Drum Point on the Wye River has the distinction of being the location of our first overnight anchorage .............ever!! It is a very large anchorage with room for many boats and surrounded on one side by a nature preserve. Depths are about 9 feet and the anchor comes up with the typical Chesapeake mud. It could get a little uncomfortable in north winds, but fine from the other directions. Our original plan was to anchor in Shaw Bay off the Wye East River, another very popular anchorage, but we ended up here since there were fewer boats around. Nice anchorages can be found all along the Wye River and the Wye River East. We have occasionally used this anchorage as a stopover either on the way to or from St. Michaels. The entrance to the Wye is marked by a private "lighthouse" built out on the point.
It has been very quiet the nights that we have stayed here. I didn't sleep much the first night on the hook, as I was sure that we were going to drag anchor and move somewhere that would damage the boat. The water was absolutely calm and did not warrant losing a lot of sleep. Unfortunately, I never sleep well while at anchor and rise many times during the night to check on the conditions. I don't think that will ever change. We have been here a number of times. Sometimes we have been the only boat and other times there may be 4 or 5. There has always been plenty of room. We saw a number of jellyfish on our most recent visit, so I'm not sure this is a very desirable swimming hole. We had about 55 feet of chain out in 8 to 9 feet and this time it did not come up too muddy. We always use a bridle for overnight stays, but the water was so quiet this time it wasn't really needed. The full moon and stars were fantastic under a perfectly clear sky. Our ATT signal was between two and three bars. Good enough to use the phones as hotspots, but not ideal for heavy digital lifting. TV reception was ok, mostly channels coming out of DC.
The are a few watermen that put out their crab lines early in the morning, but I have never been bothered by them and enjoy watching them work. They usually leave between 11:00am and noon. At the actual Drum Point, there is a very small clearing to beach the dinghy and tie her up. From there you can hike on a rather open trail through the nature preserve. I believe the trail is a loop, but we have never hiked completely around it. There are a few other areas to take the dinghy and get out, but we haven't explored those spots yet. This past fall we did see quite a few jellyfish in the anchorage. It seems that it was a bad year for them everywhere we went.