http://occoquanwaterfront.com

Unbelievably, the tiny island in the middle of Occoquan Bay (known as Holiday Island, Dogue Island, Smoot Island, or Rock Island) has turned up for sale! The county assessment? $2,500 The list price? $477,000 ouch! Here is the virtual tour, courtesy of MRIS.

For some unknown reason, the address of the island is 15751 Featherstone Road. The island is 1/4 acre and zoned A-1 (agricultural) but you could probably talk Corey Stewart into rezoning the island for commercial office space.

Correction: A previous version of this story included photographs of Conrad Island.

The Featherstone National Wildlife Refuge is a strip of 325 acres of pristine riverfront property wedged between Route 1 and the Potomac River.

In 1970, the refuge was made off-limits to the general public. As of today, access is no longer limited. At this point, only boaters can access the refuge via the trail at the southernmost point of Farm Creek, which leads out to Occoquan Bay.

If you’re a fan of hiking and boating, you’re in luck!

The “true color” image below, courtesy of Maryland’s Eyes on the Bay website, shows just how unbelievably muddy the Chesapeake Bay has become the in the wake of the copious amount of rainfall that has fallen in the past 2 weeks.

Red Bull National Wake 2.0, a professional wakeboarding competition, will take place July 23rd at National Harbor. This very cool event will feature professional wakeboarders Brian Grubb and JD Webb, along with a crew of local riders. It seems that all-star Parks Bonifay will be M.I.A. from this year’s competition.

These tremendous water athletes will be flying off of custom made features built especially for National Harbor. Towed by Red Bull Waverunners, the riders will put on quite a show for National Harbor visitors. There will be a post event autograph signing and give-a-ways throughout the day.

Check out the Facebook page here and the official event page here.

When: Saturday, July 23, 2011 @ 11:00 AM – 5:30 PM
Where: National Harbor, Maryland

This weekend, for the third year in a row, the Prince William Marina is hosting a boat show along the Occoquan waterfront. The boat show will be running all weekend long, from Friday at 2:00 until Sunday at 5:00. The event has been rebranded this year, with the curious name “Washington Capitol Boating Show” (not to be confused with the “National Capital Boat Show” that took place in Dulles 2 weeks ago).

There is an impressive list of 50 vendors that will be in attendance. Prince William Marina is a Sea Ray dealership and they will have many new & used boats on display. This year promises to include a large number of boats to explore, as both Hoffmaster’s Marina (Chaparrel Boats) and Holly Acres (Bayliner and Regal Boats) will also have boats on display.

If you’re thinking about buying a boat or just counting down the days until summertime, you should plan on stopping by.

The largest boat show in the Washington DC region takes place this weekend at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia. If you’ve got spring on your mind, check out the details! Saltwater fishing boats, ski boats, runabouts, motor yachts, jet boats, jon boats, PWC, bass boats, inflatables, deck boats and pontoons will all be onsite, ready for you to hop aboard.

Here are the boat show hours:
Friday, March 12, 2011:     12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Saturday, March 13, 2011: 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Sunday, March 14, 2011:   11:00 AM – 5:00 PM

On Saturday from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM, there will be four Washington Redskins Cheerleaders hanging out at the Prince William Marina (Sea Ray) booth, signing autographs.

Remember, boat manufacturers usually team up with dealers to offer special incentives during boat shows, so it can be a favorable time to buy a boat. If you are thinking about buying, maybe now is the time!

With Spring right around the corner, it’s time for the crazies to run into the freezing cold Potomac River. The 9th Annual Polar Plunge to benefit Virginia Special Olympics will take place on Saturday, February 26 at Tim’s Rivershore.

The river will be rocking with live music, contests, prizes and more! Visit Tim’s for more information.

The image above, courtesy of the Fairfax County Stormwater Management Program, indicates that the watersheds around Mount Vernon are the lowest quality in the county. The areas around Belmont Bay, fortunately, are high quality.

With the exception of the Colchester stretch, the entire Fairfax shoreline of the Occoquan river is a high-quality watershed.

The annual Parade of Lights boat parade will take place this weekend along the Old Town waterfront in Alexandria. Santa Claus will arrive at the docks by fireboat at 4PM. Later in the evening, at 6PM, roughly 50 powerboats and sailboats will parade down the Potomac River from Washington to Alexandria.

If you haven’t already winterized, time to deck out your boat in lights and holiday decorations!

According to the Washington Post, the Potomac River is now the healthiest that it has been since the 1950′s.

“The comeback has been closely tied to the Blue Plains treatment plant, which handles waste from the District and parts of Montgomery, Prince George’s, Fairfax, Loudoun and Arlington counties. Its outflow is a river in itself: about 300 million gallons a day of treated sewage, enough to fill RFK Stadium.”

“In the past decade, responding to mandates from federal regulators, the plant has added $1 billion in new efforts that allow bacteria to consume the algae-feeding pollutant nitrogen in sewage.”

Read the full article at the Washington Post

I would be remiss if I did not mention the “Bull Shark in the Potomac River” frenzy that blew up on Facebook and the mainstream media while I was away. I tracked down the original reports and it wasn’t just one bull shark, it was two.

One was caught of Cornfield Harbor in extreme southern St. Mary’s county, MD. The NBC Washington website, which broke the “story” has a gruesome slideshow. The second was caught a bit farther north, near Tall Timbers, MD.

Both of these sharks were caught at the very, very edge of the Potomac River Watershed. So far south that one shark was actually caught by scientists collecting stingrays. This map shows where the bull sharks were caught:

The catches were very far away from Occoquan, almost 100 nautical miles south. Even down there, at the very edge of the Chesapeake Bay “you very, very rarely see them”, according to the Washington Post. Ok, no more bull shark jokes.