Susky River Grille, Port Deposit, MD, 8-16-09

Some of our club members returned back home to Middle River early on Sunday. Others hung around to enjoy the beautiful day and relax at the pool at Penn's Beach Marina. Before heading home, the people that were left decided to go up river a little bit to Port Deposit to grab some food or lunch. Talking with the locals, we decided to go to the Susky River Grille. We all took our boat, the "Dawn Rae".

The Susky River Grille is a:

"Waterfront restaurant located in historic Port Deposit, Maryland. 2000 sf outdoor deck for dining along the beautiful Susquehanna River. Over 300' of boat docks, plenty of car parking. Live music Friday thru Sunday. Live comedy shows on Friday nights".

Their web site is:
http://www.suskyrivergrille.com/
but was under construction at the time of this blog posting.
Here is a picture of the outside from the boat pier.

And a view looking S.E. along the Susquehanna River and the 3 bridges, Rt. 95, Rt. 40 and the Railroad Bridge.

The Susquehanna River drains into the Chesapeake bay and is essentially fresh water at this point. It is pretty healthy because there is plenty of sea grasses growing and the water was clear.

We had a good lunch and decided to head on home.

Now here we are, winding down a great weekend, plenty of sunshine, good food, etc., etc. Dawn and I have just rounded the starboard turn coming out of the Susquehanna River turning south to go down the Bay.

We are up on plane and enjoying the sun beginning to set to the south west. We are in an area that is next to the Aberdeen Proving grounds. This is a restricted area and they do not like or let anyone touch or go onto their grounds. There is nothing else around either. Meaning there is absolutely nothing you can essentially go to for gas on the western side from Havre de Grace all the way down to Middle River.

Low and behold.......

We are coming up on a small boat about 20' to 21' in length. I see these small children waving me down.......

Oooooo Shi........

But I have to stop.....

So I do.

A guy and his wife along with 5 children are in this boat.

We ask what is the problem? He says he ran out of gas.

OK.........

I said do you have a VHF radio? ...... No.......

Do you have tow insurance?......... No.........

Do you know anyone with a boat?....... Well, he was trying to reach somebody by cell phone...... no luck yet.

He said he had just got this boat and did some work on it and everyone wanted to take the new boat out. They went down to Hart-Miller Island and missed Bush River on the way back up. He said he thought the gas gauge was correct - but it wasn't!!!!..........

Now the sun would be going down in about an hour.

It would be turning colder, damper, buggier, etc. and being 7 PM on a Sunday night, chances of any other boats going by him that would be able to help were getting slimmer by the minute.

Darnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

I said where were you going? He said Flying Point Marina, which is at the very end of the Bush River.

That's 20 miles from here.

Darnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn, again.

I just couldn't leave him with the children there......

So, you know what Dawn and I did.

Yes, we towed him all the way back.

Several hours later after only being able to do 6-7 kts., we dropped him off about 9:50 PM at Otter Point Marina gas dock. This is across the other side from where he was suppose to go, but he could get back there to Flying Point Marina by car. It was very shallow up in there with less than 3' of water. Not enough for me.

Now, it was very buggy up there and we had previously decided to spend the night at Bush River Yacht Club.

But..........

Then I got the bright idea that I should check the tide to sea if I could get back out under the railroad bridge in the morning.

What do you think?

Well the answer is we would have been stuck there until 9:30 AM or so until the tide went out enough for us to be able to have the 11' clearance I need to get under the darn bridge.

So........

What do you think I did?

I said that since it was low tide now, and I just was able to make it under the bridge now, well....... I better go and get on the other side of the bridge now, just to be safe.

By the time I did that, the Bush River was flat. I could only sea just a little in the dark, but I still decided to keep on booking home.

Thank goodness for my GPS that I already had the route plotted on it.

40 minutes later, we were back at CYC.

That would be 10:30 PM.

Man,... we pulled the boat into the slip, grabbed our stuff, left the boat open with the canvas off and just went home.

Night, night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite.......

Just had to say that.

What a day!