Fairlee Creek is a small, but extremely well-protected and beautiful piece of water that is located on Maryland’s upper Eastern Shore. Fairlee Creek is 15 miles northwest of the mouth of the Patapsco River and 21 miles south-southeast of the C&D Canal’s western entrance near Chesapeake City.

Inside the creek is the expansive Mears Great Oak Landing Marina where transient slips and a modest repair yard can be found. There are plenty of places to drop the hook and explore, but keep in mind that the entire creek carries about four- to five-foot depths and less at the entrance. If you draw more than four to five feet, you may want to consider deeper locations like Rock Hall Harbor and Swan Creek to the south.

The image above is a view from the southeast looking northwest over the Great Oak Landing area and Fairlee Creek, with the Chesapeake Bay in the background. Unfortunately, like most Eastern Shore towns, Great Oak is fairly remote, and there are no real possibilities for reprovisioning, shopping or getting laundry done. You may be able to grab a ride with one of the marina employees into Rock Hall or Chestertown, but this is not a reliable means of transportation and should not be relied upon as a sure thing.

Fairlee Creek is located off the main upper Bay shipping channel just east of Pooles Island. From the main Bay channel, exit to the east at flashing red buoy “32” (approximately N39 16.736 W76 13.777), and then set a course of 129 degrees magnetic for about 1.2 miles to pick up flashing red “2F” at the mouth of the creek. Shoaling has been reported at the mouth of Fairlee Creek (four- to five-foot depths inside), but carefully placed private aids to navigation often give a good sense of where the deepest water is. A slow and cautious approach with a sharp eye on the depth sounder is the best advice.

Local Notices to Mariners are now exclusively available online from the U.S. Coast Guard.

Great Oak Landing

Great Oak Manor