Calve alvert al vert Marina vert arina SOLOMONS, MD
PROTECT YOUR BOAT
FROM THE EDITOR
The New Bay Boaters by Meg Walburn Viviano
IN A 35’ COVERED SLIP
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1026 Town Point Road • Chesapeake City, MD 21915 www.bbyh.com • e-mail: info@bbyh.com
ChesapeakeBayMagazine.com 12
October 2021
W
elcome to the CBM boat issue! If you’re reading this, I can already tell there’s something about getting out on the Bay (and all its creeks and rivers) that captivates you. I’m betting you fall roughly into one of three categories when it comes to boating: 1. Those who haven’t spent much time on boats. To these folks, the pastime seems alluring, exciting, aspirational. Maybe they’ve been invited out on a friend’s boat for the afternoon, were impressed by the nautical know-how the captain casually tosses around, and later seduced by a stunning orange sunset over an uninterrupted horizon line. 2. Boat owners. To them, boats are a labor of love, a lifestyle for which you sacrifice time and money, but wear it all like a badge of honor. That sunset cruise? Yes, it’s beautiful, and it was earned with three hours of deckscrubbing in the hot sun. Oh, and the cushions, life jackets, and cooler didn’t walk themselves down the dock, either. But doesn’t all that work make the sunset even prettier? 3. New adopters. These are the people who just bought a boat, or those who have been talking about it for years and are ready to finally make their big purchase. They have all the starry-eyed dreams of the aspirational boater from Category One, but they’re going to have to get comfy with Category Two. In the past 18 months, boating’s “new adopters” have multiplied. And the people who are now getting into it are not your father’s boatowner. They’re young couples, families with little kids, and more than even before,
women. We meet some of these new faces throughout this special October boat issue. It’s no surprise to us that the lifestyle is catching on. Any boater (aspirational, old, or new) will speak with reverence of the moment when dolphins surfed alongside their boat in Eastern Bay, or they were dwarfed by a massive container ship steaming toward the Port of Baltimore. It’s that once-in-alifetime fish, or the breeze against your sun-kissed face after a day of tubing and swimming off the boat, that makes boating feel like a club you were lucky enough to join. Boaters still wave to each other on a close pass, as if to say, “Hey, we’re both in on this secret.” This season, the CBM team has been lucky to get out on the water as a group on a couple of blissful Fridays. In our media company you’ll find all three categories of Bay boaters: the eager office manager who wants to learn all there is to know about boating; the publisher, a lifelong boater that still gets giddy when sharing trivia about the Bay; and the editorial director (that’s me) who takes the helm and is filled with the pride of operating a vessel on this vast brackish expanse (and even docking it!). Whether you’re relatively green with a new water toy or a salty longtime captain, there’s magic to find in a boat on the Bay. Meg Walburn Viviano grew up boating on the Magothy River. She started as a Chesapeake Bay Magazine intern, launched the Bay Bulletin online news site in 2017, and now leads all of CBM’s media content. Reach her at meg@chesapeakebaymagazine.com.
