According to our charts there is a free dock at Rock Hall. We set off by 7am as the wind was forecast to be light early and pick later in the day. Our crossing was uneventful and it was a nice day for a boat ride. We traveled a little over eighteen miles in about three hours. We came to the harbor and saw a dock, but we weren’t sure if we could use the dock or if we had to tie up the the wall. The dock was big enough for two large boats, and according to our research the very active fishing vessels unload from here too. We circled around once debating, then decided to tie up to the end of the dock leaving plenty of room behind us, just in case. I didn’t see anyone around to ask, so we hoped we were fine. Lauren took Frank for a walk and upon returning told me about a sign in the parking lot which said no overnight docking permitted. Uh oh. Since it was early, I wasn’t too worried about it yet. I did eventually see some guys working on a boat in a marina close to where we were so I walked over to ask how strict they were about enforcing this. All of our guide books list this as a stop and they all mention the free dock too. The guys told me we would be fine for a night- they don’t want people ‘moving in’ and living on their boats here for free. We got the bikes off and rode to a grocery store, Dollar General and a West Marine. They were all on close proximity. I picked up a copy of Eldridge Tide and Pilot Book which Mick had told me about. It lists all the tides and current times on the east coast from Nova Scotia to Key West. Once our shopping was done we returned to the boat to put everything away, then took Frank for a walk to find the beach. We found the beach but it had signs saying ’No Dogs’ so we sat off to the side at a picnic table that wasn’t roped off.
The rest of the day was spent lounging around and figuring out our next port of call. We decided we would cross the Chesapeake yet again and head to Baltimore. We had hoped to meet some family there on Sunday, but with all the protests and uncertainty of reopening of hotels, that idea was scrapped so we will get there a couple of days ahead of schedule. There are a couple of anchorages there that look promising, including one anchorage in the middle of the Inner Harbor…