Cruise, Day 15

It rained most of the night in Back Cove and continued into the morning, but was supposed to taper off. The bascule bridge didn’t have its first scheduled opening until 0900, so we had enough time on our hands to have pancakes for breakfast. Once we were cleaned up with everything stowed, we got underway for Stony Creek bridge. Being a bit early, we ran on up Stony Creek a ways before coming about and making the opening. We went back into the Patapsco and turned southeast, rounding Riviera Beach and running into Rock Creek. We continued to explore Wall Cove and Tar Cove. We sailed back out of the creek and made for the White Rocks north of Rock Point. In Maine, you don't see much other than glacial rocks, but huge examples of these in the Chesapeake are extremely rare.  The rocks themselves are anything but white, except for their tops. It is assumed they got their name from the blanket of white bird guano left by the gulls, cormorants, and other seabirds that routinely roost there.

The rocks were the only thing that weren’t gray. The water was gray, as was the sky, even landscape, regardless of its normal color, had taken on a gray appearance. The horizon virtually disappeared in the sameness of weak, drab light.
We ran down to Bodkin Creek. Once inside the cut, the creek splits into a number of tributaries. We checked out Back Creek, Main Creek, and Wharf Creek. While ducking into the entrances of Perry Cove and Mathias Cove, overhead power cables prevented going far. It was only 1539 when we ran into Locust Cove, but since there was no way to make it down the bay and into the Magothy River before dark, we anchored for the night. It was just before sunset that the sun finally broke through and lit the opposite shore. As twilight deepened, I was suddenly startled by the sound of a woman screaming. I only had to hear it a couple times to know it wasn’t a human voice, but what then?
There would be silence for awhile, and then the scream again. This went on for about a half-hour before I finally decided it was an eagle or osprey having an altercation with its young. They must have really been incorrigible chicks, because the screaming went on all night. Just as I would doze off, the scream would come again.