Heading to Port Kinsale - need input on Colonial Beach and Cobb Island

[ZZ13]

We're going to take a cruise from our slip on the Occoquan to Port Kinsale Marina for a nights stay this upcoming weekend. Never been south of Fairview Beach so this is new territory for us. We are planning to make stops for a few hours on the way down at Colonial Beach and on the way back (the next day) at Cobb Island. Any advice on where I should hang out at those two stops?

 

[Aero Nautical]

I used to eat fairly regularly at Dockside at Colonial Beach.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Mikemapva]

Bill,

We have been to Port Kinsale a couple of times from the Occoquan and happened to stop at both Cobb Island and Colonial Beach on different trips. In Cobb Island, we enjoyed food at Captain John's, and in Colonial Beach we stopped at the Happy Clam which was part of the Bayside Marina. We got great seafood to go from there, but it looks like it's now a French/Thai restaurant called the Lighthouse. The town is pretty small, and if you dock at Bayside, it's an easy walk over to the boardwalk on the river. All of the marinas are off of the river up in Monroe Bay, and Bayside was pretty far up from the entry on the south side.

Hope that helps.

Mike

 

[belliswood]

Hey Bill,

I keep my boat in Colonial Beach so I am pretty familure with the area. Yes the Lighthouse is now a Thia/ French resturant and not very good. I would stop at Bay side ( they will let you tie up on the end no charge) and walk to the dock side/ tiki bar. Food is pretty good. Across the river at Cobb Island I really like shymanski's. Very good burgers and good cold beer, the prime rib french dip is fantastic. Capt John's is good to but a little more up scale dining.

I wont be at the boat this weekend but if you get thru again Look me up, I am at Manroe Bay Marina slip B25. You will have to cruise around it going to Bay side.

Barry

 

[Ruddster]

I would say Shymanski's at Cobb Island and High Tides over in Colonial Beach. The crabs are Great over at Shymanski's.

 

[ZZ13]

Thanks to all of you that posted. We just got back. The purpose of the trip was to experience consecutive days of 3-4 hours of running in prep for our next trip which is all the way to St. Michaels. We did well. We left at 10:30 yesterday morning and reached Colonial Beach in a little over 1 1/2 hours in very smooth water. It seemed kinda tricky getting into Monroe Bay based on the depths on my charts, so I was kinda nervous about that. So nervous that after I got into the bay I stopped where the red markers ended and circled back and just stayed at that first marina for a few hours. I know all of you go up to Bay Side and such regularly, but I was afraid there would be some local knowledge I needed to navigate through that shallow stretch. We ate lunch on the boat and walked around that end of peninsula for a while. We headed out at about 2:30 for the remaining 25 miles or so to Kinsale and got to experience a whole bunch of chop during that stretch. Its like someone in the heavens flipped a switch on the wind/wave conditions while we were resting in Colonial Beach.

I think we stayed at the wrong place in Kinsale. Stayed overnight at an almost abandoned marina (Port Kinsale Marina). But we were fine with that as they had power for the boat and a bar for beverages. That's really all we needed. Where should I have stayed? Looks like after the fact we found Kinsale Harbor Marina at the bridge. Is that the sweet spot and do they take overnight transients? We headed out this morning at 7:00am to beat any possible weather home. Got back into our home slip by 11:00 with a fuel stop at Shymansky's. Never being there before I pulled up to the diesel dock from the south entrance (I have a gas boat). That was thrilling as the depth gauge was showing 2 feet right near the dock with alarms going off. Would have had no clue it was the diesel pump - no signs or anything and no one was monitoring channel 16. After we were corrected we found the gas pump on the other side of the bridge. Again, no signs. And the ride out of there to the north through what appeared to be a dredged channel was another nail-biter.

But we made it. We're ready to do this a lot (other than pour $$$ into the fuel tanks) and we learned all the things not to do at Colonial, Kinsale, and Cobb - because we did them all.

 

[2000SEARAY280SS]

Welcome to my part of the river.

CB is pretty quiet this time of year and gets better as the weather warms up.

It is always pretty quiet and shallow around here.

Your visit to Cobb Island and the fuel dock and back channel I've been there and done that. You were lucky you did not meet anyone coming in like I did going out he ran me pretty shallow. I was pushed so far to the starboard side of the channel I had to stop.

If you fueled past the bridge did you really stop at Captain John's?

All of the marinas in this area are pretty shallow but its all mud. I fuel up at Aqualand MD side before the 301 bridge. Easy in and out. I have to spin inside the marina to get out but they keep it deep to the edge of the bulkheads.

The restaurants and bars on that side of the river and bridge get pretty hoppin on the weekend.

Can't speak for PK..

 

[ZZ13]

Welcome to my part of the river.

CB is pretty quiet this time of year and gets better as the weather warms up.

It is always pretty quiet and shallow around here.

Your visit to Cobb Island and the fuel dock and back channel I've been there and done that. You were lucky you did not meet anyone coming in like I did going out he ran me pretty shallow. I was pushed so far to the starboard side of the channel I had to stop.

If you fueled past the bridge did you really stop at Captain John's?

All of the marinas in this area are pretty shallow but its all mud. I fuel up at Aqualand MD side before the 301 bridge. Easy in and out. I have to spin inside the marina to get out but they keep it deep to the edge of the bulkheads.

The restaurants and bars on that side of the river and bridge get pretty hoppin on the weekend.

Can't speak for PK..

It was Shymansky's fuel. The next pier up was Captain John's fuel with a nice Texaco sign over it. We said afterward that's where we'll fuel up next. I think I got ethanol-free fuel, though. I didn't see a 10% ethanol sticker and it was 89 octane, which seems to be the standard octane for ethanol-free. Although the pump I think was built in 1957, so they probably didn't have ethanol stickers put on them back then. :grin:

Thanks for the tip on the 301 bridge fuel stop. I'll remember that. Also, if I ever go to Cobb again I am going in and out through the south entrance. I'll leave that north channel for the flat boats.

 

[CJ Martin]

We haven't been to Port Kinsale in a couple of years but we've always had a good time when we have gone. Yes it can be quiet. The food at the Mooring ranges from terrific to average. The all you can eat buffets are usually really good.

Maybe someone with more recent info can chime in - has Port Kinsale changed hands perhaps?

-CJ

 

[ZZ13]

We haven't been to Port Kinsale in a couple of years but we've always had a good time when we have gone. Yes it can be quiet. The food at the Mooring ranges from terrific to average. The all you can eat buffets are usually really good.

Maybe someone with more recent info can chime in - has Port Kinsale changed hands perhaps?

-CJ

That's the place where we ate and drank - The Moorings. The food and atmosphere were just fine. And my wife loved the drinks they made up for her. We just were surprised to see an almost empty marina. Maybe its a place essentially for transients and the season hasn't quite kicked in for them yet. Oh, it had a shower as well, so I didn't have to scrunch up and take one on the boat.

 

[Gunn]

I was at Port Kinsale for dinner one evening also a couple of years ago. I found similar to you; there weren't many people around, we docked ourselves and headed to the restaurant. It was closed but was to be opening in a short time (around 4pm on a weekend). We hung around and ended up being the only patrons the entire time. We left afterward, so no overnight.

http://www.activecaptain.com reviews seem to be going downhill and imply that management switched hands in 2011-2012. That's a shame. (You are using ActiveCaptain aren't you?!! Please review the places you visited for the rest of us!)

And it sounded like your trip down this way was similar to what we find...and the lower Potomac is my home grounds. All of the marinas are old and in need of maintenance with low attendance. No decent places to dine around here either. Dennis Point Marina & Campground across from Kinsale on the St. Mary's River has switched hands a couple of times recently and they are really sprucing the place up. That is a surprising change from all of the other marina's around here. I'm wishing them luck! Wish others would do the same. With some good investment, I think a lot of these old places could bring in the customers and be profitable businesses again. I only wish I had the financing to take one on, as I'd love to own something like that someday!

Tom

 

[Mikemapva]

Bill,

We've stayed at Port Kinsale twice, and it has always been late in the summer (I think in August both times). On both trips, the transient dock was pretty quiet. One of the times, the Moorings was busy at the Sunday brunch because we ate a little later, but one time we went to eat right when they opened and it we were almost the only people there. The night we ate dinner there, they had a small band playing on the deck, and they had a pretty good crowd. I had read the Active Captain reviews that Tom mentioned, but we haven't been back since to see if we could notice the difference.

When we stopped in Cobb Island, I don't think we knew for sure at first whether we were at Captain John's or Shymansky's. We figured it out when docked, but it wasn't for gas, just for food.

I don't remember being nervous in Colonial Beach with regards to the depths, and I thought there were markers all the way up Monroe Bay (but pretty far apart). It's been a few years, so maybe my memory is not cooperating.

Bill, it's interesting that you mentioned St. Michael's as a destination, because we were just at my nephew's wedding in Oxford last weekend, and while we were there, my wife asked how long it would take us to get there by boat. Off the top of my head, I told her about 7 or 8 hours, but I was just winging it. How long do you think it will take you to get to St. Michael's?

Mike

 

[ZZ13]

Bill, it's interesting that you mentioned St. Michael's as a destination, because we were just at my nephew's wedding in Oxford last weekend, and while we were there, my wife asked how long it would take us to get there by boat. Off the top of my head, I told her about 7 or 8 hours, but I was just winging it. How long do you think it will take you to get to St. Michael's?

Mike

We're figuring 8 hours as well based on the route I plotted which takes you up past St. Michael's through Eastern Bay and back down. Our trip to Kinsale/bottom of the Potomac we figured as the half way point. We plan to do this over a long 4-day weekend spending two four hour mornings getting there and then two four hour mornings coming back, with a second boat going with us as well (another 300DA from our marina). We learned we definitely want to get all our cruising done by noon for both weather and activity reasons. Especially on the Chesapeake leg.

 

[Mikemapva]

Bill,

Thanks for the confirmation. That sounds like a fun trip. We're still trying to figure out what long trips we'll take this year as we have 2 different out of town vacations (boat less) planned for this summer.

I'm glad you made it back yesterday without any incidents. We were just in the Occoquan yesterday (as we didn't want to tempt the weather forecast) and we saw lots of floating debris. Since you didn't mention any incidents, I'm assuming you didn't have any problems.

Mike

 

[ZZ13]

Bill,

Thanks for the confirmation. That sounds like a fun trip. We're still trying to figure out what long trips we'll take this year as we have 2 different out of town vacations (boat less) planned for this summer.

I'm glad you made it back yesterday without any incidents. We were just in the Occoquan yesterday (as we didn't want to tempt the weather forecast) and we saw lots of floating debris. Since you didn't mention any incidents, I'm assuming you didn't have any problems.

Mike

The river was clear yesterday until we hit the channel from the Potomac to the Occoquon approaching Belmont Bay. We had to slow to a no-wake speed so in case we hit anything it wouldn't really do any damage. It was a very dense debris field. We only heard one small "clunk" against the hull through all that. So we did fine. We saw what looked like entire trees out there. As I got near the end of it all just before the actual no wake area by the marina, a 260DA flew by me in the other direction. I thought afterward I should have tried to hail him on the radio to let him know what he was about to encounter. Although if his boat is like mine, he'd have never heard the radio over the engine/wind noise.

 

[Mikemapva]

Bill,

Following up to what Tom said, I just went browsing on Active Captain. In the Kinsale area, it looks like White Point Marina has been getting consistently good reviews. They are to the right before you get to Port Kinsale.

I also spoke with the Dennis Point people at the Chantilly Boat Show in March. They were enthusiastic about all of their improvements, and actually gave us a discount coupon to use, so we may try staying there this year instead of on the Virginia side.

I've also read good things about Coles Point Marina, where we stopped for a drink and fuel on one of our trips to Kinsale, so we may check them out as well.

As an aside, on our first trip to Kinsale, I couldn't decide where were going to stay, so I made reservations at Coles Point, Port Kinsale, Dennis Point (I think it might have been Saint Mary's Yacht Center at the time) and also Point Lookout. After eating at Cobb Island, we made an executive decision to head to Port Kinsale and cancelled the other reservations. We liked Port Kinsale enough that we haven't stayed at any others yet, but are willing to try.

Mike

 

[Aero Nautical]

Coles Point was pretty cool. I stopped there for fuel. Very tight jetty but its super calm and the docks look nice.

 

[mistercomputerman]

But we made it. We're ready to do this a lot (other than pour $$$ into the fuel tanks) and we learned all the things not to do at Colonial, Kinsale, and Cobb - because we did them all.

This is part of what boating is about. New adventures, new places.