurt, we did get a nice showing of boats today and more planned for tomorrow. It feels great to be busy. Speaking of Roy's...I heard they have some sort of special food/wine event planned for Aug. 5th and 6th. Their top waiter, Ben, stops in every morning for coffee and just filled us in on the event...FYI.

I was wondering how your WiFi project turned out. If at all possible I'd like to stop over sometime to see what you did...plus fill up my tank!
 
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