Potomac River

The Potomac River is widely hailed as a cruising ground; however, few yachts seem to visit. White Pepper saw few cruisers during her visit of July 2016, although to be fair it was blisteringly hot that week. Indeed we were virtually alone on the trip to and from Washington DC and saw no one else arrive during our week in DC. The trip from the Chesapeake to Washington, DC is about 110 nautical miles but well worth the effort.

Locals seem to divide the Potomac at the 301 bridge just north of Dahlgren, VA . The US highway 301 bridge is the only bridge spanning the Potomac until DC itself. This opinion seems reasonable. South of the 301 the river is wide, currents are mild, the river is salty with numerous jelly fish in the summer. South of the bridge, the country side is bucolic, the homes are river retreats and fishing camps. There are numerous creeks and inlets to shelter the cruiser. North of the 301 the river narrows and the current picks up. The water is mostly brackish with few jelly fish. The dwellings assume mansion size. Also history appears—Fort Belvior, Mount Vernon, Fort Washington, Quantico. More importantly to the cruising sailor there are no anchorages past Dahlgren (Upper Machodoc Creek) until Washington DC.

White Pepper chose to break up the trip upstream beyond the 301 bridge with a stop at Belmont Bay Marina in Woodbridge, VA on the Occoquan River. Belmont Bay is a fine marina but does charge $2/ft.

White Pepper favored the Virginia side going upstream with a stop at Kingscote Creek off of the Coan River. This is near the so called town of Lewisetta . The town consists of literally one broken down general store, two streets of modest homes and one general use chapel. White Pepper could not even buy a beer but was able to procure two delicious Popsicles.

Tongue in cheek at Lewisetta General Store

The next stop was Dahlgren on the Upper Machodoc Creek. Dahlgren is the home of the Naval Firing Range which actually fires live rounds down the Potomac on occasion. White Pepper stumbled into on of these firing sessions and had to be politely escorted off to the side of the Potomac much to the embarrassment of her captain, who could scarcely believe that such practices were still in place in 2016. Regardless the Upper Machodoc Creek is a lovely and straight forward anchorage.

Local racer going out for Thursday race. Dahlgren Naval station in background

Just be sure to check the Dahlgren Range firing schedule either online or by phone before venturing nearby. The next day found White Pepper picking her way carefully up the narrow and shallow Occoquan River to the Belmont Bay Marina which is carved out of a hillside near Woodbridge, VA. There is no anchorage in Belmont Bay or on the Occoquan River. At Belmont Bay Marina Jan and I had a delightful rendezvous with children Kristi, Layla, Pat and Richard all of whom live nearby. After three days it was off to Washington DC and the Washington Channel which is posted in another blog post.

After an eventful and thoroughly enjoyable week moored in the Washington Channel White Pepper started back downstream. Catching the ebb tide we clocked 8 plus knots downstream. This is not as hard as it sounds because a reasonably fast yacht can actually ride the ebb tide downstream. The ebb and flood are slow moving standing waves which can be rode much as a surfer rides his waves. Anyway we were able to cover 65 nautical miles in less than 10 hours to arrive back at Upper Machodoc Creek. Jan had taken the precaution of calling Dahlgren range control to assure there would be no firing when we arrived or left the next day. On the way downstream we favored the Maryland side of the Potomac. Our last stop of Smith Creek. Smith Creek is deep, well protected, and quite convenient to the Chesapeake Bay. It is near the lovely St. Mary's River which was the subject of a long blog post in 2008. From Smith Creek it will be on Solomon's.

 

Smith Creek