The Chesapeake Bay:  The Chesapeake Bay covers 2,500 square miles and is the largest estuary in North America.  An estuary is a partially enclosed area where the fresh water from rivers mixes with tidal salt water.  The Chesapeake Bay was formed over 10,000 years ago when melting glacial ice caused sea levels to rise in the Atlantic Ocean.  The rising waters of the Atlantic Ocean backed up into the Susquehanna River Valley, creating a new bay.  The bay that was created by the flooding of the Susquehanna was know as Chesepiooc, meaning "Great Shellfish Bay," by the Algonquin Indians who were living around the bay when the first European settlers arrived.   

Choose a Chesapeake Bay Destination from the list below to see more information

• Annapolis, Maryland

• Baltimore, Maryland

• Cambridge, Maryland

• Cape Charles, Virginia

• Chesapeake Beach, Maryland

• Chesapeake City, Maryland

• Chestertown, Maryland

• Crisfield, Maryland

• Deale, Maryland

• Deal Island, Maryland

• Easton, Maryland

• Hampton, Virginia

• Havre de Grace, Maryland

• Irvington, Virginia

• Kent Island, Maryland

• Norfolk, Virginia

• North East, Maryland

• Onancock, Virginia

• Oxford, Maryland

• Poqouson, Virginia

• Portsmouth, Virginia

• Reedville, Virginia

• Rock Hall, Maryland

• Solomons Island, Maryland

• St. Mary's County, Maryland

• St. Michaels, Maryland

• Tangier Island, Virginia

• Tilghman Island, Maryland

• Urbanna, Virginia

• Virginia Beach, Virginia

Photo by A. Aubrey Bodine
To see more photos by this award winning Baltimore photographer and order prints
visit www.aaubreybodine.com

Chesapeake Bay Calendar Of Events

Things to do in the Chesapeake Bay region.  Includes waterfront festivals, seafood festivals, boating regattas and races, fishing tournaments, boat shows, museum events, arts and crafts shows, and more.  View the Chesapeake Bay Calendar of Events.

Chesapeake Bay Travel

There are plenty of fun places to visit in the Chesapeake Bay region.  BayDreaming.com offers travel guides to: Annapolis, Baltimore, Cambridge, Cape Charles, Chesapeake Beach, Chesapeake City, Chestertown, Crisfield, Deal Island, Easton, Hampton, Havre de Grace, Kent Island, Norfolk, Onancock,  Oxford, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Reedville, Rock Hall, Solomons Island, St. Mary's Co., St. Michaels, Tangier Island, Tilghman Island, and Urbanna.

Find Chesapeake Bay region travel information and hotels deals at TripAdvisor.

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Bay Dreaming

Oh, what a peaceful morning;
The Chesapeake at the break of day;
The tattered fog is starting to diminish,
In the twilight distance on the bay;

Facing the marina’s fishing fleet,
I watch charter and sailboats dispatch;
Blue crabs, oysters, and rockfish,
Are most always a day-to-day catch.

A great white heron stands on a pole,
From a teetering pier that’s sank;
It scans the wisps of wiry marsh grass,
That dances along the waterlogged bank.

There are dozens of winding passageways,
That branch off left and right;
Some of them just within my view,
While the others ones – out of sight;

The alluring twin spans of the bridge
Always tower above it all.
They muster several memories
And youthful times that I recall;

How fortunate we truly are,
To have been given this splendid treasure;
Its ambiance I hold near to my heart,
And being here is such a pleasure.
 

Poem by Andy Harley, from
"Till the Dreaming's Done: Poems Crafted for Thinking People" 

Atlantic Cruising Club's Guide to Chesapeake Bay Marinas: Cape May, New Jersey to Hampton, Virginia

The Guide to Chesapeake Bay Marinas includes full page marina reports, over 2,900 photographs.  253 marinas are reviewed and rated.  A searchable CD ROM is included.

 Click here for more information about the Atlantic Cruising Club's Guide to Chesapeake Bay Marinas: Cape May, New Jersey to Hampton, Virginia

Guide To Cruising Chesapeake Bay 2008 Edition

Annual guide from the publishers of Chesapeake Bay Magazine. 
Completely updated each year. 

Click here for more information about Guide To Cruising Chesapeake Bay 2008 Edition

  Waterway Guide Mid-Atlantic 2008: Chesapeake Bay and the Inter-Coastal Waterway to Florida

Beginning with the C&D Canal and working south, Waterway Guide's 2007 Mid-Atlantic Edition includes featuring detailed navigational information, spectacular aerial photographs with white-lined routes—and what to do ashore.

  Click here for more information on the Waterway Guide Mid-Atlantic 2008: Chesapeake Bay and the Icw to Florida

Rudlow's Guide to Fishing the Chesapeake

Rudow's Guide to Fishing the Chesapeake is the most comprehensive guide to angling on all of the Chesapeake's waters from main-stem Bay to tributaries and tidal creeks. Detailed charts show over 550 specific hotspots and 35 public shoreline fishing hotspots.

 Click here for more info or to order Rudow's Guide to Fishing the Chesapeake

What's Your Passion?

Visit our Chesapeake Bay Fishing page for fishing reports and more

Visit our Chesapeake Bay Boating page for boating and cruising resources

Visit our Chesapeake Bay Travel page to plan your next regional trip

ProKnot Knot Cards provide handy reference
for boaters and fishermen!

Always be prepared with these handy, inexpensive, waterproof,
2.5" x 3.5" plastic coated cards. 
The most useful rope knots and fishing knots are illustrated in clear detail.
Just $5.95 delivered

Click Here to visit the ProKnot website for details.

Learn About the Chesapeake Bay

How much do you know about the Chesapeake Bay?  Did you know that the Chesapeake is the largest estuary (a place where salt and fresh waters mix) in the United States?  Did you know that the Bay supports 348 species of finfish, 173 species of shellfish, and over 2,700 plant species?  Visit the Chesapeake Bay Program's About the Bay page for more Chesapeake Bay facts.

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